Voice In Britain Research Articles

Orchestral Works by George Butterworth (review)

COMPLETE ORCHESTRAL WORKS OF GEORGE BUTTERWORTH George Butterworth. Orchestral Works. Edited by Peter Ward Jones. London: Stainer and Bell, 2012. (Musica Britannica, 92.) [Pref. in Eng., Fr., Ger., p. xvii-xix; introd., p. xxi-xxxiv in Eng.; the sources, p. xxxv- xliii; editorial notes, p. xliv; acknowledgments, p. xlv; facsims., p. xlvi- xlix; score, p. 3-145; notes, p. 147; textual commentary, p. 148-49. Cloth. ISMN 979-0-2202-2325-9; ISBN 978-0-85249-924-5. £86.]Musica Britannica has in its ninety- second volume finally made it to the twenti- eth century. Admittedly, the two volumes surveying the song repertories of Hubert Parry (vol. 49, published 1982) and Charles Villiers Stanford (vol. 52, pub. 1986) con- tain a few numbers composed after 1900, but with the present volume there is a clear departure from the early explicit intent to publish British music from earlier than the twentieth century which has not been made available to the public by commercial pub- lishers (quoted in Julian Rushton, Voice of Britain, Musical Times 136, no. 1831 [September 1995]: 472). This edition would not pass that standard: the music is too recent, and-thanks to the efforts of the composer's father-almost all already published posthumously in generally faith- ful editions, albeit nearly a century old and now freely downloadable. In this light it is difficult to see the present volume as neces- sary for much more than canonization, and it is curious to note that it was a rather late entry to the Musica Britannica rolls, judg- ing from the preceding volumes' lists of volumes in preparation.The significance of George Butterworth (1885-1916) in British music history is se- cured principally on the high esteem in which Ralph Vaughan Williams held him (long intending, indeed, that his own es- tate would benefit the Butterworth Trust; in the end, he opted to establish the RVW Trust, but he would certainly have been de- lighted that it in turn has subsidized the production of this Butterworth volume). Augmenting this was his poignant fate to be cut down in battle-and so to become one of The lads that will die in their and never be old, to quote a memorable A. E. Housman line that Butterworth set in his Six Songs from Lad (1911). But was he in his glory at all? Did he ad- vance beyond just the first glimmers of early maturity? It is difficult to know, be- cause in an effort to set his house in order before going off to the trenches, he de- stroyed the manuscripts of many of his early works. whole of Butterworth's ex- tant orchestral oeuvre is represented by the four short works (plus a fragment) in- cluded in this volume. Why it was not made twice its size, to encompass the balance of his Nachlass (songs, a few choral pieces, and a single string quartet-and all dating from the last seven years of his short life) is diffi- cult to say, and there is no indication that a future Butterworth volume is planned. This is a missed opportunity. Butterworth materials reside principally at the Bodleian Library of Oxford University; Peter Ward Jones, who spent a long career as music li- brarian there, is as knowledgeable as any- one on these sources. (Such a comprehen- sive volume would not have been the first for Musica Britannica: volume 8 presented the complete surviving works of John Dunstable.)The most frequently performed among the four complete orchestral works is his single work for large orchestra, the title of which evidently gave the composer some trouble. At first (1911) it was Land of Lost Content (a Housman reference), and subsequently Cherry Tree (as it borrows substantial motivic material from Butter- worth's setting of Housman's Loveliest of Trees). When it was published by Novello in 1917 the title page read SHROP- SHIRE LAD / RHAPSODY / FOR FULL ORCHESTRA and it has been generally known as simply A Lad. Musica Britannica opts for the version ultimately preferred by the composer, the slightly but significantly different A Shropshire Lad Rhapsody, a title which diminishes the pro- grammatic character and puts it in the company of generic titles qualified by a fill- in-the-blank nickname (as with Vaughan Williams's roughly contemporaneous A Sea Symphony and A London Symphony, and the later A Pastoral Symphony, all with the indefi- nite article in the title). …

The Comparative Advantage of Non‐Union Voice in Britain, 1980–2004

Non‐union direct voice has replaced union representative voice as the primary avenue for employee voice in the British private sector. This study explains this development by providing a framework for examining the relationship between employee voice and workplace outcomes. Voice is associated with lower voluntary turnover, especially in the case of union voice. However, union voice is also associated with greater workplace conflict. We argue changes in voice in Britain are not best understood using a simple union/non‐union dichotomy. Union effects on workplace outcomes and the incidence of human resource management hinge on whether it coexists at the workplace with non‐union voice in what we term a “dual” system. In the first part of the 21st century, these dual voice systems were performing at least as well as non‐union only regimes, suggesting that the rise of non‐union regimes is attribu` to something other than clear comparative performance advantages over other forms of voice.

