Cyril Scott as Composer-Pianist and Author,
with some Recent Perspectives
by Leslie De’Ath (January 2005)
	
It is reassuring to see a revival of interest in the music of Cyril Scott (1879-1970), and the beginnings of perhaps a substantial reappraisal of his accomplishments, both musical and otherwise.  Brief and localized flurries of interest in his music have occurred from time to time, and a society, albeit short-lived, was formed in the 1960s with the aim of promoting his music.  Online resources have raised public awareness of just about everything in life, and there now exists an informative website maintained by the family, outlining the life, philosophies, and oeuvre of Scott, at 
http://www.cyrilscott.net/

From one point of view, the neglect of Scott is inexplicable.  It is not simply that he garnered a considerable reputation as a composer in the first quarter of the twentieth century, both at home and in Germany, or that he wrote an immense amount of music, most of which found its way to publication at that time.  He was a figure in musical history like no other, whose life and accomplishments fit no common mould, and offer many fascinating and unusual details.  Some of his ideas and interests, considered outlandish in his day by many, have been vindicated by the passage of time, and it is noteworthy that, at the time of writing, over twenty of his books have been reissued and remain in print.  His own personal interests encompass several apparently unrelated disciplines, and he is perhaps the most prolific and indeed successful author of any major composer, at least in areas other than music.  He published forty books (only four of which are on music) and hundreds of other articles in no fewer than six quite different fields of inquiry, including homeopathy, occult philosophy, poetry, literary translation, theology, humour, ethics, and music.  Had he never written a note of music, he would still be considered an author of period stature and of some continuing influence in these areas.  He is perhaps the only composer who has written two autobiographies - published forty-five years apart. He authored a book that was banned in 1921 shortly after publication, as his then wife, Rose Allatini, also did.  It is an irony that, judged by the yardstick of publication, his non-musical accomplishments have been to date more enduring than his musical ones.  The compositions that enjoyed wide dissemination were the piano miniatures and songs published by Elkin, Schott, and Forsyth.  The larger works by which Scott wanted his musical legacy to be remembered have remained mostly unpublished, and in many cases still await a first performance.  A full appraisal of his musical accomplishments is hampered by this unfortunate reality.  The inaccessibility of so many substantial works means that our understanding of his true contribution to the literature is still in its infancy.  A modern life-and-works has not appeared, and indeed would be a daunting endeavour, arguably best undertaken as a collaborative effort between experts in the several fields in which Cyril delved.  Sensitive yet dispassionate assessments of Scott’s contributions to homeopathy, occultism and philosophy are wanting, as is a study of the complex and arcane relationship between his non-musical interests and his compositions.  The only biographical portrait to have appeared in print is A. Eaglefield Hull’s study of 1921, which presents an uncritical account of the first half of Scott’s life and musical output.  (In this respect, there are parallels with the extraordinarily long-lived Leo Ornstein, who like Scott was touted as an enfant terrible at the beginning of the twentieth century, only to be forgotten about after the First World War.  Both composers wrote prolifically and iconoclastically for the piano in the first quarter of the century.  Ornstein was temporarily renowned, or infamous, for a series of works that were considered avant-garde in 1910, and the only biography to have appeared has been Martens’s of 1918.)  

I am privileged to count among my acquaintances Cyril’s son Desmond, who has lived in Canada since 1957.  He and his wife Corinne are long-time residents of Toronto.  Desmond claims no musical expertise unto himself (“as so often happens, these things skip generations”), but he is astute in all things artistic, including his father’s music, and in fact has pursued an enviable career as an actor, theatre director, and sculptor.  He is a graduate of Cambridge University in English literature and of the London Old Vic Theatre School.  His work as a sculptor derives from his theatre experience, and it has been presented in several solo and group exhibitions in North America and the Netherlands.  His particular interests are Alberto Giacommetti, Samuel Beckett and Shakespeare - and of course his father.  His professional acting training and experience renders him a compelling speaker, and he has toured many parts of the world delivering engaging talks on his father.  Upon the death of Cyril’s second partner, Marjorie Hartston Scott, in 1997, Desmond became the administrator of his father’s estate, and thus the contact person for matters such as unpublished works and rights. 
 	The recent revival of interest in Cyril Scott’s music is taking several forms, including
CD releases, the renewed availability of long out-of-print scores, and the first academic conference symposium devoted to Scott.  The tireless effort of Desmond Scott in promoting the music and writings of his father has been a major catalyst in this process.  Scott has had to wait until the 21st century for the first commercial recordings of his symphonies, string quartets, chamber music, and many of the piano works.  I am writing this article in consequence of my personal involvement in this renascence–that of recording all the piano works for Dutton Epoch.
The SIMS Conference held in Melbourne, Australia in July 2004 included a commemoration of the 125th anniversary of Scott’s birth, at which six papers were read and his music was performed.  The colloquium was presided over by Desmond Scott, who provides an overview of the contributions in the BMS Newsletter No. ??.  He also presented a perspective on his father from the unique vantage point of a family member.  Frances Gray presented a lecture-demonstration on Scott’s poetic/pianistic cycle, Poems.  Allan Clive Jones told of the checkered history of the guitar Sonatina written for Segovia in 1927 and thought lost until it turned up amongst the famed guitarist’s effects in 2001.  Bianca Rooman, who has been working on a monograph on Scott, spoke of the composer’s association with Grainger.  Laurie Sampsel shared some of her encyclopedic bibliographic knowledge of Scott with a presentation of the later history of Lotus Land, tracing the lotus’s journey into popular culture by playing recorded interpretations (which exhibit varying degrees of tastefulness and ingenuity) by various groups from the 1950s onwards.  And I read a paper on the piano sonatas, parts of which have been refashioned for the present article.					

The quantity of large Scott works that remain unpublished and (to my knowledge) never performed is disarmingly large.  The list includes symphonic poems, a cello concerto, a double concerto for violin and cello, a Concertino for bassoon, flute and strings, a Passacaglia festevole for two pianos and orchestra, a Sinfonietta for organ, harp and strings, a Hymn of Unity for soli, chorus and orchestra, a string quintet and a second piano quintet, three (of four) violin sonatas, a fourth symphony, two piano trios, and two string trios.  The list becomes much longer if one includes works that have received no public performance since the premiere given at the time of composition.		
The following list classifies Scott’s book-length published writings.  Those still in print or available on demand are asterisked. For a comprehensive list of these and all other writings, see Laurie J. Sampsel’s Cyril Scott: A Bio-bibliography (2000, Westport, CT, Greenwood). 

1.  Autobiography
1924*	My Years of Indiscretion	
London: Mills and Boon, 282p (repr.2001, Best Books) 
1969*	Bone of Contention: Life Story and Confessions 	
London: Aquarian Press / New York: Arco, 242p

2.  Music
1917*	The Philosophy of Modernism (In its Connection with Music) 
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 135p (also 1925, London: Waverly, together with Eaglefield Hull’s biography)
1919	Percy Grainger - A Course in Contemporary Musical Biography
New York: G.Schirmer
1928*	The Influence of Music on History and Morals: A Vindication of Plato
London: Theosophical Publishing House, 245p
1933*	Music: Its Secret Influence Throughout the Ages	
London: Rider, 221p (2nd ed, 1950)
- reprinted many times and translated into other languages

3.  Occultism and theology		
1920*	The Initiate: Some Impressions of a Great Soul
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 396p 
1920 	The Adept of Galilee: A Story and an Argument, by the Author of “The Initiate”
London: G.Routledge & Sons / New York, E.P. Dutton, 434p
(A rare book, because most of the run of the only edition was lost when the storage facility was bombed.) 	
1927*	The Initiate in the New World: The Sequel to The Initiate 
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul / New York, E.P. Dutton, 302p 
1932*	The Initiate in the Dark Cycle: A Sequel to “The Initiate” and to “The Initiate in the New World”
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 215p
(the Initiate trilogy was reprinted in 1971 by Samuel Weiser, York Beach, Maine)
1933*	The Vision of the Nazarene		
London, G.Routledge & Sons, 126p (repr. 1975, New York: Samuel Weiser)
1935*	An Outline of Modern Occultism	
London: G.Routledge / New York: E.P.Dutton 239p (2nd ed, 1950)
1936*	The Greater Awareness: A Sequel to An Outline of Modern Occultism
London: G.Routledge & Sons / New York: E.P.Dutton, 243p		
1942*	The Christian Paradox: What is, as Against What Should Have Been
London/New York/Melbourne: Rider, 144p
1953*	The Boy who Saw True
London/New York: Peter Nevill, 248p
1956*	Occultism: An Alternative to Scientific Humanism.  A Lecture....
London: L.N. Fowler, 16p (repr.1996)

