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Suite No. 1 from the Fairy Queen

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Suite No. 1 from the Fairy Queen The Elgar Serenade is a beautiful and rarely performed gem that showcases the strings with rich and resonant writing. CRAIG BROWN, NCS DOUBLE BASS Suite No. 1 from The Fairy Queen HENRY PURCELL BORN September 10, 1659, in London; died November 21, 1695, in London PREMIERE Masque composed 1692; first performance May 2, 1692, at the Queen’s Theatre, London THE STORY One of the greatest composers of the Baroque era and one of the greatest English composers of all time, Henry Purcell came from a distinguished family of musicians. Although he was employed by the royal court in three British reigns — Charles II, James II, and William & Mary — little is known about his biography. He was greatly esteemed by his contemporaries, as can be seen from the burial tablet: “Here lyes Henry Purcell, Esq.; who left this life, and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded.” In spite of a short life, Purcell’s musical output was prodigious. In 1660, England had emerged from the restrictive reign of the Puritan Oliver Cromwell, who had closed the theaters and generally cut Britain off from the musical influences of the continent, notably opera. With the Restoration and the accession of Charles II, the theaters were reopened, and a flood of comedies graced the British stage — nearly all of them with instrumental interludes and songs. Also revived was the tradition of the masque, an elaborately staged musical spectacle performed at court with an allegorical or topical theme, but seldom much of a plot. Purcell’s adult life corresponded to the heyday of this revival, and he provided music for 43 stage productions and court masques. Apparently, The Fairy Queen, one such masque, was so over the top that additional performances had to be added in order to cover the cost of scenes with swans, dancing monkeys, and more. LISTENING TIPS Written in 1692, The Fairy Queen was a very loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Purcell’s music was played before, and interspersed between, the acts (making for a very long evening indeed!). However, the music was entirely unrelated to the drama. This suite of music from The Fairy Queen consists of instrumental numbers arranged as a typical set of Baroque dances. INSTRUMENTATION Strings The Day Dawn SALLY BEAMISH BORN August 26, 1956, in London PREMIERE Composed 1997, orchestrated 1999; first performance 1999, in Hong Kong, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Joseph Swensen conducting THE STORY British composer and violist Sally Beamish was born in London and made her mark first as a violist in chamber music. In 1990, she moved to Scotland to develop her career as a composer, strongly influenced by jazz and Scottish traditional music. She is currently composer-in-residence with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The Day Dawn was composed in 1997, initially in a version for an amateur orchestra and subsequently arranged in a version for professional orchestra. LISTENING TIPS Beamish writes: “The Day Dawn is based on an old Shetland fiddle tune of the same name, which was traditionally played at the Winter Solstice to mark the dawn of lengthening days. Dedicated to my friend Christine McKemmie, who was living in Shetland when her young daughter Zoe died, the piece symbolizes new beginnings, recalling the sense of calm Chris felt on the day of the funeral, dawning bright after a week of rain.” INSTRUMENTATION Strings Serenade in E Minor, Op. 20 EDWARD ELGAR BORN June 2, 1857, in Broadheath, England; died February 23, 1934, in Worcester PREMIERE Composed 1892; first performance March 1892, Worcester Ladies’ Orchestra Class, conducted by the composer THE STORY Edward Elgar was born to a lower-middle-class family, the son of a music store owner. Elgar always had a chip on his shoulder for not being a gentleman and for not having served in the army. He was nervous, insecure, a hypochondriac, and prone to depression; he was also a Catholic, which did not help his social standing. Even a knighthood in 1904, several honorary degrees, and the invitation to compose music for the coronation of King George V did not assuage his inferiority complex. To the chagrin of Britain’s music establishment, Elgar — an outsider lacking academic musical training — was the first English composer to achieve world fame since Henry Purcell in the 17th century. In 1899, at age 42, his “Enigma” Variations propelled him from parochial obscurity to worldwide recognition. Previously, he had composed a number of choral and orchestral works that had garnered a modicum of success in Britain, as well as many salon pieces to make ends meet. He also wrote a number of works inspired by his beloved Alice, whom he married in 1889; his Serenade in E Minor was one of these. Composed in 1892, this gentle work was rejected by one publisher with the comment that “…this class of music is practically unsalable.” But