The long goodbye: new establishments and the fall of union voice in Britain

This paper argues that the secular decline in union voice in the UK cannot be fully explained without understanding the role of employers in choosing and modifying voice regimes. The paper presents a model of employee voice; the model assumes regimes are chosen by firms on the basis of positive net benefits, and that once adopted there are switching costs associated with changing regimes. The paper presents data from WERS, which is then analysed in terms of the model. We find a rise in voice regimes that do not include unions (i.e. the growth of so-called non-union voice) and a clear decline in voice regimes involving unions, particularly union-only voice. Ecological factors (i.e. new entrants and the demise of older workplaces) are primary in explaining the rise in non-union voice, whereas the shift to dual forms of voice (made up of union and non-union regimes side by side) was primarily the result of switches undertaken by union only workplaces as early as the 1950s.

AUNTIE GOES TO WAR AGAIN:

The period between the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the 1950s represents a forging experience for the External Services of the BBC, as they initially defined themselves in an unfamiliar peacetime context before rapidly coming to terms with a cold war in which they again became a principal mediator between Britain and estranged or strategically important communities overseas - either behind the Iron Curtain or in regions such as the Middle East. The Cabinet decision on publicity policy in January 1948 was a pivot around which the tenor of the voice of Britain was attuned to these prevailing geopolitical considerations. Its working out in the BBC was, however, part of a continuing understanding of the purpose of broadcasting overseas that once it was set in its cold war mode, as it was in this period, defined policy and output for years to come.

Managerial Responsiveness to Union and Nonunion Worker Voice in Britain

Over the last two decades, there has been a switch in British workplaces away from union voice and representative worker voice more generally toward direct employee involvement and nonunion representative forms of voice. This article assesses the implications of this switch for the effectiveness of worker voice, as measured by employee perceptions of managerial responsiveness. In general, perceptions of managerial responsiveness are better among employees with nonunion voice than they are among employees with union voice.

Sharq Al-Adna/The Voice of Britain

This study of Sharq al-Adna - The Near East Broadcasting Station - attempts to review the history of the British government-operated radio station in light of political and military developments in the Middle East involving the UK after the end of the League of Nations/United Nations Palestine Mandate. An examination of Sharq al-Adna is important because it helps document both British and more widely western concerns about the Middle East in the 1950s, especially after Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in July 1956 after the June British departure. The article discusses western, and more specifically British, propaganda during the Second World War, and analyzes this station’s history with the aid of government documents that were declassified in the mid-1990s and to which the writer had access.

Overt and covert: The voice of Britain and black radio broadcasting in the Suez crisis, 1956

Rawnsley, G. (1996). Overt and Covert: The Voice of Britain and black broadcasting in the Suez crisis. Intelligence and National Security, 11(3), 497-522.

Voice of Britain

Voice of Britain

"Now Only the Times Is On Our Side": The London Times and America Before the Civil War

