Dame Clara Butt (1872 - 1936)

Note by Alan Bilgora











To become a ‘National Institution’ in one’s lifetime is reserved for only a few human beings and Clara Butt could certainly be considered such a remarkable person not only as a singer but also as an outstanding woman of her time. Contralto voices such as hers are, with few exceptions, not developed to-day. Those women who do possess a rich lower register tend to shy away from the rather unsympathetic characters usually depicted by the contralto of former times, where elderly widows, grieving mothers, ageing nurses or domestic retainers vied with witches, soothsayers or women of evil intent. The more lively, or even romantic, roles offered to the ‘Mezzo-soprano lungo’, who with their greater upper extension sometimes poach on the soprano repertory are now very much in vogue. Those impressive bell-like chest notes emitted by Dame Clara Butt, and a host of other contraltos of her generation, are rarely heard either in the opera house or on the concert platform today.

Clara Butt was the second child of Clara Hook and Henry Butt, the captain of a small ship. Returning from Jersey, where they had eloped, Clara’s mother was about to give birth, so an emergency landing was made at the fishing village of Southwick near Brighton where young Clara was born on 1st February 1872, not 1873 as previously accepted. A hoped for family rapprochement was not forthcoming, the Butts returned to Jersey for a while but finally settled in Bristol, where Clara found her first music teacher, a Miss Brooks.

Music was always present in the family: both parents had pleasant voices and her three sisters also developed fine voices. They eventually sang professionally, under their mother’s maiden name, as Pauline, Ethel and Hazel Hook. Initially, because of her range, it was thought that Clara possessed a soprano voice. However, one day her headmistress visited her home and heard her practising, the full rich tone making her think it was a boy singing. It was decided that she should audition for Daniel Rootham, a noted West Country singing teacher, who after hearing her said, ‘You have gold in your throat my child’. Clara sang in various local choirs and was entered for an open scholarship at the Royal College of Music in London. The panel of judges were so impressed not only by her voice but also by her physical presence, (Clara was six foot two inches in height), that she was offered a place commencing in 1890. She was only sixteen at the time of the audition, and the minimum age in order to study at the Royal College was seventeen.

At the College her voice teacher was Henry Blower and as a second subject she studied piano with Marmaduke Barton. Clara lived with other students at Alexandra House, which had been established by the Princess of Wales, who also took a keen interest in Clara’s progress. Some fund raising concerts in Bristol were permitted, but the College was not happy when, without their permission, Clara was accepted by Sir Joseph Barnby to sing the contralto solos in the Golden Legend, Israel in Egypt and Elijah with the Royal Choral Society. Her Royal Albert Hall debut was in the Golden Legend on 7th December 1892. She had an enormous success, which was duplicated at a College performance of Orpheus on 10th December, and the critics were unanimous in their praise for the young artist. Sir Augustus Harris, of Covent Garden, wanted her to sign a three year operatic contract. However, Henry Blower was experienced enough to nurture his pupils, ensuring they did not undertake work for which they were not yet ready. Nevertheless her singing in Orpheus created such a furore that a special command performance for the Prince of Wales was arranged at the Lyceum which was attended by the greatest theatrical and musical celebrities of the day.

Recuperating from an operation, Clara then received a command from Queen Victoria, conveyed to her by Sir Arthur Sullivan, to appear at a State concert in Buckingham Palace. This was to set the seal on a series of command performances at which she would sometimes be accompanied by Sir Paolo Tosti, the famous Italian composer and Victoria’s vocal coach. For her fourth year of study Clara was sent to Paris for three months tuition with Henry Louis Charles Duvernoy. She was honoured by the Queen’s patronage, which paid for her overseas expenses. Whilst in France she was also awarded the Royal Society of Musicians’ Medal as the year’s most successful student. It was presented in her absence by the Prince of Wales. Her return to England was followed by her first solo recital at The Queen’s Hall, London and appearances in several Music Festivals with the Royal Choral Society first in Hanley (North Staffordshire) and in October 1893 in Bristol.

In 1894 Clara appeared in her first Handel Festival under August Manna and later in the year was again commanded to appear before Royalty, this time at Balmoral, together with the famous soprano Emma Albani (1847-1930). A further series of concert appearances was followed by a return to France in 1896 for a period of study with the baritone Jacques Bouhy (1848-1929). She also met Saint-Saëns who wanted her to sing Samson et Dalila in London. Unfortunately at that time the Lord Chamberlain’s Office decreed that a fully staged performance was not permissible, on account of the biblical subject, and would only consent to a concert version. Clara had also agreed that, following her studies with Bouhy, she would not sing professionally for a year. Thus, as far as Saint-Saëns was concerned, the world had lost a perfect Dalila.

Despite her growing reputation Clara then chose to take lessons from Etelka Gerster (1855 - 1920) a celebrated Hungarian soprano then teaching in Berlin, and a firm friendship developed between teacher and pupil. Clara was introduced to the German Royal Family where she became a favourite singer. She also enjoyed their patronage for a successful series of concerts in Vienna, Paris, Budapest and Prague, where her voice, artistry and appearance were admired by all the critics. In 1899 Clara sailed for America where she was acclaimed ‘the greatest contralto of the generation… without parallel’ and ‘the noblest voice before the public’. Following her Carnegie Hall Concert she was praised for her ‘irresistible temperament and wonderful art’. She was also invited to give an ‘Albert Morris Bagby recital’ at the Waldorf Hotel, a prestigious event restricted to only those artists having worldwide reputations.

During 1898 and 1899 Clara had met and sung with the English baritone Kennerley Rumford (1870-1957) and a romance developed. Their marriage in Bristol Cathedral on 26th June 1900 was a civic occasion, attended by leading figures from the world of music. Aspecial anthem composed by Sir Arthur Sullivan was sung by Madame Albani in their honour, and the news was covered by the national press.

