music of Lord Berners (1883-1950): 'The Versatile Peer', The

Musical Times, Autumn 2003 by Thomson, Andrew

Ballet was the perfect medium for

Berners: it suited his musical style

which favoured the colourful and

characteristic cameo. There was no

need for lengthy development sections

which, like Debussy and Satie, he chose

to reject. Moreover, as a socialite with

a strong interest in literature and paint

ing, ballet gave him the opportunity

to socialise and collaborate with like-

minded artists [...] Serge Diaghilev,

Georges Balanchine, Gertrude Stein,

Sacheverell Sitwell and Christopher

Wood amongst others.

Berners himself described Neptune as 'variegated as a Christmas tree. You will find a little of everything in it from Tschaikovsky to Leo Delibes. And above all, it is not in the least "modern"'. Jones, however, considers the last sentence to be 'a little economical with the truth'. Moreover, she is surely right in pointing out an 'affectionate pastiche' of an English modal style a la Vaughan Williams, as dissimilar to his own as his suggested Spanish, Russian and Chinese styles in previous works. I must emphasise that my criticisms concerning the Schoenberg school, however severe, are far outweighed by the merits of this excellent, well written study, and indeed, I look forward to Jones's forthcoming book on Rebecca Clarke.

Andrew Thomson's monographs on Widor and d'Indy are published by Oxford University Press.