MDA007 — Fritz HART, Mass Vexilla Regis (1912)

Fritz Hart (1874-1949) was part of the extraordinary diaspora of British composers who, attracted to the Dominions and colonies of the then British Empire, disseminated the British musical tradition and the fashionable Celtic revival to many parts of the world. Hart’s contribution to music in Australia, and later Hawaii, is remarkable, a distinguished composer, teacher and mentor as well as a conductor and writer. With the exception of Charles Edward Horsley, he was the finest orchestrator to work in Australia before 1930, and his musical influence here lasted for a considerable time, especially through his students, including Margaret Sutherland and Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Both as teacher and mentor, he was especially encouraging to female composers.

Hart’s output included twenty-two operas, two large-scale symphonies, two string quartets, several concertos and a Symphonic Rhapsody for violin and orchestra, three sonatas for violin and piano, and choral, organ, and other keyboard music. He is remarkable for his 500-odd songs set to diverse texts, including poems of the Celtic revival and those of many Australian poets. These songs have not been forgotten: Stephen Banfield, for example, gives them serious consideration in his 1985 study of twentieth-century British song. Details of Hart’s life and career, and a full catalogue of his works are found in Peter Tregear’s excellent “Fritz Bennicke Hart-An Introduction to his Life and Music”, M.Mus. Thesis, University of Melbourne, 1993.

The Mass Vexilla Regis is scored for one soprano, two tenors and two basses, and was composed throughout May 1912 in Adelaide and Brisbane whilst Hart was on a conducting tour around Australia. The work is dedicated to the then Anglican Bishop of Western Australia, Charles Owen Riley. Born in Birmingham in 1854, Riley was Bishop from 1894, and was created the first Archbishop in 1914, a position he held until 1929. This Mass is one of two major sacred works composed by Hart, the other being his Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis of 1931, a work that will form part of this series. The composer’s manuscript of the Mass Vexilla Regis is held in the State Library of Victoria, Latrobe Library, LaTL 9528/1+2.

The edition has been produced with generous assistance from the Marshall-Hall Trust and the Australian Research Theology Foundation.