4.  Homeopathy
1938*	Doctors, Disease, and Health: A Critical Survey of Therapeutics, Modern and Ancient
London: Methuen / Cleveland: Sherwood, 283p (2nd ed, 1946) 
1939	Victory Over Cancer Without Radium or Surgery: A Book Dealing with Cancer Causation, Cancer Prevention, and Cancer Cures for Laymen and Doctors	
London: Methuen, 271p (2nd ed, 1957)
1940	Health, Diet and Commonsense
London: Andrew Dakers, 191p (2nd ed, 1944) 
1946*	Medicine Rational and Irrational
London: True Health, 224p
1947*	Crude Black Molasses: Nature’s Wonder Food
London: True Health, 36p (many further editions) 
1948*	Cider Vinegar: Nature’s Great Health Promoter and Safest Treatment [Cure] of Obesity
London, Athene, 40p	(6th ed, 1968)	
1953*	Simpler and Safer Remedies for Grievous Ills
London: Athene, 110p
1955*	Sleeplessness: Its Prevention and Cure by Harmless Methods
London: Athene, 32p 
1956	Constipation and Common Sense
London: Athene, 40p (2nd ed, 1969)
1968	Cancer Prevention: Fallacies and Some Reassuring Facts
London: Athene, 48p

5.  Ethics / The human condition
1921	The Autobiography of a Child: Written from the Psycho-sexual-analytical Standpoint for Doctors, Teachers, and Psychologists
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Trubner, 389p		

1928	The Art of Making a Perfect Husband.  By a Husband
London: Noel Douglas, 130p
1930	Childishness: A Study in Adult Conduct
London: John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, 102p
1939*	Man is my Theme: A Study of National and Individual Conduct
London: Andrew  Dakers, 303p
1953	Man, the Unruly Child
London: Aquarian Press

6.  Humour
1939	The Ghost of a Smile
London: Andrew Dakers, 199p

7.  Poetry
n.d. 	The Shadows of Silence and the Songs of Yesterday
Liverpool: Donald Fraser
1907	The Grave of Eros and The Book of Mournful Melodies with Dreams from the East
Liverpool: Donald Fraser / London, J.M. Watkins
1910*	The Voice of the Ancient	
London: J.M. Watkins, 63p
1912	The Vales of Unity
London: David Nutt, 56p
1915	The Celestial Aftermath, A Springtide of the Heart, and Far-away Songs
London: Chatto & Windus, 68p

8.  Poetry translation
1909	Beaudelaire, Charles.  The Flowers of Evil (= Les fleurs du mal)
London: Elkin Mathews, 63p

1910	Stefan George: Selection from his Works (Vigo cabinet series 71)
London: Elkin Mathews, 63p
1952	Die Tragödie Stefan Georges: Ein Erinnerungsbild und ein Gang durch sein Werk 
Eltville am Rhein: Lothar Hempe (transl. Ilse Schneider), 91p

9.  Other
As a deemed authority on spiritualism and homeopathy, Scott provided introductions to several books by other authors.  In the case of David Anrias’s  Through the Eyes of the Masters: Meditations and Portraits.... (1932, London: G. Routledge & Sons), Scott’s introduction comprises over half the volume.

In addition to the books and many published articles, Scott also wrote several unpublished plays, set several of his own poems to music, and wrote the libretti to his four operas.  He was, incidentally, also a visual artist and designed much of the furniture in his home himself.
Several of the books listed above have become, for want of a better word, classics to those interested in esoterica (especially the Initiate trilogy) and alternative medicine (especially the Cider Vinegar and Molasses booklets), and even today there are many who know of Scott as the author of these volumes rather than as a composer.  
Scott’s writings reveal a person widely-read, ahead of his time in many respects, and very much a product of his time and place in others.  They are characterized by a particular combination of self-effacement and self-absorption, quaint of conceit at times, and often remarkably perceptive.  Sincerity, not skepticism, pervades everything he wrote.  His contentions are often provocative, and for some beyond the pale in their credulousness.  His lively discourse is very quotable, if not often quoted.  A sampling from Scott’s writings will provide some small measure of the man:
“Debussy, with his somewhat Christ-like face, marred by a slightly hydrocephalic 	forehead, was neither an unpleasant personality nor an impressive one.”  (My Years of Indiscretion, p101)

“To what lofty ethers he [Richard Strauss] will soar when freed from the considerational ballast of an unnecessarily heavy purse, remains to be seen.  But even then I, for one, hope that his predilection for Mozart will not compel him to help himself more and more freely to those well-defined melodies which bear so close a resemblance to that all too-melodious composer.  Mozart has practically been the ruin of Tschaikowsky: will he prove the ruin of Strauss also?”  (My Years of Indiscretion, p219-20)

“People imagine him [Bernard Shaw] to be a farceur, but they are entirely mistaken; he merely adopts that attitude because he dare not do otherwise.”  (My Years of Indiscretion, p229)

“I write a work, am interested to hear it performed twice or three times at the most, and after that it attracts me no longer–I am impelled to create something new.  Thus to sit out a whole concert of my own works is not a pleasure: it is a penance.”  (My Years of Indiscretion, p281)			

“If I am worth anything, time will prove it; if I am worth nothing, then all the better if my writings are not heard.”  (quoted in Eaglefield Hull, Cyril Scott, 176)		

“I... do not hold with the policy of raking up and performing early and unrepresentative
works of composers, works written perhaps long before they had developed their respective styles.  Such a policy is neither fair to the deceased or maybe still living
composers, and is boring for the public.”  (Bone of Contention, p139)
“...if The Masters have seen fit to use, so to say, my pen along both musical and literary lines, I do not delude myself that I am anything but an instrument, as are and have been many creative artists in whatever field, even though they may never have heard that such beings as Master exist.”  (Bone of Contention, p174)

“...there is no denying that a large proportion of the clergy can barely be regarded as the epitome of spirituality, seeing they are steeped in bigotry and intolerance, and what we may term a certain pious stupidity, utterly at variance with the teachings of Jesus, or any Initiate, who has, or ever will, grace the physical plane.”  (The Adept of Galilee, 113)

“K.H. [Koot Hoomi] is of Kashmiri origin, was Pythagoras in one of His previous incarnations, and among His other activities has much to do with music.  He is well over a hundred-and-fifty years of age, is over six feet tall,... and speaks English perfectly.”  (Bone of Contention, 234)

“Factually, a human being while living on earth consists of a physical body plus several interpenetrating subtler bodies (these constitute the aura) or ‘vehicles of consciousness’ composed of much finer matter and higher vibratory rates.  Without these bodies there would be no consciousness in the physical body at all.”  (Bone of Contention, 235)

“To my friend, Mrs. Marie Russak, that enlightened Seer, who brought back for me the memory of my past Egyptian lives, these impressions are affectionately dedicated.”  (dedication of Egypt)

“Doctors... have not hit upon the fact known to occultists (who have other scientific modes of discovering things) for centuries, viz., that the pineal gland is the organ of psychic perception.”  (The Philosophy of Modernism, 112)

“Reincarnation was in the eyes of the Church a particularly inconvenient doctrine, because it gave the human soul more than one chance to reach salvation.”  (The Christian Paradox, 21)

“...I had been one [a composer] in my previous life.  Between my last life and the present one I was only out of incarnation some thirty years....  Whereas I derive some pleasure from hearing the works I wrote in my last rebirth, with a few exceptions I am bored by those I wrote in my earlier one.”  (Bone of Contention, 177)

“So far, with our earthly music we have only been able to imitate the faintest echo of the 
Music of the Spheres, but in the future it will be given us to swell the great Cosmic Symphony.”  (Music: Its Secret Influence Throughout the Ages, 203)

“the sceptic is as credulous as the believer; the only difference is that he is credulous about one set of ideas or facts while the believer is credulous about another.”  (Childishness, 64)

“not... all people who marry because they are in love end with a conjugal shipwreck, but... a great many of them end thus, and will continue to do so until mankind realizes in the most practical way that mere in-loveness can never form a sound basis for matrimonial alliances.” (Childishness, 75)

“He who aspires to perfect husbandship should contrive to make his wife forget that he
is her husband by invariably acting as if he were her lover.  This is very difficult, and
requires proficiency in the art of dissembling.”  (The Art of Making a Perfect Husband, 61)

“Mankind has never grown up.”  (Childishness, 1)

“neither sex is prepared to recognise its own childishness, but only that of the other, and the result is much misunderstanding and conjugal tedium.”  (The Art of Making a 
Perfect Husband, 43)
“...woman is fickle in friendship but constant in love, whereas man is constant in friendship and fickle in love.”  (Childishness, 26)

“No normal and healthy woman can be completely happy in her married life without a
child or children, therefore a sterile husband who aspires to true unselfishness should 
permit his wife to have a child by another man, if she so wishes: for the perfect husband
will allow another to give what he cannot give himself.”  (The Art of Making a Perfect 
Husband, 94)		
“no one can deny that collectively we are stark, staring mad, [and] it is only because we are sane enough to realize the fact that our case is not hopeless and there is some prospect of our salvation. ...what, after all, is war but insanely unchristian nursery behaviour on a gigantic scale?”  (The Christian Paradox, 12)

“Only when a nation is invaded by a foreign Power can she be said to lose her independence, and that is precisely what would not happen under a United States of Europe or a Commonwealth of Free Nations.  The citizens of the State of New York do not suddenly take it into their heads to invade the State of Ohio.”  (The Christian Paradox, 142)

“...if the Church had only loved goodness and truth as much as she loved power, her good examples and her influence for good might even have been powerful enough to save the nations from calamity.  But although mankind may be incredibly myopic, it is not so myopic as to have been unaffected by the bad example of an Institution which professed to teach a good example.  For one thing, the Church might long since have persuaded the nations to love their enemies, had she not hated her own enemies: and incidentally, had her persuasions been successful, there would have been no enemies left to love, but only friends.”  (The Christian Paradox, 17)

