Richard Hall (1903-1982) - a forgotten organist and master musician

Many composers have lived within 20 miles of my home town of Horsham, West Sussex. They include Edward Elgar, John Ireland, Hubert Parry, Arnold Bax, Ralph Vaughan Williams, C.S.Lang and Christopher Tambling at Christ’s Hospital, and Richard Hall. I suspect that Richard Hall is not a name that is familiar to you. Hall played an immensely important role in the development of music in Britain in the period from 1938 to 1965, including many compositions for the organ. He also composed four symphonies, nineteen piano sonatas (between late 1934 and mid-1935!) and around 100 other works. Now his contributions as a teacher, composer, organist, administrator and poet seem to have been completely forgotten.

Richard Hall was born in York in 1903. His early life was difficult through family issues but in 1923 he was appointed organist at Dorchester Abbey and then won an organ scholarship to Peterhouse College, Oxford. A lack of financial support meant that he only stayed for a year but still managed to gain an ARCM from the Royal College of Music before being ordained and appointed as Precentor of Leeds Parish Church in 1926. Among his first compositions was a Rhapsody for Organ and Strings which was performed in 1930, eight years prior to Poulenc’s Organ Concerto for the same resources. After a period working as a musical advisor to Lancashire County Council, Hall was appointed as Professor of Harmony and Composition at the Royal Manchester School of Music in 1938. After WW2 Hall began to create a coterie of composition students interested in the techniques of Viennese modernism as exemplified by Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg. These included Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr, Arthur Butterworth and Harrison Birtwistle together with pianists John Ogdon and David Wilde and trumpeter and conductor Elgar Howarth. Howarth died in January, prompting this blog.

On 9 January 1956 the group gave a recital in London at which they played music by Maxwell Davis, Goehr, Lutyens, Webern, Hall, Seidel and Skalkottas which in effect marked the start of a British school of modernism. William Glock was immensely impressed by Hall, and invited him to become the Director of Dartington College, Devon and take responsibility for the Summer School. Hall very quickly introduced both a greater role for performance and significantly increased the range of musical genres. Hall also supported the foundation the Dartington String Quartet in 1958. He retired in 1962 through ill-health, became a Unitarian Minister, and from 1967 to 1976 was the priest at the Unitarian Church in Horsham, dating from 1721 and so being second oldest church building in the town. Hall died in 1982.

As well as his initial Rhapsody for organ and strings, Hall wrote over fifty pieces for organ solo. These include an intriguing Little Organ Book in four volumes. The only pieces that seem to be currently available (and I have looked at the various ‘free score’ web sites) are Three Cathedral Voluntaries Op. 62 (1935). My copy is published by Novello priced at Three Shillings. The voluntaries are dedicated to Edward Bairstow (York, with whom Hall had some lessons), Charles Moody (Ripon) and John Dykes Bower (Durham). What Dykes Bower would have made with the initial 16 bars of open fifths I am unsure! The style is individualistic, with some very chromatic harmony. The closest I can come to a similar style is Kenneth Leighton. Many of Hall’s compositions date from 1935-1941 and then there is a final substantial group composed between 1961 and 1977. He also published seven volumes of poetry.

I have not been able to find any recordings of his organ music. There are recordings of his Fourth Symphony (1944/1953) and his Piano Concerto dating from 1951 which is seriously virtuosic. The pianist is his pupil David Wilde. Rather surprisingly the Wikipedia entry for the RMSC makes no mention of Hall, nor does the entry for New Music Manchester even though it was founded by a group of students encouraged by Hall’s modernistic approach to composition and performance.

There is an extensive biography of Richard Hall on the British Music Society site, which also provides a complete list of compositions. None of these seems to be listed in the catalogue of the British Library, though this is still under reconstruction from the hack in 2023. Without these records it is not possible to identify the publishers of his music. However the Manchester Digital Music Archive catalogues a wealth of items relating to Hall. The very helpful Archive and Museum Manager at the RNCM is Heather Roberts. Information about the publishers of many of his compositions can be found using the web site of the British Music Collection.

Richard Hall was clearly a major force in the development of British music and musicians from his arrival at the Royal Manchester School of Music in 1938 until the late 1960s. He was an unassuming man, always wishing to stay out of the limelight and give the stage to his pupils. Hopefully someone will take a fresh look at his organ music, especially his very early Rhapsody for organ and strings!