Biography of
Elinor Remick Warren
Page 4

Beginning in 1932, Warren moved into the larger orchestral forms with The Harp Weaver, a work for women's chorus, orchestra, and baritone soloist, set to a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, which had won the Pulitzer Prize in 1922. The work's New York premiere in 1936 brought Warren critical praise, and dual interests in orchestral and vocal music dominated her output from then on. Warren was one of the few Americans to compose extensively in the choral-orchestral medium. Her catalogue contains more than 90 works for chorus, including a significant number with orchestra.

The Legend of King Arthur was only the second of Warren's major compositions scored for orchestra. The idea for this work came to the composer while still at Westlake School, when her English teacher read Alfred Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King to Elinor's class. Later she recalled, "I was so thrilled with that part of it called 'The Passing of Arthur.' It just took hold of me, and, though it was beyond me then, I knew that one day I would set it to music."

Warren embarked upon the choral symphony in the mid-1930s, later remembering the inspiration she experienced throughout its writing; how she could hardly wait each morning to begin work; the excitement she felt about every aspect of its creation.

Originally the composer titled her composition The Passing of King Arthur closely following the Tennyson title. However, after several major performances and before publication of a newly revised edition in 1974, she changed the work's title, substitution Legend for Passing. She gave as her reason the fact that the work as she had envisaged it combines a very descriptive and atmospheric first half with a more spiritual second half, the entire work not being solely occupied with the king's "passing."

King Arthur had its world premiere in 1940, conducted by the celebrated Albert Coates, who had come from England for a series of appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Warren recalled the care with which Coates prepared her composition, even bringing various sections of the orchestra to her house for rehearsals in he presence. The premiere performance was broadcast to a nationwide radio audience and established Warren's reputation as an important composer. A year later, Sir John Barbirolli conducted the work's Intermezzo in a concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

Warren's neo-Romantic leanings as a composer express themselves in her love of natural beauty - particularly scenes from the American West, which are her inspiration for a number of compositions, most notably her orchestral works The Crystal Lake, Along the Western Shore, Suite for Orchestra, and her song cycle with orchestra, Singing Earth.

Mysticism is another prominent theme in many of Warren's major choral works such as King Arthur, The Harp Weaver, Abram in Egypt, and Requiem, which was commissioned by choral conductor Roger Wagner. A champion of Warren's choral music, Wagner premiered most of the composer's major choral-orchestral compositions and presented two performances of The Legend of King Arthur with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

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