“The great event for which all devout Christians of various denominations have longed, and for which the devotees of the Eastern religions have also longed, is now destined to take place in the comparatively near future–we refer to the Return of The Christ among men.  Yet, although doubtless He will come in an aeroplane from His retreat in Tibet, the 

“great glory” will only be perceptible to those with clairvoyant sight who will be able to see His radiance and the radiance of those angels (devas) who will always surround Him.”  (An Outline of Modern Occultism, 214)

“...the story of Jesus the Christ has been well-nigh ruined by the gloomy associations which all the paraphernalia of sacerdotalism have woven around it...”  (The Adept of Galilee, 112)

[recounting the Passion of Christ:]
“And then he [Jesus] abandoned his body, while his head fell forward on to his breast, as if he were dead. [footnote: Jesus entered into Samadhi, as it is called–viz. super-conscious trance.  In Samadhi the breathing is absolutely imperceptible and the body shows every sign of apparently recent death.]” (The Adept of Galilee, 390)

“...in the sentence ‘Whom God hath joined, let no man put asunder’ the Roman Church has arrogated to itself the position and office of God: forgetting that when the utterance was made, no such Church existed, and that such an interpretation is quite out of keeping with the general tone of Jesus’ teachings.”  (The Adept of Galilee, 110)

“The curious pastime of chasing and killing animals for pleasure is a relic of barbarism.  I
loathe the cruel sport of hunting, and find the conversation of hunting people unspeakably
boring whenever obliged to listen to it.”  (Bone of Contention, 213)	
(Scott shared this characteristic with Wagner, who believed in the spiritual oneness of all living things, abhorred cruelty to animals and was a vegetarian.  Wagner was also one of the few composers that Scott greatly admired.)	
 
“The scientist sees that there is an anatomical likeness between man and the monkey, and 
as the evolutionary impulse always makes for improvement, he concludes that man must 
have descended from the monkey, but he is always baffled in his efforts to find the 
“missing link” connecting the two.  ...man has not ascended from the monkey, it is the
monkey that has degenreated from man.”  (An Outline of Modern Occultism, 56)
“The great event for which all devout Christians of various denominations have longed, and for which the devotees of the Eastern religions have also longed, is now destined to take place in the comparatively near future–we refer to the Return of The Christ among men.  Yet, although doubtless He will come in an aeroplane from His retreat in Tibet, the 

“great glory” will only be perceptible to those with clairvoyant sight who will be able to see His radiance and the radiance of those angels (devas) who will always surround Him.”  (An Outline of Modern Occultism, 214)

“...the story of Jesus the Christ has been well-nigh ruined by the gloomy associations which all the paraphernalia of sacerdotalism have woven around it...”  (The Adept of Galilee, 112)

[recounting the Passion of Christ:]
“And then he [Jesus] abandoned his body, while his head fell forward on to his breast, as if he were dead. [footnote: Jesus entered into Samadhi, as it is called–viz. super-conscious trance.  In Samadhi the breathing is absolutely imperceptible and the body shows every sign of apparently recent death.]” (The Adept of Galilee, 390)

“...in the sentence ‘Whom God hath joined, let no man put asunder’ the Roman Church has arrogated to itself the position and office of God: forgetting that when the utterance was made, no such Church existed, and that such an interpretation is quite out of keeping with the general tone of Jesus’ teachings.”  (The Adept of Galilee, 110)

“Homeopathy is more scientific than orthodoxy, for the latter is always changing its drugs and ideas.”  (A Physician’s Posy, p9)

“Although it is true to say that some people are hampered by the defects of their qualities, it is also true to say that some people are hampered even more by the defects of their qualifications.”  (The Christian Paradox, 5)

“The trade union spirit militates against any individuality on the part of doctors.  It prompts them to walk in the beaten track and only to adopt such methods as are recognized by the profession in general, even when many doctors themselves are not convinced of the rectitude of those methods.  (Doctors, Disease, and Health, 16)

“I suggest that the cancer problem will only be solved when altruistism [sic] is substituted for vested interests, and when unity in diversity will prevail among the practitioners of the healing arts.  Meanwhile it is essential that the doctors and the public should be apprised of the real facts” (Victory Over Cancer, xiii)

“Constipated people needing Phosphorus are, generally speaking, of the slender, artistic 	type who, when children, feared the dark, hated to be alone, and throughout their lives have a fear of thunderstorms.”  (Constipation and Commonsense, 44)

“In attempting to be kind to one set of people one is sometimes compelled to be cruel to 	another set of people” (Doctors, Disease, and Health, 19)

“...language unless carefully employed is a most unreliable means of communication.”  (Ghost of a Smile, p158)

In his books Scott railed against the moral repressiveness of the Victorian age.  In his poetry and in some of his music however he was inextricably a part of the artistic aesthetic of that period.  He always retained a predilection for the sensibilities of the pre-Raphaelites, which made itself evident primarily in his poetry and his home surroundings, but also sometimes in his music.  Predictably, Scott’s writings have been enthusiastically embraced by those in sympathy with his ideas, and dismissed summarily by those who are not.  He was criticized both during his lifetime and since for “spreading himself too thin”, in the sense of taking an active interest in many fields of inquiry, and having the courage to publish as an authority in all of them.  As the world increasingly awoke to the apparent merits of specialization, his interest in widely divergent disciplines outside of music was viewed by many with suspicion.  This had implications for his compositional career as well, and he felt the aspersions of those who felt that anything less than single-minded dedication to musical composition could only result in inferior creativity and workmanship.   The accusation of all-round Renaissance charlatanism was too easily made by those who had not taken the trouble to comprehend his writings fully, and was abetted by Scott’s own accessible writing style, borne of his dislike of complex verbiage for its own sake.
Scott’s Occultist beliefs are difficult to summarize, and easy to misconstrue.  It would be presumptuous here to attempt an exegesis of its essential tenets, but it can be said that at various times in his life, he came across a variety of people and of spiritual stances that had profound effects on his beliefs.  After a Church of England upbringing and a few early adult years of agnosticism that he later viewed as mere vanity, he turned his attentions variously to Vedantism, Theosophy, Christian Science, Spiritualism, Hinduism, and ultimately to Occultism.  His writings are replete with references to Seers, Initiates and Yogis who he had met and sought guidance from.  One of them, “T.E.J.E.”, is the dedicatee of The Adept of Galilee, “that joyous, wise and beautiful Soul, who was with the Adept of Galilee in the days of His Ministry.”  Most of that volume is nothing less than a narrative rewrite of the Gospel story, based upon Scott’s view of Christ as a Yogi.  He believed that Christ’s message had been “mutilated” (his term) over the centuries by ecclesiastic practitioners of what he called “Churchianity”.  He had a Platonic mistrust of the senses as the path to Truth.  What he learned from Annie Besant, Koot Hoomi, Nelsa Chaplin, and the other “enlightened souls” he met led him to the belief that most of humanity functions in a state of perpetual childishness, with selfishness, jealousy, and vanity as prime motivating forces.  In his books on ethics and spiritual philosophy, he repeatedly focuses on the idea of man’s essential childishness, and suggests paths to overcome it.

Scott’s lifelong friendship with Percy Grainger dated from their fellow-student days in Frankfurt (1896-99), as two of the five British members of the so-called ‘Frankfurt Group’.  A chronicle of their friendship, with edited correspondence, would be an important contribution to both Scott and Grainger scholarship.  Scott was in his own more ascetic, fastidious, cloistered way, just as colourful a character as Grainger–less extreme in some ways, and more in others.  Although they pursued very different career paths and life styles, the bond remained close, and they continued to correspond throughout their lives.  They were both too frank with each other to mince words, and the private correspondence is occasionally spiced with friction.  Scott refers to Grainger’s “intense love of argument”, and he had reservations about Grainger’s notions regarding the constitution of the museum he built and endowed in Melbourne.  Scott to my knowledge never in print confronted head-on the issue of Grainger’s “blue-eyed” Nordic-supremacy racism.  Grainger for a time complained of Scott having stolen his idea of “irregular music”, and he avoided playing any of his important works for Scott, for fear of compromising his intellectual property.  Throughout his life, Grainger was haunted by the conviction that he and others of the Frankfurt group had done their best, most vital work as composers prior to 1900, and everything subsequent from the pen of each, including himself, was sterile and worthless.  After Grainger’s mother’s suicide in 1922, Scott claimed that he had made contact with her on an astral plane, and offered to act as intermediary between Rose and Percy – a well-intentioned gesture that strained the relationship between Percy and Cyril for a time. 		
More than once in his writings, Scott refers to Grainger’s misfortune of having derived his fame from a few peripheral trifles at the expense of his larger, more serious compositions upon which he should be truly judged.  He might have been writing also of himself.  Scott once pointed out that Grainger’s “child-likeness manifests itself in a most sentimental attachment to things which appear to possess no value, such as highly and most offensively immature manuscripts of my own (I regret to say), which he hugs to his heart in the manner a child hugs a broken toy...  I can never bet back these tattered swaddling clothes of my musical infancy in order to destroy them...”  
In 1909 Grainger wrote to his mother, “Poor little Cyril is not at all well.  He doesn’t understand at all how to keep healthy, and that’s a shame for him.  I hope he won’t die; but it seems to me life appeals to him terribly little.”  Scott didn’t begin publishing on alternative medicine until he was in his late fifties.  Although not entirely vegetarian himself, Scott managed to convince the naturally athletic Grainger of the benefits of a meatless lifestyle.

