Song of Pain and Beauty, Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott

Pamela Blevins' dual biography Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott, Song of Pain and Beauty will be published by the Boydell Press in November. Based on original research and newly discovered material, Song of Pain and Beauty is the first biography of Gurney since 1978 and the only biography of Scott. It tells the dramatic story of two geniuses who met at the Royal College of Music in 1911 and formed an unlikely partnership that illuminated and enriched the literary and musical worlds in which they moved. Gurney's poetry and songs have taken their place as "part of the inheritance of England". Marion Scott, Gurney's strongest advocate, emerges from his shadow for the first time. Her own remarkable achievements as a pioneering music critic, musicologist, advocate of contemporary music and women musicians place her among the most influential and respected women of her generation.

Song of Pain and Beauty explores Gurney's relationships with his parents and siblings, with Herbert Howells, Arthur Benjman, F. W. Harvey, the Hunt sisters, Sir Charles Stanford, Alfred Cheesman, Annie NelsonDrummond, Marion Scott and others against a backdrop of their times. It provides details into Marion Scott's remarkable background -- her American and Russian heritage -- and career along with insights into her unconditional devotion to Gurney, her gift for friendship, her vision, courage, strength of character and inner spiritual depth. Song of Pain and Beauty explores Gurney's attempts to create music and poetry while struggling to overcome the bipolar illness that eventually derailed his genius, and it restores Marion Scott's rightful place in music history. The title is taken from a poem that Gurney wrote and dedicated to Scott during World War I. Song of Pain and Beauty is now available via pre-order from the publisher

http://www.boydell.co.uk/43834219.HTM

and from Amazon US

http://www.amazon.com/Ivor-Gurney-Marion-Scott-Beauty/dp/1843834219/ref=sr
_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213217554&sr=1-1

or from Amazon UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ivor-Gurney-Marion-Scott-Beauty/dp/1843834219/ref=
sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216308985&sr=8-1