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Download Booklet 555869bk Walton US 2/03/2004 04:05pm Page 8 Made a feast to a thousand of his lords 7 Then sing aloud to God our strength: DDD And drank wine before the thousand. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. WALTON Take a psalm, bring hither the timbrel, 8.555869 Belshazzar whiles he tasted the wine Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, Commanded us to bring the gold and silver vessels Blow up the trumpet in Zion That his Princes, his wives and his concubines For Babylon the Great is fallen, fallen. Belshazzar’s Feast Might rejoice and drink therein. Alleluia! After they had praise their strange gods, Then sing aloud to God our strength: Christopher Purves, Baritone • Simon Lindley, Organ The idols and the devils, Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob, False gods who can neither see nor hear, While the Kings of the Earth lament Huddersfield Choral Society • Leeds Philharmonic Chorus • Laudibus Called they for the timbrel and the pleasant harp And the merchants of the Earth Weep, wail and rend their raiment. To extol the glory of the King. They cry, Alas, Alas, that great city, English Northern Philharmonia • Paul Daniel Then they pledged the King before the people, In one hour is her judgement come. Crying, Thou, O King, art King of Kings: O King, live for ever. 8 The trumpeters and pipers are silent, And the harpers have ceased to harp, 6 And in that same hour, as they feasted, And the light of a candle shall shine no more. Came forth fingers of a man’s hand And the King saw 9 Then sing aloud to God our strength: The part of the hand that wrote. Make a joyful noise to the God of Jacob, And this was the writing that was written: For Babylon the Great is fallen. Alleluia! “MENE, MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN” “Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.” Words selected from biblical sources by In that night was Belshazzar the King slain Osbert Sitwell and reprinted by permission And his Kingdom divided. of Oxford University Press. 8.555869 8 555869bk Walton US 2/03/2004 04:05pm Page 2 William Walton (1902-1983) Belshazzar’s Feast Belshazzar’s Feast • Crown Imperial • Orb and Sceptre 1 Thus spake Isaiah: All manner vessles of most precious wood, William Walton was born in Oldham, Lancashire, the extended work for chorus and orchestra. Osbert Sitwell Thy sons that thou shalt beget, Of brass, iron and marble, second of four children of musical parents. His father, suggested as a subject the scene from the Bible (Book They shall be taken away Cinnamon, odours and ointments, Charles, was a singing teacher, and the organist and of Daniel) in which, at King Belshazzar’s feast in And be eunuchs Of frankincense, wine and oil, choirmaster of St John’s Church in Oldham, where, for Babylon, a hand appears and prophetically writes a In the palace of the King of Babylon. Fine flour, wheat and beasts, a time, the young William sang; his mother, Louisa, doom-laden message on the wall. Sitwell himself put Howl ye, howl ye, therefore: Sheep, horses, chariots, slaves, was a fine amateur singer. From an early age Walton together the libretto, drawing verses from Daniel, For the day of the Lord is at hand! And the souls of men. would have been exposed to amateur choral music- Psalms 81 and 137, and from the Book of Revelations. making and the great British choral tradition. He would It is clear from its early history that the concept grew By the waters of Babylon, In Babylon have heard performances of the two pillars of the from a work of relatively modest proportions to There we sat down: yea, we wept Belshazzar the King made a great feast, choral society repertoire, Handel’s Messiah and composition on a massive scale. In the late 1920s and And hanged our harps upon the willows. Made a feast to a thousand of his lords, Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Additionally, he would have early 1930s, the BBC was emerging as a major patron And drank wine before the thousand. been surrounded by the sound of brass bands, another of music, commissioning composers and establishing For they that wasted us flourishing amateur tradition particularly in the part of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. A BBC memo dated Required of us mirth; Belshazzar, whilse he tasted the wine, the country in which he was living. Both traditions 12th January 1930 discusses three contemporary They that carried us away captive Commanded us to bring the gold and silver vessels: were strongly to influence his composition later in life. composers having been approached to write works: Required of us a song. Yea! the golden vessels, His father, recognising in the boy a natural singer, Walton, Constant