Both composers knew just how different they had become in the years since Frankfurt, even though they remained lifelong friends.  Their career paths, respective musical aesthetics, and Weltanschauung veered in directions that eventually became antipodal.  Grainger the pragmatist, the opportunist, and vital child of the earth;  Scott the recluse, the self-abnegator, and devotee of the astral plane and the spiritual unity of all souls.  Perhaps Grainger summed Scott up best when he wrote in 1911, “What a loyal person he is though, so pure and un-selfinterested and artist from first to last.”

Scott and other pianists
Scott enjoyed a fine reputation as a pianist and improviser at the piano, and had studied for five years as a youth in Frankfurt with one of Germany’s finest piano pedagogues, Lazzaro Uzielli.  After returning to Liverpool, he set up shop as a music teacher, and gave piano recitals.
He recorded twenty-three of his own compositions on piano rolls between 1928 and 1930.  They reveal a pianist with a strong sense of colour and mood, and his playing displays a sympathy with the French school of pianism.  In the extant recordings he is not always bound to the constraints of a regular pulse, and at times is free with his own published markings.    
Scott’s two autobiographies are remarkable in the importance he assigns to descriptions of his friends and acquaintances, and to anecdotes about his associations with them.  More non-musicians than musical colleagues are represented, which is perhaps not so surprising, given his abiding interest in fields of inquiry outside of music.  Nevertheless, they are valuable for his insights into prominent composers and other artists whom he knew, such as Debussy, Ravel, Stefan George, Paderewski, and Bernard Shaw.  Although not as renowned as Grainger’s, Scott’s career as a performer took him throughout England for premieres of his own works, and also on a successful six-month concert tour to North America in 1920-21.  Both he and Grainger enjoyed careers as composer-pianists, and at least in Scott’s case, the reputation that preceded him rested more on his fame as a composer than as a concert soloist.  Grainger, in spite of his numerous assertions regarding his hatred of the piano, harboured the more serious aspirations of the two as an internationally recognized performer. 

Scott was a personal acquaintance of several famous pianists of the time, including Esther Fisher, Walter Gieseking, Alfred Hoehn, Ignaz Paderewski, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Evelyn Suart, and of course Grainger.  Moiseiwitsch was the dedicatee of Rondeau de concert and Russian Dance, and Suart the dedicatee of Scherzo.  His two largest solo piano works, the Op.66 Sonata and the Deuxième suite, were dedicated to Hoehn and Debussy respectively.  Scott met Evelyn Suart – a pupil of Leschetizky and a Christian Scientist – in 1902, and Suart soon became an avid exponent of his piano works.  Scott credits her with two important factors in his life: his long-standing “unclouded association with the firm of Messrs Elkin & Co., and my equally long interest in metaphysics.”  Scott’s acquaintance with Benno Moiseiwitsch, also a student of Leschetizky, prompted the writing of one of his most technically ambitious piano works, the Rondeau de concert.  Through Moiseiwitsch’s wife, the Australian violinist Daisy Kennedy, Scott was introduced to Alma Mahler in 1913.  Moiseiwitsch’s daughter Tanya, incidentally, was a prominent scenic and costume designer, and helped found the Stratford Shakespearean Festival in Ontario, designing the thrust stage for that theatre in 1953 –  a theatre where Desmond Scott has exhibited his sculptures.
Scott met Paderewski once during his early Liverpool years.  Paderewski was performing in town, and Cyril was invited to an after-concert reception at which the great pianist said to him, “There is something in your face which impresses me – I should like to see that Piano Concerto.”  The work in question was an early concerto (Op.10) which, to Scott’s relief, Paderewski never performed.  The composer reworked a melody out of it into An Evening Hymn for voice, violin and piano.  He withdrew the concerto and claimed to have destroyed it, although the holograph still resides in the Grainger Museum.
Scott was to all accounts a prodigious improviser at the piano.  It is noteworthy that the composer himself speaks little about this in his writings, other than to say that he would resort to extemporising on those occasions when he couldn’t recall how his compositions went.  We rely largely on the testimony of those musicians who had heard him improvise, such as Esther Fisher, A. Eaglefield Hull, and Grainger.  There are a few recorded examples of his improvising and a few interviews extant, in addition to the recordings on which he performs his own piano works and songs.  

           Perhaps the most vivid description of Scott's improvising is found in his first autobiography (My Years of Indiscretion, p123), as recalled by Heddie Gardiner, Balfour Gardiner's sister-in-law. The Gardiners had frequent soirees at their home, and Scott writes that "on one occasion my behaviour, to say the least, was eccentric. She [Mrs. Gardiner] had invited some friends of a particularly non-Bohemian type to dinner, and had asked me beforehand if I would play. This I promised to do; but when the time came, felt I had dined far too well and was not in the mood, so that a good deal of persuasion was necessary to induce me to keep my promise. Finally, I went with a rather bad grace to the piano and started to play -- not Wagner, as I so frequently did, but modernised versions of "The Honeysuckle and the Bee," and "Hello, my Baby," followed by "Finiculi, finicula," "After the Ball," "Louisiana Loo," and many others, ending after about forty minutes with a loud and scandalously harmonised version of "God Save the King," preceded by an improvised fugue on "Sailing Away." But that was not all; when I had played my last chord, I got up from the piano, and without looking at anybody or saying a word, walked straight out of the room."

Esther Fisher had occasion to concertize with Scott as a duo-piano team on several occasions.  His Theme and Variations for two pianos, and a Concertino for two pianos and orchestra issued from that collaboration.   Fisher describes his pianism in Recorded Sound 61 (January, 1976):
“What an excellent pianist he was!  I believe an erstwhile pupil of Chopin, on hearing 
him play, remarked that he had a touch like Chopin’s - and that I can believe.  He had
great facility, sensitivity and flexibility, as well as brilliance.  Glissandos were no
trouble to him at all.   His subtle rubato was another feature which made his style 
very personal.  He was a born artist; one could tell that at once.  I don’t think he
practised regularly, but as he composed at the piano, he was always playing.  I was
very impressed, and felt that this music had a strange beauty, and was haunting
and hypnotic.”

The Piano Music, the Sonatas, and Grainger
  
 	Two extended studies of Scott’s piano music exist - Ian Parrott’s Cyril Scott and His Piano Music (1991, Thames Publishing), and Thomas Darson’s dissertation, The Solo Piano Works of Cyril Scott (1979, City University of New York).  Both are useful guides in different ways, although neither deals with some of the thornier issues surrounding the music, such as matters of chronology, manuscript study, comparison of various versions of the sonatas, and the relationship between Scott’s philosophical beliefs and his piano music.  Parrott’s slender volume is a source of much detail not available elsewhere, although it appears to have been written in some haste, and reads rather like note-taking at times. 	
Scott is the most significant composer for the piano in Britain between Sterndale Bennett and Sorabji, and probably wrote more for the keyboard between 1900 and 1920 than any composer except Scriabin.  The only other British composers who wrote extensively for the piano during that time are Frank Bridge, York Bowen, Arnold Bax, and John Ireland.  Scott also wrote a number of concertante works for piano and orchestra, and although his Concerto No.2 has been recorded twice, it has yet to be published.  A champion of Scott who recorded both concerti and Early One Morning in the 1970s was John Ogdon.

Arguably Scott’s most fundamental compositional trait is his imaginative, complex approach to harmonic colour.  It is this aspect of his writing that prompted Grainger to call him a “perpendicularist”.  He is without precedent in this regard, at least among British composers, and even comparisons with Delius (like those with Debussy) are usually inapt.   It is a feature that, like his essentially Romantic spirit, is fundamental to his aesthetic, and informs the music from all periods of his life.  The piano in his home had stencilled on one side the Indian saying, “Melody is the cry of Man to God”, and on the opposite side, “Harmony is the answer of God to man”.  His harmonic experimentalism was undoubtedly symbiotic with his improvising, and many passages in his piano works bear the imprint of such spontaneous, empirical creativity.  As a performer, one often has the sense that notes and chords arise from considerations of digital convenience rather than from their function in a rigidly codified harmonic language.	
Scott’s output for piano resists easy categorizing.  While certain tendencies repeat themselves and serve to give his music a loose stylistic hallmark, there is much overlap between any labels one might attempt to superimpose upon the roughly 215 individual pieces he published for solo piano.  There are concert works marked by bravura writing (Rondeau de concert, An English Waltz, Sonata No.1, Handelian Rhapsody), works based on non-Western themes with exotic musical elements (Indian Suite, Soirée japonaise, Sphinx), Impressionist works (Poems, Deuxième suite, Rainbow Trout), didactic works and pieces for children (Album for Girls, Young Hearts, Zoo: Animals, Modern Finger-exercises), folk-song and patriotic works (Cherry Ripe, The Wild Hills of Clare, Britain’s War March), drawing-room miniatures (Notturno, Vesperale, Suite...in the Old Style, Summerland, Twilight-tide), and later, modernistic works employing quartal harmonies and abstract musical ideas (Pastoral Ode, Sea-marge, Sonata No.2, Sonata No.3).  Many works inhabit two or three of these categories, or border these rather contrived lines of demarcation.

