| Dame Clara Butt |
The most renowned English contralto was Dame Clara Butt (1872-1936), who had a close association with the composer Sir Edward Elgar. As mentioned in a post on the main blog, she asked Elgar to transpose and orchestrate his Sea Pictures song cycle for her use, and she gave the premiere performance.
But the Elgar work most associated with her was the patriotic song "Land of Hope and Glory," which uses as its chorus the trio section of Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" March No. 1.
Dame Clara was so closely linked with the song that an early biographer claimed that she suggested it to the composer. That does not seem to be true, although she was the first to perform the work. There's also another story that it was King Edward VII who told Elgar that the "Pomp and Circumstance" theme would make a great song. Whether the King did or didn't do so, the composer went on to employ the melody in his Coronation Ode in the King's honor, using words by A.C. Benson. When the coronation itself was postponed, Dame Clara began to use the setting as a separate song.
Butt's singing is like nothing you would hear today. For one thing, her voice is enormous - and enormously powerful, with a pronounced vibrato that is under perfect control. Her voluminous tones make the orchestra sound anemic. For another, her elastic sense of time would amaze today's listeners. At "Make thee mightier again" she just about brings proceedings to a complete halt. It's more like "Make thee. Mightier. Again."
The sound from the HMV pressing is very good for the period. The orchestra wheezes, as they tended to do in acoustic recordings, but Dame Clara is clear as a nice summer's day.