Rethinking Peggy Glanville-Hicks

Abstract

Peggy Glanville-Hicks left a legacy of over sixty works as well as a legacy of reflections on her musical style. She postulated that her later works were based on a musical structure comprising melody and rhythm, with harmony accorded only a minor and occasional role. This article demonstrates that, contrary to GlanvilleHicks’ assertions, elements from her earlier stylistic periods carry through to the late works, most notably through the use of modal harmony and neoclassical structural devices. It is argued that the late works can only be fully understood as part of a stylistic continuum, and that what in fact occurred in her later works of the years 1951–66 was ongoing modification and refinement of her postulated melodic-rhythm concept.