the German publisher Breitkopf accepted it. It was Elgar’s first full score in print. LISTENING TIPS The three movements are coherent in mood, a gentle but intense love song, devoid of extremes of passion but heavy with what the British call “sentiment.” Throughout, Elgar uses several sighing motives, particularly the interval of an ascending minor seventh dropping to a major sixth. The two outer movements are in a flowing 6/8 meter; in both we hear a murmuring accompaniment. These two movements frame the longer second movement, in a slow larghetto tempo, which constitutes the emotional center of the piece. INSTRUMENTATION Strings Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS BORN October 12, 1872 in Down Ampney, England; died August 26, 1958 in Hanover Terrace PREMIERE Composed 1910, first performance September 10, 1910, at Gloucester Cathedral, conducted by the composer THE STORY By the end of the 19th century, British composers were eager to recapture the glory of their musical past. In 1906, armed with degrees in music and history, and with a passion for collecting English folk tunes, Ralph Vaughan Williams was given the task of editing the music of The English Hymnal. Plowing through “some of the best and worst tunes,” Vaughan Williams discovered a group of nine melodies composed for The English Psalter in 1567 by Thomas Tallis, one of the English Renaissance’s brightest stars. In 1910, Vaughan Williams composed a fantasia for two string orchestras and string quartet for the Three Choirs Festival, a long-standing music festival taking place in the cathedrals of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford. First performed in Gloucester Cathedral, the three string ensembles were to be placed at a significant distance from each other in order to enhance the antiphonal effect, something not always possible in a modern concert hall. One of the composer’s earliest works, it remains his most popular. LISTENING TIPS The fantasia is by definition a free form, varying and developing a theme without the formal structure of a “theme and variations.” In this work, Vaughan Williams seamlessly combines Tallis’ original tune with musical motives of his own invention. The phrasing is fluid and irregular, producing a soaring effect as the piece gradually crescendos to a dramatic climax. Vaughan Williams is especially interested in providing a sense of antiphonal dialogue — contrasting the high and low strings, and contrasting the differently sized ensembles — creating a sense of listening to monastic chant. Vaughan Williams was particularly taken by one of Tallis’ melodies in the Phrygian mode, a scale with a flatted second and seventh. This mode sounds somber and exotic to modern ears. INSTRUMENTATION Strings Simple Symphony, Op. 4 BENJAMIN BRITTEN BORN November 22, 1913, in Lowestoft, England; died December 4, 1976, in Aldeburgh PREMIERE Composed 1934; first performance March 6, 1934, in Norwich, by an amateur orchestra, Britten conducting THE STORY While still a toddler, Benjamin Britten showed exceptional musical promise, starting to compose and improvise at the piano at a very early age. By age 12, he had already composed six string quartets, 10 piano sonatas, and numerous suites of piano pieces and songs. Although his dentist father was not enthusiastic about his son’s passion for a field that might not yield a decent living, his mother was Benjamin’s emotional lodestar. So convinced was she of her son’s talents that she openly expected his name to join the musical trinity — Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms — as the fourth “B.” While Britten did not quite fulfill his mother’s fantasy, he is unquestionably the single most important British composer of the 20th century. The Simple Symphony, composed in 1934, utilizes some of the early facile but original compositions written before he was 13. In a preface to the score, Britten wrote that although the development of these themes is in many cases quite new, there are large stretches of the work that are taken bodily from the early pieces, only here rescored for string orchestra. While adhering primarily to lyrical melodies and tonal harmonies, Britten makes some changes to the conventions of Classical form, rendering the symphony not quite as simple as the playful, alliterative movement titles suggest. LISTENING TIPS First movement: The symphony begins in counterpoint, with different melodic voices layered on top of one another; the contrasting second theme is more folksy. Second movement: This scherzo and trio is played entirely pizzicato, plucking the strings. During the trio, Britten uses occasional choppy staccato bowing in the lower instruments. Third movement: The slow movement is, in sharp contrast, a series of themes; the main melody is melancholy, and the final coda develops this theme further. Fourth movement: The “Frolicksome Finale” is in a formal rondo form, with a repeated refrain that alternates with new music — including a development of the refrain.
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