Title: Between two worlds
Description: This thesis concerns the composer Bernard James Naylor (1907-1986). It situates him as the first composer (1948) living in Canada to employ post-tonal writing in choral music, and also as one of the pioneers of a truly contemporary (post-tonal) English (Anglican) cathedral music in the twentieth century.  It provides a survey of early twentieth-century Canadian choral music. It documents how the reception of his post-tonal cathedral music changed over several decades, from rejection in the 1940s, to general acceptance by the 1960s. The initial rejection reflected the musical conservatism of the British cathedral music scene prior to the 1960s.  Naylor's family had, for four generations, been professionally active in English cathedral music. Naylor studied with the most influential English composers during the 1920s (Gustav Holst, John Ireland and Ralph Vaughan Williams). Throughout his career, Vaughan Williams remained a strong supporter. Naylor was personally well known amongst the English cathedral organist fraternity of his time.


As of 2010, this remains the most extensive Naylor biography (129 pages, it corrects a number of biographical errors that appeared elsewhere) and most comprehensive listing of Naylor's compositions. The biography documents Naylor's conducting career in Winnipeg and Montreal (1933-1949) and Naylor's role during the early 1940s in the reform of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's music broadcasting and organisation.
Subjects: Aldeburgh Festival, BBC Chorus, BBC Northern Singers, Biography, Brompton Oratory, CBC Vancouver Orchestra, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Music Centre, Composers, Dartington Summer School, English cathedral music, History and criticism, John Aldis Choir, King's College (Cambridge), Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Louis Halsey Singers, Montreal Little Symphony, Music, Musical Times, Naylor, Bernard,, Naylor, Bernard, 1907-, Novello (publisher), Oxford University, Oxford University music, Post tonal, Queen's College (Oxford), Reading University, Royal Albert Hall, Royal College of Music, Royal School of Church Music, St. Paul's Cathedral (London), Three Choirs Festival, University of Victoria, Victoria Symphony Orchestra, Westminster Cathedral (London UK). BBC Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Men's Musical Club, Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir, Winnipeg Philharmonic Orchestra, Yorkminster Cathedral, chamber music, contemporary Canadian music, folksong, opera, vocal music
Places: Aldeburgh, Cambridge, Canada, Harrogate, Montreal, Ottawa, Oxford, Reading, Victoria BC, Wigmore Hall, Winnipeg
People: Adrian Beaumont, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Alred Whitehead, Arthur Henry Mann, Arthur Wills, Barbara Pentland, Barry Rose, Basil Ramsey, Ben Johnson, Benjamin Britten, Bernard James Naylor, Bernard Rose, Boris Ord, British Broadcasting Corporation, Bruce Pullan, Cecil Day Lewis, Charles Groves, Charles Kennedy Scott, Christina Georgina Rossetti, Church of St. Peter ad Vincula (London), Claude Champagne, Colin McPhee, David Barry Waterlow, David Falk, David Gascoyne, David Willcocks, Derek Holman, Douglas Bodle, E. Power Biggs, Edmund Rubbra, Edmund Spenser, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edward Dent, Edward Woodall Naylor, Egon Wellesz, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elizabethan Singers, Ernest MacMillan, Frances Adaskin, Frances James, Francis Kinwelmersh, Francois Morel, Frank Lloyd Harrison, Frederick Carter, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Malcolm, George Thalben Ball, Gerald Knight, Gladstone Murray, Gustav Holst, Healey Willan, Henry Diack Johnstone, Henry George Ley, Henry Vaughan, Hubert Foss, Hugh Percy Allan, Imogen Holst, Jack Westrup, James Joyce, Janet Price, Jean Coulthard, Jean Papineau-Couture, Jeffrey Anderson, Johannes Zumpe, John Beckwith, John Collop, John Davies, John Gay, John Ireland, John Keats, John Naylor, John Weinzweig, Joseph Addison, Keith MacMillan, Ken Winters, Laurie Lee, Leonard Isaacs, Louis Halsey, Mary Gladys Webb, Melville Cook, Michael Tippett, Morley College, Murray Adaskin, Novello (publisher), Patricia Kathleen Page, Percy Scholes, Peter Aston, Peter Racine Fricker, Phillip Brett, Queen Elizabeth II, R. Murray Schafer, Ralph Knevet, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Richard Charles Palmer, Richard Crashaw, Robert Bridges, Robert Herrick, Robert Irwin, Rudolf Schwarz, Rudolphe Mathieu, Ruth Pitter, Saint Bonaventure, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Simon Halsey, Sir Thomas Armstrong, St. John's College (Cambridge UK), Stephen Plaistow, Thomas Beecham, Thomas Crerar, Victor Feldbrill, Violet Archer, William Congreve, William Glock, William Henry Davies  Rowland Watkyns, William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Time periods: 20th century