It is often difficult to date the composition of Scott’s works precisely, because he was not fastidious in recording such things, and many manuscripts have been lost or destroyed.  Nor, to judge from Ernest Austin’s comments on the matter, was he entirely fastidious in the legibility of his manuscripts as submitted to the publishing firm Elkin.  In 1904, Scott had entered into a long-standing and happy association with that firm.  Austin was a copy editor for a time, and states that the published result was occasionally his personal “best guess” as to the intentions of the composer.  Robert Elkin expected Scott to contribute regular short songs and piano pieces of at most moderate difficulty, that would appeal stylistically to a large general amateur audience.  Scott complied and, for better or worse, it is this agreement that established his reputation as a composer of short miniatures, at the expense of any reputation he might have achieved for his larger, more important works.  Pieces were sometimes issued separately, and sometimes in sets of two to five.  The reputation of composers has generally been in direct proportion to those published works most widely disseminated, which in Scott’s case includes Lotus Land, Danse nègre and Lento (from Two Pierrot Pieces), and the songs Lullaby and Blackbird’s Song.  Scott himself declared that his association with Elkin sealed both his fame and his undoing.  It is tempting in consequence to dismiss all the Elkin miniatures as trivial drawing-room nothings tossed off upon command for an indiscriminate market.  Closer inspection of these piano pieces however reveals some interesting surprises.  They are not always so “miniature”, and are often harmonically recondite, interpretively elusive and occasionally technically demanding. 
Scott’s most significant works for solo piano are the sonatas and the Deuxième suite.  The Suite and the Op.66 Sonata both approach a half-hour in duration.  Grainger was an ardent proponent of the Op.66 Sonata, which he played many times in public and declared it to be the finest piano sonata of the 20th century.  It has not been without its detractors however.  One of the few writers to have given Scott any attention in recent times, Guy Sacre roundly condemns much of his piano music in his enormous, unabashedly opinionated La musique de piano (1998, Paris).

The Sonata (1909; written in 1908) is imposing in its size, musical ideas, and technical demands.  The only work comparable in dimension and fecundity of invention is Benjamin Dale’s Sonata in D minor of 1905.  Scott’s sonata is in four continuous movements, culminating in a fugal Allegro.  The writing is harmonically lush in a post-Romantic idiom, often reminiscent of Richard Strauss.  The incessant changes of metre are ground-breaking for the time, and serve to accommodate Scott’s technique of thematic transformation through a myriad of rhythmic transformations.  In this regard, and structurally, the sonata has an affinity with Liszt’s sonata.  Scott’s thought process, however, further blurs the underlying structure, giving the impression more of a symphonic poem or rhapsody than a multi-movement sonata.  The fugue subject of the fourth movement is unusually chromatic.  His Deuxième suite of 1910 ends with a much longer, more ostentatious fugue based on a similarly chromatic subject.  In the sonata fugue, the unfolding of the counterpoint works remarkably well, and the movement culminates in the re-introduction of themes from the other movements. In Scott’s own words, structural unity in a multi-movement sonata can be achieved if  “the free-fantasie section of the Finale be treated as an arena for all previous themes to re-enter, and so disport themselves once more before their final exit.”  He likens this procedure to that employed in epic forms of literature.  [Monthly Musical Record 47 (May 1, 1917), p104-05] 
Scott once spent an evening with Stravinsky, who was generous in his praise of the works of Scott that he knew.  On that occasion he took out the Op.66 sonata and played Scott what he thought to be the best passages.  Although no works of Scott are dedicated to Stravinsky, the Barbaric Dance from his ballet Karma, bears a close resemblance to passages in The Rite of Spring.
The Grainger Museum in Melbourne houses Grainger’s undated working copy of the 1909 version of the Op.66 Sonata.  This document provides particular insight into the technical aspects of Grainger’s pianism.  Pedal markings, fingerings, and interpretive annotations abound, and several cuts are indicated which distinguish between “Scott cuts” and Grainger’s own.  Of the six Grainger cuts to the first, second and third movements, three are large, and in total 150 bars are removed, reducing the playing time according to Grainger from 25 ½ minutes to 19.  Practical considerations were presumably involved, and at one point in the second movement he indicates a “small cut” and a “big cut” over the same passage, giving himself the flexibility of creating a duration tailored to the needs of different concerts.  His freedom with the original score in this regard is consistent with his approach to the earlier Op.17 Sonata (dedicated to Grainger in 1901), which Grainger truncated by half and published under Scott’s name as the Handelian Rhapsody. 

Grainger’s imaginative and unusual approach to pedalling, derived from his studies with Busoni and from his own fertile imagination, is distinguished principally by a very liberal use of the middle pedal.  The use of all three pedals in the Op.66 sonata is indicated throughout in great detail in his personal copy.  Distinction is consistently made between each of them, and release points are fastidiously notated.  At one point, all three pedals are indicated to be employed simultaneously.  The sound that results from a precise adherence to his markings is lush, orchestral, and entirely convincing.  Characteristically, Grainger’s approach to pedalling was both iconoclastic and entirely practical–a “common-sense view of all pedalling”, so to speak.  In my own recording of this sonata, I have been strongly influenced by Grainger’s own performance strategies.
One of Grainger’s trademarks - the handkerchief glissando - appears in this working copy. At the head of the score, Grainger has printed in large letters, “SILK HANDKERCHIEF - lay silk handkerchief at right end of keyboard for glissando on page 29.  Throw handkerchief into lap at end of run.”  At this climactic moment of the sonata, Grainger indulges in a bit of showmanship.  Since the passage is a black-key glissando, it also has the common-sense advantage of minimizing injury.  Apparently he had not yet concocted the elastic device that retracted the handkerchief into the cuff of his sleeve.
Presumably Grainger continued to showcase the original version of the sonata when he returned to it in the 1950s.  A letter written to Scott in 1951 adulates the 1909 version:  “I am utterly bowled over by the beauty, the originality & the mental liveliness of the music.  I mean the texture of the harmonies, the voice-leadings, the non-architectural flow of the form, the easy but brilliant pianistic style–so typical of your incomparable improvisings.”  But the impulsive Grainger two years earlier had stated in confidence to Scott, “I never liked the Sonata, Op.66, personally, but what a Leistung it is.”

Scott’s revisions to the Op.66 sonata as republished by Elkin in the 1920s are indeed singular.  They are copious, and explore an intense level of detail.  The two versions of Hindemith’s Das Marienleben are analogous in transformation, at a basic level of comparison.  Many changes Scott made are perplexing, and at first glance appear to be an attempt to graft a new level of harmonic complexity upon a lush Romantic score that is arguably better off left alone.  If familiar with the original, one is initially impressed by what has apparently been lost rather than what has been gained.  Scott’s revisions are fourfold.  First, additional notes are added to chords, to create even more vertical elaboration, in the form of seconds and ninths, and sometimes non-tertial chord structures.  These changes often seem harmonically arbitrary, and at times are scarcely noticeable, given the largely chromatic language already present in the original.  Second, a greater sense of pulse is created in some bars by the regularizing of time signatures, such as 17/16 turned into 4/4.  Third, entire passages have been rewritten or drastically altered.  Scott provides a new truncated bridge to the third movement, for instance, replacing an 18-bar passage with four newly composed bars.  The third movement Scherzo contains most of the revisions of this type, although a tranquillo passage in the middle of that movement oddly remains completely untouched.  The fugal fourth movement also remains more or less intact, apparently because of the linear writing. Fourth, a sense of tonal centre has often been rendered more abstruse through changes in harmonic progression.  This disorientation applies also to melodies, in which individual notes have been chromatically altered--often perplexingly so, since the post-Romantic core of the piece is still so strong that they simply sound out of place.  A diatonic melody in which only one note has been chromatically raised or lowered occurs frequently enough in the revision to be considered manneristic.  
There is a copy of the 1909 Elkin edition of this sonata in Desmond Scott’s possession that contains copious, meticulous red-pen revisions in the composer’s hand.  It appears to be a fair copy intended for Elkin’s 1920s revised publication.  However, the published revised version is different in many details from this copy, implying perhaps that this may be an intermediate revision that was superseded by the published version, or perhaps it is an even later revision.  Grainger speaks of an otherwise unknown third version of the sonata in a revealing unpublished letter to Scott in 1956 (printed as Grainger wrote it):

“As to the piano sonata, I do not find any great changes from the 2nd to the 3rd version.  The great change was from the first to the 2nd edition.  I don’t suppose you will ever understand my attitude to your sonata or that I will ever understand your attitude.  For you it is a work of art, & naturally you are highly justified in making it as good as you can – by revisions or otherwise.  For me the sonata gave me the opportunity, as a teacher, to get many copies of a major work of yours sold.  But that I could only do as long as I could present it as a study in progress – especially progress in free rhythms.  But when you regularised the irregular rhythms (notably on page 7) you were repudiating the things I was giving the sonata to pupils for.  So much for me as a teacher.  Much more serious was my defeat as a composer.  I so badly wanted Australia to get the credit for having invented fast-moving irregular rhythms (here again is my evil nature – always wanting one group to triumph over another) & as long as your first edition stood there was I as the originator in 1900, then you, my friend & associate followed in 1908, with Stravinsky coming later.  But when you uprooted your irregular rhythms in the 2nd edition there I stood with no bridge between me & Stravinsky – nothing to show that the practice had some connection with me & my fellow-genius-friends.  I was so happy, that irregular rhythms had come out of NATURAL PROGR[E]SS (my 1899 study of prose rhythms in speech, the rhythms of that woggley Italian train in Jan 1900) & was not what Balfour called CEREBRAL.  We cannot help being what we are.  You are a great creative genius, & I am a musical historian.  Love to you both
Percy”
   
Grainger applauded the unconstrained, irregular flow of the rhythm of Scott’s earlier version of the sonata, at the same time taking credit for its invention.  Of course neither composer was the first to experiment with changing metres, but the real innovation in this sonata was the pervasiveness of its application.  In 1909, the continuous four-movement plan unfolds over 582 bars, during which the time signature changes no less than 497 times, and 29 different time signatures are represented.  When Grainger complained of Scott’s rhythmic regularization in the later edition, he exaggerated.   This version still contains 444 changes of metre and 24 different time signatures. 