"NOW ONLY THE ???? IS ON OUR SIDE": THE LONDON ???£ AND AMERICA BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR Richard D. Fulton Clark College This short paper will attempt to reconcile two seemingly diametrically opposed perceptions: first, that the Times was the United States' chief foreign critic before and during the Civil War (by United States, I mean the Federal Government); second, that to contemporaries like Benjamin Moran, secretary to American ambassador to the Court of St. James, George Dallas, the Times was on "our" (i.e. the Federal Government's) side. Two other issues also will be briefly addressed here: that because of its influence it made a difference what position the Times took, and that although the newspaper was often inconsistent on American issues, on this topic—the being on "our" side—it was the model of consistency. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Times had established itself as the most important newspaper in Great Britain, and perhaps the world. Its contemporary newspapers and periodicals regularly referred to it as "the leading journal." It was courted by anxious politicians; even in the United States, Abraham Lincoln acknowledged it as "one of the greatest powers in the world" (Brogan xiii). Nearly all of the historians of the newspaper emphasize that it both reflected and influenced public opinion. Most would agree with Hugh Brogan, who claims that "to look at history through the Times can ... be to see what political England believed, or what the British government thought that they believed" (Brogan x). J.T. Delane, the great mid-century editor, believed himself to be the voice of Britain. In many ways he was. He had almost unlimited access to Prime Minister Palmerston and a direct line into his cabinet.1 He had correspondents throughout England and all over the globe, and his correspondents were among the leading thinkers of the day. His 60,000 readers included among them virtually the entire English ruling elite. As Colin Bell put it, 'It was the newspaper in which [the ruling class] Victorian Review 16.1 (Summer 1990). Richard D. Fulton49 addressed themselves to their peers on any subject which seemed to them important. They drew their information about the world from the Times" (Bell x). Besides feeding the ruling elite its information, and thus, in a way, leading its opinion, Delane also reflected that class's attitudes.2 He was somewhat conservative, prejudiced toward all things English and against those things foreign, smug, and often outspokenly ignorant. He tended to oversimplify issues, seeing complex problems in simple moral terms of black or white. He was convinced of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race, in particular the English branch of it. He was sentimental in his love of liberty, the church, English political customs, and the toughness of the common Englishman. He was hardheaded in his approach to business and the necessity for a ruling class. In other words, he and his newspaper epitomized what Walter Houghton called The Victorian Frame of Mind. From the outset of the Civil War in America, the Times adopted a violently anti-federal stance, the reasons for which have been discussed in any number of works on the war and the newspaper (Stephen, Brogan, Crawford, Crook 'Portents," Times Reports). The fact is, the Times was none too friendly even before the shelling of Fort Sumter. It threatened war several times in 1859 and 1860 over the San Juan Islands; it regularly savaged American politics when it suited the paper's purpose, that is, when the paper needed a convenient target to reinforce attacks on Reformers or supporters of the Six Pound Franchise, or Mr. Bright; it attacked American hypocrisy because of lukewarm Yankee support of the suppression of the slave trade. Yet Benjamin Moran could still say, in July of 1858, that the Times was virtually the only newspaper of influence in England on "our" side (Moran 376). What was "our" side? For Moran, it was the Buchanan administration's position on slavery: that slavery was a states' rights issue, and the Federal government had no legal right or responsibility to declare the practice either lawful or not. Each state, and each territory seeking statehood, had the responsibility...

A Forgotten Prophet: Henry McCulloh and Reform of the British Empire

History has not been kind to the memory of Henry McCulloh. After a century and a half of almost total obscurity, he emerged for a time in historical accounts as an important colonial expert, an advisor to ministries, and an eminence grise on such important colonial matters as the Stamp Act and Sugar Act.1 More recently, he has been exposed as a self-serving land speculator and placeseeker whose influence on government was far less significant than once was argued.2 Throughout most accounts has run a thread of misinformation, which, as one scholar has pointed out, resulted from his being confused with another man of similar name.-1 Unfortunately, in all the claims and countercharges, a large part of Henry McCulloh's rightful place in the history of the first British Empire has become obscured. For while McCulloh may have been a land-grabber and placeseeker (and who involved in imperial affairs in the eighteenth century was neither?), while he may not have been singlehandedly responsible for either the idea or the execution of the Stamp and Sugar Acts, in the decade of the 1750s his was an articulate voice in Britain on the subject of the American colonies and the themes of imperial regulation and colonial reform. In memorials to ministers and through the publication of a series of lengthy pamphlets on American affairs, McCulloh put forward a far-reaching and coherent series of proposals for reform. While attributing influence to such ideas may well be fraught with danger, McCulloh and his writings nevertheless provide an important illustration of how the American Empire could be viewed by knowledgeable men in the 1750s, as well as indicate the sorts of motivations which prompted such scrutiny and perhaps even some of the ultimate reasons for the failure to pay proper attention to the advice proffered.

The voice of Britain in the commonwealth

The voice of Britain in the commonwealth

The Bettesworth Book. Talks with a Surrey Peasant

In 1901, George Sturt (using the pen-name George Bourne) published this biography of his gardener, Frederick Bettesworth. This unusual ethnographic account, written in a modified dialect, uniquely captures rural life in late nineteenth-century England. The book bridges the class divide between 'master and man' as Sturt, through many interviews, gets to know his down-to-earth day labourer, and comes to understand peasant life and poverty as seen through the eyes of Bettesworth. In the introduction, Sturt precisely lays out his interviewing methodology, which allows the reader to understand both men as the conversations, and the book, progress. Through 35 chapters, he opens a window on the social relationships between the classes amid descriptions of the work, childhood, education, and family life of the region's agricultural workers. Sturt is humbled and enriched by his friendship with Bettesworth, calling him the 'voice of Britain', a man 'rugged, unresting, irresistible'.