ART SUNG - ERIK CHISHOLM
A Scottish Modernist with a Highland Heart
Portrait of Erik Chisholm by Alton S Tobey
“To have been born in Glasgow in the early 20th century is not seen as a recommendation for a budding musician”, so writes John Purser in his biography of the Scottish composer, performer and impresario Erik Chisholm (1904 – 1965). In fact, Chisholm’s was a remarkable story which encompassed setting up his own concert series in the 1930s, The Active Society for the Propogation of Contemporary Music during which he successfully brought international composers such as Bartok, Hindemith, Sorabji, and Walton to Glasgow as well as introducing the works of many more composers to Scottish audiences. He later founded what is now the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and then went on to revolutionise the music department at the University of Cape Town. Despite being flung to all four corners of the earth and being rejected several times by the musical establishment in Scotland, “Chisholm’s heart was undoubtedly firmly lodged in Scotland”. He was a prolific composer and actively incorporated Celtic idioms into his songs, piano works, orchestral music and ballets, earning him the nickname, ‘MacBartok’!
Chisholm’s account of his first encounter with the “The Patrick MacDonald Collection of Highland Music”. This ‘bible’, which included vocal melodies or ‘airs’ as well as reels and country dances, to be played on either bagpipe or fiddle became the foundation and inspiration for many of his compositions.
“I first came across MacDonald when I was a boy of 10. My parent used to take us all to the Island of Millport for our summer holidays. On one occasion we stayed at a boarding house run by a friendly Scots family of the name of Stewart. They presented me with a bundle of old music, and in a very handsome leather volume bound in along with “Home Sweet Home and Variations”, “The Dying Poet”, “Battle March of Delhi” was the Patrick MacDonald Collection of Highland vocal music. I very soon realized that this latter was of some value, and it is many, many years since I tore it from its bourgeoise surroundings, and have trailed it around with me ever since”.