The complex history of this sonata has yet to be unravelled.  From an analytical standpoint, the many attempts at revision form a perplexing knot garden.  It is easy to equate constant revision with aesthetic uncertainty.  I think it more likely in this instance that Scott knew exactly what he wanted to do, even if the process was empirical and intuitive and the result bewildering.  In the years between the two publications, Scott’s musical style had changed remarkably.  The alterations are in keeping with the harmonic style of other of his works from the 1920s and 1930s.  It might be argued that the attempt to graft a newer language onto an already musically convincing original was a miscalculation, but that is distinct from incertitude.  This revised edition has met with a crashing silence.  No-one has recorded it, and I know of no documented public performance.  
Scott’s two later essays in the piano sonata present no problems of chronology, and exist in only one version each.  The autograph manuscripts correspond precisely with the published scores, and show little reworking of material.  We enter a new world of tonal adventurousness in these sonatas, with quartal and tertial harmonies freely mixing. 

 The first of these, called Second Sonata, is an intriguing, little-known work composed in Rye in 1933 and published two years later.  A single movement of imposing dimensions, its well-differentiated sections are unified by the presence of thematic recurrence and development, with a substantial recapitulation of the opening material later on, much in the manner of textbook sonata form.  From the first bars, we are in a new world of tonal ambiguity, far from the exuberant Romanticism of Op.66, or the Impressionism of the Deuxième suite or Lotus Land.  Quartal harmonies are now much more in evidence, and co-exist freely with complex, fluctuating tertial harmonic structures.  Impressionist gestures are evident in places however, intermingling with occasional passages of virtuosic figuration in the style of his earlier keyboard writing.  Colour and texture are important elements now, and the writing displays the likely influence of Scriabin, whose music and vision Scott was familiar with, and admired.   The musical, aesthetic and philosophical parallels between Scott and Scriabin have occasionally been noted by commentators.  Scott held Scriabin in high regard, and saw him as a unique figure in music.  He felt that Scriabin’s “predilection for the idiom of Chopin was based on psychological reasons rather than on musical ones; from an ultra-refinement, and hence subtilising of the human element, Scriabin passed into the non-human, and so ultimately became the greatest exponent of Deva-music that so far has been born.”  (The Influence of Music on History and Morals, 132)   He likened Scriabin to Debussy in some ways, but said that “Scriabin was in touch with a higher stage of the Deva-evolution than was Debussy.”  (Music: Its Secret Influence Throughout the Ages, 134)  In the Second Sonata, the technique of frequently changing metres is combined with a new Scriabinesque rhythmic feature–that of polyrhythms, such as six against seven.  The ubiquitous 1-4-7 chord, singled out by Scott as a trademark in his later autobiography, Bone of Contention, is related to Scriabin’s mystic chord.  Near the end of the sonata, a passage is significantly marked ‘Estatico’.  A visionary quality pervades much of the piece, and one senses a strong connection between Scott’s occult philosophical beliefs and the musical content here.  The sonata was dedicated to Walter Gieseking, who according to Scott sight-read the manuscript “straight off, making hardly a mistake”.  This sonata and the Deuxième suite are two seminal British piano works of the twentieth century that have remained inexplicably in total, undeserved oblivion until the appearance of recordings in 2004/5.
Scott’s last sonata was the Sonata No.3, published in 1956.  The writing is now less flamboyant, and even more harmonically abstract, with much sparer textures than in the earlier sonatas.  Scott divides the work into three movements – unconnected for the first time in his piano sonatas.  The unifying device of quoting from earlier movements in the final movement is found again here.  Traces of Scott’s Romantic roots can still be found in its more lyrical, wistful passages.  The work’s critics have found it “a lesson in what happens to a composer who overworks a fashionable idiom in his youth.  You cannot construct a sonata out of short, very rich harmonic progressions of not more than two or three bars each, with not much logical connection between them, coupled with purely decorative and non-structural passages.” (Peter Pirie, Music & Letters, 1956)  But by comparison with the earlier sonatas, history has been kind to this one, having been reissued by Elkin and reprinted in an issue of the British Music Society Journal in 1983, and having been commercially recorded four times.

Scott’s four piano sonatas span 55 years of a creative life – years that saw radical changes in musical style and aesthetic throughout Europe.  In hindsight it seems ironic that the 1909 sonata was received with extremes of both acclaim and denunciation, while the more harmonically radical later sonatas were not.  In fact they were largely ignored, because by the 1930s Scott was viewed by many as passé, or as having run out of creative steam.  His made-to-order Elkin piano miniatures and songs retained their popularity with the gifted amateur, while his more ambitious creations by which he would have been remembered remained unknown, and are only now emerging.  By all accounts Scott was a formidable pianist throughout his life, and his creative output in all media was channelled through the mind of a pianist.  The stylistic diversity of his four sonatas encapsulate his life’s journey as a composer. 

Classified List of Piano Works, and Discography

Dates are those of publication.  Brackets indicate composition dates of unpublished works.
The numbers assigned to works are my own, and cross-reference the discography.
[MMP = Masters Music Publications]

Date		No.	Title						Edition

1.	Sonatas										
[1901]		1	Sonata in D major, Op.17			MS, Grainger Museum
1909		2	Sonata No.1, Op.66				Elkin, 511 [also in Kalmus 09966, 
and MMP, W7121]
c1927		3	Sonata No.1, Op.66 (later version)		Elkin, 511
1935		4	Second Sonata				Universal Music Agencies, 13
1956		5	Sonata No.3					Elkin, 2406

2.	Suites
1910		6	Suite.... (in the Old Style), Op.71/1		Elkin, 544
  [= Suite No.1]	
  	/1	Prelude
  	/2	Sarabande
   	/3	Minuet
1910		7	Deuxième suite, Op.75			Schott, 1443 / 29050
/1	Prelude
/2	Air varié
/3	Solemn Dance
/4	Caprice
/5	Introduction and Fugue

1913		8	Pastoral Suite 				Elkin, 161
/1	Courante
/2	Pastorale
/3	Rigaudon
/4	Rondo
/5	Passacaglia
1916		9	A Little Russian Suite			Elkin, 1010
/1	Russian Air
/2	Siberian Waltz
/3	Dance
1918		10	Vieux chine [Old China], suite 		Schott, 1435 / 3655-58
/1	Gavotte du bon vieux temps [Old World Gavotte]
/2	Menuet du bon vieux temps [Old World Minuet]
/3	Angelus
/4	Decor de saules [Willow Pattern (A Little Study in Fourths)]
1922		11	Indian Suite 					Schott, 1438
/1	The Snake Charmer
/2	Juggernaut
/3	Indian Serenade
/4	Dancing Girls

3.	Other composite sets
1903		12	Six Pieces, Op.4				Forsyth [also MMP, M1603]
/1	Waltz
/2	Adagio serioso
/3	Etude
/4	Folk-song
/5	Scherzino
/6	Andante maestoso
1903		13	Three Frivolous Pieces, Op.2			Forsyth
/1	Allegretto grazioso
/2	Andante pastorale
/3	Valse scherzando
1903		14	Three Dances, Op.20				Boosey, 1891 [also MMP, W1001]
/1	Gavotte
/2	Eastern Dance
/3	English Dance

1904		15	Two Piano Pieces, Op.37			Boosey
/1	At Dawn
/2	Shadows
1904		16	Two Pierrot Pieces, Op.35  			Boosey, H.4298/H.4299
/1	Pierrot triste
/2	Pierrot gai    (rev.ed., 1929)			
1906		17	Three Little Waltzes, Op.58			Elkin, 1178
/1	Allegro poco scherzando
/2	Andante languido
/3	Allegretto gracioso
1907		18	Summerland: Four Little Pieces, Op.54	Elkin, 393 [also in Kalmus 09966, 
and MMP 7119]
/1	Playtime										/2	A Song from the East	(= 33/3)		[#2 in Galaxy MC 2262]
/3	Evening Idyll
/4	Fairy Folk
1907		19	Two Sketches, Op.57/4-5			Elkin, 411
/1	Cuckoo-call
/2	Twilight Bells
1908		20	Two Alpine Sketches, Op.58/4		Elkin, 443
/1	Rather Slowly
/2	Allegretto non troppo
1910		21	Trois Danses Tristes, Op.74			Schott, 1801-03	
/1	Danse élégiaque				[28989]
/2	Danse orientale				[28990]
/3	Danse langoureuse				[28991]
1911		22	Over the Prairie:  Two Impressions		Elkin, 631 [#2 also in 753]
/1	Andante
/2	Allegretto
1912		23	British Melodies 				Elkin, 692
/1	All Through the Night
/2	The Wild Hills of Clare
/3	Summer is acumen in [sic]