Lambert and Victor Hely- Sing us one of the songs of Zion. which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, decided he should try for a place in the choir of Christ Hutchinson. Each work was to be scored for “small Had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem. Church Cathedral, Oxford. William was successful and chorus, small orchestra of not exceeding fifteen and How shall we sing the Lord’s song at the age of ten he moved south to take up a place as soloist”. It seems Walton had agreed to these In a strange land? He commanded us to bring the golden vessels a chorister. There he would have encountered a whole limitations. Walton’s subject was to be Of the temple of the house of God, new and more rarefied choral tradition and his musical “Nebuchadnezzar or the Writing on the Wall”. A 2 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, That the King, his Princes, his wives, development came on apace. Indeed, at the age of only further BBC memo dated 30th May revealed that Let my right hand forget her cunning. And his concubines might drink therein. fifteen, he composed one of his finest church anthems, Walton “has completed the composition of Belshazzar If I do not remember thee, A Litany (Drop, drop slow tears), which shows a ... for two soloists, small chorus and small orchestra”. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Then the King commanded us: remarkably assured hand and which gives more than a However, by the beginning of September it had been Yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Bring ye the cornet, flute, sackbut, psaltery hint of the mature Walton to come. He returned to generally agreed between the interested parties that the And all kinds of music: they drank wine again, Christ Church as an undergraduate, aged only sixteen, work had “grown to such proportions” that it would By the waters of Babylon Yea, drank from the sacred vessels, and pitched himself into the social life with not be considered under the original scheme. Work on There we sat down: yea, we wept. characteristic zest. He left Oxford in 1920 without a Belshazzar’s Feast continued through 1930 and 1931 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, And then spake the King: degree but having made several influential and lifelong with varying degrees of success. At one time (from Happy shall he be that taketh thy children friends. He spent the next decade intermittently living May to December) he was stuck on the word “gold”, in And dasheth them against a stone, 4 Praise ye the God of Gold, in London with two of these friends, Osbert and the composer’s words “unable to move either to right For with violence shall that great city Praise ye the God of Silver, Sacheverell Sitwell, gradually expanding his social or left or up or down”. Yet by the early months of 1931 Babylon be thrown down Praise ye the God of Iron, and professional circle, gaining more cultural he was “immensely happy … doing a vast amount of And shall be found no more at all. Praise ye the God of Wood, experience and composing with increasing confidence work”. It was around this time that it was announced Praise ye the God of Stone, and brilliance (Façade, the Viola Concerto and the that the work was to be given its first performance at 3 Babylon was a great city, Praise ye the God of Brass, overture Portsmouth Point). that year’s Leeds Festival. Although the Festival was Her merchandise was of gold and silver, Praise ye the Gods! It was in 1929, having completed the Viola being organized by Sir Thomas Beecham, it was to be Of precious stones, of pearls, of fine linen, Concerto, that Walton decided he would write an Malcolm Sargent who would conduct the first Of purple, silk and scarlet, 5 Thus in Babylon, the mighty city, All manner vessels of ivory, Belshazzar the King made a great feast, 8.555869 2 7 8.555869 555869bk Walton US 2/03/2004 04:05pm Page 6 The English Northern Philharmonia performance. As the Berlioz Requiem with all its vast course, that event never took place, so the new work, The English Northern Philharmonia (The Orchestra of Opera North) has established itself, since its formation in battery of brass was also to be played at the Festival, Crown Imperial, was played at the coronation of 1978, as one of the country’s leading orchestras. In addition to playing for all Opera North’s performances in Leeds Beecham suggested that Walton add more brass to the George VI in Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937 as and on tour, the orchestra enjoys an independent existence as a symphony orchestra, giving concerts throughout the already heavily-scored orchestration, saying: “Well, my Queen Mary, the Queen Mother, made her way down country.
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