Geoffrey Toye - Compositions and Recordings

Compositions and Recordings

In addition to his ballets, Toye's compositions included several books of songs (including some sea chanties), a symphony, a masque, Day and Night, a radio opera: The Red Pen' (1925, with A. P. Herbert), an opera: The Fairy Cup, and two short choral items: Henrichye's Death, with orchestra, and The Keeper, with brass accompaniment.

Toye made very few gramophone records. For HMV in 1928, he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in recordings of Delius's Brigg Fair, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, and In a Summer Garden. The composer wrote, "All three... are excellent and I shall be glad to have them sold as authorised by me." Toye also recorded The Walk to the Paradise Garden in 1929.

Toye's overture to Ruddigore has been recorded numerous times, conducted by Harry Norris, Isidore Godfrey, and Sir Malcolm Sargent (who each recorded the complete opera) and Sir Charles Mackerras, among others. Norris, Godfrey and Sargent all observe some or all of Toye's cuts and other minor alterations in the score. Toye's only recording conducting a Gilbert and Sullivan work is the 1938 film of The Mikado referred to above. Of Toye's original music, the waltz from The Haunted Ballroom has been recorded several times, including one in the 1990s by the Marco Polo record label. A complete recording of the ballet was made in 2001 by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.