1912		24	Impressions from the Jungle Book 		 Schott, 1437 [also MMP, M2963]
/1	The Jungle
/2	Dawn
/3	Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the Snake
/4	Morning Song in the Jungle
/5	Dance of the Elephants
1912		25	Poems 					Schott, 1440 / 29695-99 
[also MMP, M1762]
/1	Poppies					
/2	The Garden of Soul-sympathy
/3	Bells
/4	The Twilight of the Year
/5	Paradise-birds
1913		26	Egypt: An Album of Five Impressions		Schott, 1436 / 29889
/1	In the Temple of Memphis
/2	By the Waters of the Nile
/3	Egyptian Boat Song
/4	Funeral March of the Great Raamses [sic]
/5	Song of the Spirits of the Nile
1915		27	Miniatures 					Schott, 1439 / 3288
/1	To an Old Miniature
/2	A Ballad Told at Candle-light
/3	A Little Dancer from Spain
1918		28	Vistas 						Elkin, 982  [also MMP 1604]
/1	A Lonely Dell
/2	In the Forest
/3	The Jocund Dance
1919-20 	29	Three Pastorals				Elkin, 
/1	Allegretto
/2	Quickly
/3	Pensoso
1920		30	A Pageant: Three Dances			Schott, 1442 / 3765-67
/1	Sentimental Waltz
/2	Exotic Dance
/3	Processional Dance

1922		31	Moods 					Elkin, 1244
/1	Sadness
/2	Lassitude
/3	Energy
1924		33	Karma: A Ballet in Five Pictures		Elkin, 1441
/1	Prologue and Barbaric Dance		
/2	The Piper in the Desert
/3	A Song from the East (= 18/2)
/4	Before the Church
/5	Souvenir de Vienne			[#5 also in Galaxy MC 2262]
1925		32	Three Old Country Dances			Schott, 1441 / 31354
/1	Allegretto
/2	Andante cantabile
/3	Allegro

4.	Individual character pieces
1904		34	Chinese Serenade, Op.39/2		Forsyth
1904		35	Dagobah, Op.39/1			Forsyth
1904		36	Solitude, Op.40/1			Elkin, 264 [also in 753]
1904		37	Vesperale, Op.40/2			Elkin, 265
1904		38	Chimes, Op.40/3			Elkin, 266 [also in Kalmus 09966, and
MMP, W7120]
1905		39	Columbine, Op.47/2			Elkin, 321
1905		40	Lotus Land, Op.47/1			Elkin, 322 [also in Galaxy MC 2262, and
MMP, M2603]
1906		41	Asphodel, Op.50/2			Elkin, 340 [also in 1011, and MMP, M1915]
1908		42	Danse nègre, Op.58/5		Elkin, 446 [also in Galaxy MC 2262, and
MMP, M1915]
1908		43	Notturno, Op.54/5			Elkin, 471
1908		44	Sphinx, Op.63				Elkin, 479
1909		45	Mazurka, Op.67/1			Elkin, 518 [also in 753]

1909		46	Serenata, Op.67/2			Elkin,        [also in 753]
1910		47	Intermezzo, Op.67/3			Elkin, 540 [also in 1011, and MMP, M1915]
1910		48	Water-wagtail (Bergeronnette), 	Elkin, 570
Op.71/3    - rev.ed., 1915		MMP, M1915
1910		49	Soirée japonaise, Op.67/4		Elkin, 577
1911		50	Chansonette, Op.74/8			Elkin, 601
1911		51	Valse caprice, Op.74/7		Elkin, 602		
1911		52	Berceuse				Elkin, 617 [also in 753]
1912		53	Pierrette				Elkin, 643 [also in 753]
1912		54	Autumn Idyll				Elkin, 653
1912		55	Barcarolle				Elkin, 681
1913		56	Carillon				Schott, 1797 / 29837
1913		57	Pictorial Sketch			Art Publication Society, 714 (504)
1913		58	Prélude solennel			Elkin, 719
1914		59	Britain’s War March			Schott, 1914
1914		60	Cavatina				Elkin, 789 [also in 1011]
1914		61	Sea-marge: Meditation		Elkin, 814	
1914		62	Diatonic Study			Elkin, 828
1915		63	Butterfly Waltz (Valse des papillons)	Schott, 3289
1915		64	Cherry Ripe				Schott, 1798 / S.3290
1915		65	Ode héroïque				Elkin, 835 [also in 1011]
1915		66	Danse romantique			Elkin, 838
1915		67	Russian Dance			Elkin, 849 [also in 1011]
1916		68	Dorothy Waltz				West
1916		69	Irish Reel				Elkin, 865
1916		70	Rainbow Trout			Schott, 1799 / 31026 [also MMP, M2228]
1917		71	Requiescat				Elkin, 919

1918		72	Twilight-tide				Elkin, 953
1918		73	Consolation				Elkin, 975
1919		74	First Bagatelle			Elkin, 990
1919		75	Caprice chinois			Elkin, 996
1920		76	Ballad (Variations on a Troubadour Air)  Elkin, 1165
1922		77	Inclination à la danse			Elkin, 1241
1923		78	Arabesque				Schott, 31066
1925		79	Spanish Dance			Elkin, 1465
1928		80	Badinage				Elkin, 1667
1929		81	Guttersnipes’ Dance			Schott, 32272
1929		82	Valse sentimentale			Elkin, 1732
1932		83	Gavotte				Elkin, 1820
1934		84	Miss Remington: Scherzo		Schott, 2344
1935		85	Tarantula				Elkin, 1917
1961		86	Pastoral Ode				Elkin, 2589
1963		87	Victorian Waltz			Elkin, 2656

5.	Concert works
1903		88	An English Waltz, Op.15		A.J. Jaeger
- rev.ed., 1919		Elkin, 1071
1904		89	Scherzo, Op.25			Elkin, 222
1904		90	Impromptu (A Mountain Brook),   	Elkin, 269 [also in Kalmus 09966, 
Op.41      - rev.ed., 1904			and MMP, W7120]
1908		91	Etudes Nos.1 & 2, Op.64		Elkin, 485/486 [also in Galaxy MC 2262]
[1909		92	Handelian Rhapsody, Op.17		Elkin, 537	- arr. Grainger]
1918		93	Rondeau de concert			Elkin, 933

6.	Didactic sets, technical studies
1917		94	Modern Finger Exercises		Elkin, 916
1920		95	Young Hearts [= For my Young 
Friends] 		Elkin, 1088 (2291)  [also MMP, M3017]
/1	See-saw
/2	Lament for a Broken Doll
/3	Musical Box
/4	Evening Prayer
/5	Quick March
/6	March of a Tin Soldier
/7	Sunday Morn
/8	Concertina
/9	Loneliness
/10	The Boy with the Pipes
1924		96	Technical Studies			Elkin, 1379
1926		97	Album for Boys 			Elkin, 1532
/1	The Cossack
/2	By the Fishing-stream
/3	Christmas Morning
/4	Lazing
/5	The Hunt
1926		98	Album for Girls 			Elkin, 1533
/1	Walking from School
/2	Dreaming
/3	On the Swing
/4	Harebells
/5	The Poor Organ-grinder
/6	Once Upon a Time
1930		99	Zoo: Animals 			Schott, 32619
/1	The Elephant
/2	The Squirrel
/3	The Bear
/4	The Monkey
/5	The Snake
/6	The Giraffe
/7	The Tortoise
/8	The Rhinoceros

1933		100	Toy Box: Ten Easy Pieces		Schott, 33849
/1	The Boot-black
/2	Teddy-bear’s Headache
/3	The Little Roundabout
/4	Jumbo
/5	The Little Highland player
/6	The Strutting Sergeant
/7	Grandma
/8	The Clockwork Mouse
/9	The Prancing Horse
/10	The Russian Dancer

7.	Other unpublished works
?		101	Andante (Study for a slow movement, No.1), B-flat +	Grainger Museum
?		102	Largo (Study for a slow movement, No.2), B-flat +		Grainger Museum
[c1898] 	103	Variations on an Original Theme
[1905]	 	104	Prelude, Op.37/1
[1970]	 	105	Dance Song (Scott’s last composition)

8.	Works for piano 4-hands
1926		106	Three Dances				Presser
1935		107	Nursery Rhymes			Elkin, 1892
/1	My Daddy and Mammy are Irish
/2	Polly Put the Kettle On
/3	Sing a Song of Sixpence
/4	Little Bo-Peep
/5	I Saw Three Ships
/6	Yankee Doodle

9.	Works for two pianos
1928		108	Pierrot triste (2 Pierrot pieces, #1)	Boosey, H.12543
1935		109	Danse nègre				Elkin

1938		110	Impressions from the Jungle Book,	Schott, 2647
#1 - The Jungle		
#5 - Dance of the Elephants
1947		111	Theme and Variations		Elkin, 2093
1948		112	Lotus Land				Elkin, 2128
1952		113	Russian Fair (A Dance Fantasy on
Two Russian Folk-tunes)	Elkin, 2253
[1950]		114	Pastoral Suite: Passacaglia (#5)	

10.	Works for piano(s) and orchestra
c1900		115	Concerto in D, Op.10			unpublished 
1915/1922 	116  	Concerto No.1 in C major		Schott, 1858 / 30764
1931		117	Early One Morning			Hawkes & Son, 18602
rev.1962
[1958]		118	Concerto No.2			Schott (hire material)
1932		119	Concertino, for 2 pianos & orch.	unpublished  
[c1935?]	120	Passacaglia festevole, for 2 pianos
& orch.			unpublished 

11.	Scott arrangements of other works		
a) for piano solo
1931		121	‘Mein gläubiges Herze’, from Also
     hat die Welt geliebt [J.S. Bach]	Elkin
1932		122	Three pieces by J.S. Bach		Winthrop Rogers
 /1	Invention in F+, BWV 779
 /2	Sarabande in A - (English suite No.2, BWV 807)
 /3	Gigue in G+ (French suite No.5, BWV 816)
b) for two pianos
1936		123	Jig Fugue in G major, BWV 577	Elkin
(orig. for organ) [J.S. Bach]
1936		124	Andante in F+, from Sonata in D -,
BWV 964 [J.S. Bach]		Elkin		

Discography of the piano works

Numbered references are to the works table above.