With the death or retirement of eminent colleagues like the tenor Edward Lloyd, the baritone Sir Charles Santley and Sir Arthur Sullivan, and with the end of Queen Victoria’s reign many things changed at the turn of the century. However, Clara continued giving command performances for King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in company with the outstanding artists of the time.

Following the birth of her three children Clara made no overseas trips until 1907 when she accepted an invitation to sing in Australia. Discussing her programmes with the Australian diva Dame Nellie Melba she was famously told ‘sing ‘em muck it’s all they understand’. Needless to say Clara did not heed this advice. She travelled with her family and she and Kennerley Rumford sang a mixture of classical lieder, ballads, operatic and oratorio solos to their audiences’ delight and extra concerts had to be arranged. By now her reputation had grown to the point that a similar tour to South Africa had to be organised for 1911 and where they met with an identical reception. Then in 1912 there was a world-wide tour covering Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Australia and Tasmania, and, on the return route, ended with recitals in Honalulu and further recitals in New York.

Returning to England early in 1914 Clara raised many thousands of pounds for charities, even donating fees to help the bereaved and needy during the Great War. She took part in a huge ‘Empire Pageant for Fair Women’, written by Louis N. Parker in which she was featured as Britannia. She helped to produce a one week run of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and also a huge Red Cross concert at the Albert Hall with a choir of 250 voices. Practically every famous singer of the day appeared including Emma Albani and Edward Lloyd, both coming out of retirement at Clara’s request. And with her husband appearing in khaki, having obtained leave from the Front, it all helped to raise a very large sum of money - in all over £100,000 for the various causes. It was in recognition of her sterling charitable work at this time that the title ‘Dame of the British Empire’ was conferred upon her.

The Red Cross event was attended by the King and Queen and by Princess Mary who had written asking Clara to include Abide with me (dedicated to her by a former fellow student Samuel Liddle), The Lost Chord, Land of Hope and Glory and, as a special request, Costa’s setting of the National Anthem ‘with the low notes in it’. Such songs were as much a part of her concert programmes as were Elgar’s Sea Pictures which Clara had first introduced at the Norwich Festival in 1899 with great success and which never lost their hold on the public.

The following years were filled with concerts, British and Overseas touring, but they were also filled with sadness. Her eldest son Roy died of meningitis in 1923, and in 1931 she herself began to suffer considerably from back pain following an accident to her spine: her condition being serious enough to confine her to a wheelchair even when recording. Numerous overseas tours including the Far East were undertaken and whilst in Tokyo in 1931 she made some recordings which are now very hard to find in their original form. During a tour of the Antipodes in 1934 she became unwell and was rushed back to England. Whilst undergoing treatment in Hospital news reached England from Rhodesia that her second son Victor had lost his life in a farming accident, although Clara was not told for some time. In 1935 she went to Germany for further treatment, which was apparently of benefit, but on 23rd January 1936 Dame Clara Butt died from cancer of the spine. Clara Butt made one record for Emil Berliner in 1899 and her first recordings for the Gramophone Company were made between 1909-1915 at their Hayes and Berlin studios.

The sales of these records were such that her voice became known internationally, gaining for her a reputation long before she sang to any new audience. A dispute with the Gramophone Company over royalties caused a move to Columbia in 1915. She continued to record with them in their Christ Church, Crystal Palace, Hyde Park and Central Hall Westminster studios until 1933, making her last discs at home when confined to a wheel chair following bouts of sciatica. Her recorded legacy is enormous and she can be heard in a host of ballads, oratorio excerpts, some lieder and operatic excerpts. However it is to be regretted that she did not fully pursue a theatrical, rather than an oratorio, concert and recital career, as her voice had the weight and projection that would have made any of her operatic characterisations thrilling in the extreme.

Prima Voce has assembled some truly remarkable examples of Clara Butt’s art and even at first hearing the listener will be struck by the vocal presence and personality behind each recording. The deliberate but completely unforced exploitation of those extraordinary and smoothly blended cello-like bottom notes in her lower and middle registers was beautifully managed throughout her career, but they do evoke different reactions from some modern commentators on vocal-art.

The operatic excerpts are headed by the Brindisi from Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia which is sung with real verve. She exploits her full range and reveals a brilliant technique in executing coloratura passages and an ability to deliver a well delineated trill when required. In the well known aria from Handel’s Serse Ombra mai fu she displays her rock steady tone and, as in the aria Rend’il sereno al ciglio from Sosarme, she again displays the required gravitas as well as beautifully controlled trills. Perhaps the famous aria Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix from Samson et Dalila is taken faster than is sometimes sung, but she exhibits a sweeping cantilena and rich tone that make it seductive in the extreme. So also her version of O mio Fernando from Donizeti’s La Favorita and the testing O don fatale from Verdi’s Don Carlos. The two Gounod pieces, although different in their musical expression, one being an operatic aria and the other a religious song, show her mastery of legato and O rest in the Lord from Mendelssohn’s Elijah cannot have been sung with more dignity. Of course her version of Where corals lie from Elgar’s Sea Pictures, which she introduced to the public has set a standard. In her singing of Beethoven’s In questa tomba oscura she is sombre without being maudlin.

In the ballads a modern listener is perhaps likely to feel at one remove from the singer. But observe how subtly she balances sentiment and sentimentality. Certainly the inherent vocal quality communicates immediately, but on another level so does the delicacy of utterance and the overwhelming sincerity of every gesture. And in her version of the Fairy pipers, a song which demands difficult leaps from low to high register and a sustained trill, we gather that she also had an enormous sense of fun.

Dame Clara Butt was without doubt one of the greatest vocal glories of the first three decades of the 20th Century.


© 2003 Alan Bilgora

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