Jill Halstead, whose biography (‘Anti-Modernism, Nationalism & Difference in English Music’, Ashgate, 2006) has proven a great help to Gipps revivalists, recalls one incident in which —
With typical boldness she confronted Glock [William Glock, Head of Music at the B.B.C from 1959–1972] face to face, and in what was for her an unforgettable encounter asked him why he wanted so much power and why he felt he had the right to ostracize tonal music. It is not clear how Glock responded, but such audacity on Gipps’s part did little to help her cause.
She was scathing, too, about the importance ascribed to ‘originality’ in the musical world, declaring,
My music is a follow-on from Vaughan Williams, Bliss and Walton — the three giants of music since the Second World War. All were great and inspired composers [...] I say straight out that I regard all so-called 12-tone music, so-called serial music, so-called electronic music and so-called avant-garde music as utter rubbish and indeed a deliberate conning of the public.
But I think it supports the notion that she believed that the BBC under Glock did not overly support music such as hers (and others) - one swallow/symphony broadcast does not make a summer.... Part of the reason I did not include these quite contentious statements is that clearly NOT all 12 tone or serial music etc is rubbish and that by saying so I suspect Gipps undermines her own position - clearly this must have been the case at the time.
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