CDs, LPs
Amato, Donna, 1992			Danacord, DACOC 389, ‘Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum (1991)’       
- #40
Cooper, Peter, c1970 			Marble Arch, MALS 1328, ‘Piano Music from Vienna’   - #33/5
Crossan, Jack Richard, 1996		Cambria, CD 1086, ‘Sounds and Perfumes’		- #40, 8/1, 91
De’Ath, Leslie, 2005.			Dutton Epoch, CDLX 7150, ‘Cyril Scott Complete Piano Music,
Volume 1: Suites and Miniatures’		- #51, 71, 49, 28, 64, 54, 43, 32, 20, 44, 37, 29, 14, 72, 30, 27, 17 / 7, 8, 11, 92      
[+ Scott playing 48, 13/3, 75, 29/3, 33/5, 40, 42, 70]
[originally issued in 2004, VVC CD 101-2, without Scott historical tracks, but with #6 added]
De’Ath, Leslie, 2005.			Dutton Epoch, ‘Cyril Scott Complete Piano Music, Volume 2:  The Sonatas’
- #1, 2, 4, 5

Deering, Richard, 1977.		Saga, 5445, ‘English Piano Music’			- #48
Erickson, Clipper, 2004.		DTR, DTR2013, ‘The Mystic and the Muse’    	- #4, 56, 70 & 99  
Gray, Frances, 1997.			[na], WRC8-7148, ‘Poems for Piano’		- #25
Gray, Frances, 2002.			[na], WRC8-7667, ‘The Evocative Piano’    		- #40, 33/2, 28/2, & 70
Hennig, Dennis, 1992.		Etcetera, KTC 1132, ‘In the Garden of Soul Sympathy’- #40, 39, 16, 53, 25, 21, 2
[reissued 2000, ABC Eloquence, 465 737-2, with #22 added]
Howell, Christopher, 1994.		Tremula, TREM 104-2, ‘Moods & Impressions’	- #12, 16, 61, 24, 70, 63, 9, 74, 31, 77, 82
Jones, Martin,	1992			Nimbus, 5326, ‘Virtuoso Piano Showpieces’	- #64
Lane, Piers, 2002.			Hyperion, CDA 67279, ‘Rambles and Reflections’	- #92

Levant, Oscar, 1958 			Columbia ML 5324 / Sony SMK 58932		- #40
Lin, Jenny, 2000.			Bis, BIS-CD-1110, ‘Chinoiserie’			- #40
Ogawa, Noriko, 1999.		Bis, BIS-CD-1045, ‘Japonisme’			- #49
Ogdon, John, 1972.			EMI, CFP 4514, ‘Piano Favourites with John Ogdon’ (LP)- #40 & 42
[also HQS 1287; TC2-MOM113; TC-CFP 4514]
[reissued 2003, Testament, SBT 1288]	
Ogdon, John, 1975.			Lyrita, SRCS 81					- #116
[reissued [nd], HNH Records, HNH 4025]
Ogdon, John, 1977.			Lyrita, SRCS 82					- #117 & 118
[reissued [nd], HNH Records, HNH 4051]
Parkin, Eric, 1982.			Chandos, DBRD 2006, ‘John Ireland: His Friends 
and Pupils’ 					- #5
Shelley, Howard, 2004.		Chandos, CHAN 10211				- #118
Spagnolo, Paolo, 1974.		Cetra, PE157						- #42
Strong, David				British Music Society ENV 002			- #42
Terroni, Raphael, 1981.		British Music Society, BMS 401			- #5 & 19/1
          [issued as a cassette supplement to the BMS Journal, 
vol.3,	reprint of the score]
Trenkner, Evelinde, 1976.		Orion, ORS 76236 (LP)  				- #5
Verbit, Marthanne, 1974.		Genesis, GS 1049 (LP)   				- #2, 40, 42, 25
[reissued 1992, Albany, TROY 070, ‘Past Futurists’, with #2, 40 & 42 only]
Verbit, Marthanne, 1992		Albany, TROY 071, ‘Valentines’			- #25

Rolls, tapes, 78s (for a complete list, see Laurie Sampsel, Cyril Scott: A Bio-bibliography)
Bertram, Georg	Telefunken A438 [also Ultraphon AP766]			- #42	
Bourne, Una		HMV, B1647							- #90, 17/1, 48
Bourne, Una		HMV, B1844							- #18/2, 18/4
Cuckston, Alan	Swinsty FEW 1111						- #64	
Davidovich, Bella	USSR 030125						- #25/3
Fryer, Herbert		Triphonola 50795/6						- #17/3, 20, 42
Gonvierre, Claude	Sonabel 12003						- #16/1
Grainger, Percy	Decca 24160							- #16/1	April 4, 1945
DuoArt 7252							- #16/1	1929
DuoArt 7217	[reissued Klavier KS121]			- #40		1929
Decca 24160							- #42		Sept.24, 1945
Gruen, Rudolf	Roycroft 170							- #42
Hambourg, Marc	HMV B2635	[= HMV E6]					- #75
HMV B4180							- #121
HMV C1790							- #88
Joyce, Eileen		Parlophone E11333 / EMI EX291271-3			- #42, 40	  Apr.14, 1937
[reissued 1999, Testament, 1174]
Niemann, Walter	Triphonola 59094						- #41
Rohden, Anton	Triphonola 59383						- #92 
Scharrer, Irene	HMV D84							- #42

Scott, Cyril		Columbia 5435 [= Hupfeld 50835]				- #13/3, 48	Feb.28, 1929
Columbia DB 41						- #29/3 	Feb.28, 1929
DuoArt 01							- #28/2
DuoArt 05							- #65
DuoArt 06							- #29/2
DuoArt 07 [also Columbia DB41]				- #75		Feb.2, 1930
DuoArt 08							- #74
DuoArt 0246							- #63	
HMV B2894							- #40, 33/5	Oct.4, 1928
HMV B2895  [= DuoArt 64060, and	Hupfeld 50836]	- #42, 70	Oct.4, 1928
HMV B3315							- #16		Mar.1 & 27, 1929
Hupfeld 50837						- #21/2
Hupfeld 50838						- #47
Hupfeld 50839 [also Ampico 66321H]			- #40		1926
Hupfeld 50840						- #45	
Hupfeld 50842						- #7/4
Hupfeld 50843						- #7/1
Hupfeld 50844						- #44	
Welte-Mignon 1696						- #40	c1927
Welte-Mignon 1697 [= Hupfeld 50841 + 50836]		- #18/2, 42
Welte-Mignon 1698						- #90

A few of Scott’s rolls have been issued on LPs and CDs, as follows:
Allegro AL 39 [c1950], ‘Famous Composers Play Their Own Compositions’	[= Welte-Mignon 1696]
Royale 1402 [c1950], ‘An Hour of the Master Pianists’ 				[= Welte-Mignon 1696]
Recorded Treasures GCP 771 							[= Welte-Mignon 1696, 1697 & 1698]
Bellaphon Records BR 690-07-021 [c1995], ‘Rarities, volume 2'  			[= Welte-Mignon 1696, 1697 & 1698]
Dutton Epoch, CDLX 7150 [2005] 				[= Columbia 5435, Columbia DB 41, HMV B 2894, & HMV B 2895]
 	
Duo recordings
Grainger, Percy / Scott, Cyril.		DuoArt 6514		- Symphonic Dance, Op.22/1, arr. Grainger 	1922
[reissued Klavier KS102, KCD-11081, KCD-11086, and KCD-11095]
Lavender, John / Thwaites, Penelope. 	Pearl, SHE 9631	- Three Symphonic Dances, Op.22, arr. Grainger

Nettle, David / Markham, Richard.		Carlton Classics, 30366 01052, ‘Nettle and Markham in England’
     		[also 1996, Innovative Music Productions, 6700172]  
- #112
Smith, Cyril / Sellick, Phyllis.		CLP 3641 (CSD 3641)			- #48, arr. 2pf/3hands
Whittemore, Arthur / Lowe, James.		Capitol SP8550				- #112