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225263 bk Lumbye 19/09/2003 12:36 pm Page 12 Also available in this series: Hans Christian LUMBYE Complete Orchestral Works Volume 8 Tivoli Symphony Orchestra David Riddell 8.225255 DDD 8.225263 8.225263 12 225263 bk Lumbye 19/09/2003 12:36 pm Page 2 Hans Christian Lumbye (1810-1874) Also available in this series: Hans Christian Lumbye, today the internationally best orchestra he composed some seven hundred dances known and most popular Danish composer of dances of over the next thirty years, first and foremost polkas, the nineteenth century, was born in Copenhagen on 2nd waltzes and galops – the last of these genres almost May 1810. While he was still a child his family moved became synonymous with his name. But with his to the provinces, since his father, a military official, was numerous orchestral fantasias, too, and more than 25 posted first to Jutland and later to Odense, the birthplace ballet-divertissements, Lumbye demonstrated his true of Hans Christian’s later world-famous namesake, the mastery. fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen. In the best of his works his orchestrations have a In Odense Lumbye had his first real musical training distinctive, lyrical, almost pristine Copenhagen sound and at the age of fourteen he succeeded in becoming a that differs from the Vienna composers’ more hot- trumpeter in the local regimental band. The next year he blooded orchestral tone. Lumbye often has the violins received his diploma as a trained trumpeter, and at accompanied by limpid flute sounds, while Johann nineteen he returned to his birthplace Copenhagen, Strauss, for example, liked to have the melody lines of where he was employed as a trumpeter in 1829 in the the strings accompanied by instruments with a fuller Royal Horse Guard. In the 1830s, besides holding this sound like the oboe and clarinet. Lumbye also created a musical post, Lumbye was a busy musician in the brighter and lighter orchestral sound than the Vienna Copenhagen Stadsmusikantorkester or City Orchestra, composers thanks to his use of glockenspiel, triangle and his earliest preserved dance compositions come and brass. from these years. A long series of tours abroad to Hamburg, Berlin, In 1840 Lumbye put together his own orchestra. The Vienna, Paris, St Petersburg and Stockholm brought inspiration to take this step had come after he had Lumbye international recognition and fame, but he attended a series of concerts given in Copenhagen by a never abandoned his post in the amusement park, where musical society from Steiermark in Austria, where his jovial figure remained a popular ingredient in Johann Strauss’s and Joseph Lanner’s new dance tunes Copenhagen’s musical life until his death on 20th were heard for the first time in Scandinavia. March, 1874. With his own first Concert à la Strauss at the H.C. Lumbye’s importance in the nineteenth fashionable Raus Hotel in Copenhagen (the later Hôtel century for the creation of a broad, popular musical d’Angleterre) on 4th February 1840, Lumbye culture in Northern Europe can hardly be overestimated, definitively began his lifelong activity as Denmark’s but his greatest importance perhaps lies in the fact that and Scandinavia’s undisputed leading dance composer. his innumerable dance tunes have up to our own day Three years later, when the now world-famous preserved their special freshness and artistic integrity. amusement park Tivoli opened its gates in Copenhagen, Lumbye acquired the final, permanent setting for his Knud Arne Jürgensen long and prolific composing and conducting career as the leader of the concert hall’s orchestra. For this Translation: James Manley 8.225223 8.225263 2 11 8.225263 225263 bk Lumbye 19/09/2003 12:36 pm Page 10 Complete Orchestral Works Vol. 8 1 Velkomsthilsen, March [Welcome March] (En avant, Marche) (1851) The Welcome March, which also bears the subtitle ‘Welcome to the Danish Soldiers’ in its earliest versions, was composed as a tribute to the soldiers returning home from the Danish-German war of 1849-51. It was first heard at a festival performance in the Casino Theatre for the returning soldiers on 4th February 1851, and quickly became so popular that it also entered Lumbye’s permanent repertoire at Tivoli, where it was played for the first time on 29th July of the same year, but now with the title En avant, Marche. It offers a fine example of Lumbye’s sure grasp of the genre of military music, and since its first performance has also become a permanent element in Danish military music in arrangements for brass ensemble. 2 Döbler’s Zauber Galop [Döbler’s Magic Galop] (1841) Inspired by the so-called “evening entertainments” of the magician Louis Döbler on the stage of the Royal Theatre and Court Theatre in the spring of 1841, Lumbye composed his Magic Galop, which was first performed at a concert in Rosenborg Gardens on 31st August of that year. Döbler, with his arts of prestidigitation and his so-called “dissolving views”, was one of the most famous magicians of the time, and toured the whole of Europe, appearing before royalty, the nobility and the general public. His visit to Copenhagen in 1841 gave the impulse to a whole series of visiting professional conjurers. Lumbye’s bubbling galop clearly reflects the enthusiasm created in the public for Döbler’s magic performances, and counts among his finest galops. It was published shortly after the first performance in a piano arrangement and as part of a collection of favourite dances under the general title of Terpsichore. 3 Alhambra, Romantisk Vals [Alhambra, Romantic Waltz] (1847) It was for an Arabian festival at Tivoli that Lumbye composed his Alhambra suite of romantic waltzes, which were first performed at a concert there on 6th August 1847. The set is introduced by an Andante, followed by five waltzes and a finale, in which many motifs from the second waltz recur, among others. The suite of waltzes is characterized by its very lyrical, and almost mystical, introduction, together with great diversity between the individual waltzes, which together give the suite the character of a miniature tone poem. With the constant shifts in character in each waltz, the work also stands out as one of the most distinctive suites of waltzes that Lumbye wrote. 4 Tivoli Bazar Tsching-Tching Polka (1843) At the opening of the Tivoli Garden in the summer of 1843, one of the attractions contained the “Bazaar”, where many Far Eastern booths offered their attractions and exotic goods for sale to visitors. The Chinese booth in the Bazaar, which was allegedly built according to a drawing “sent by the Chinese Emperor to the Manager”, was among the most popular attractions for the public. Lumbye soon composed his Tsching-Tching Polka as a tribute and an advertisement for this exotic booth. It was completed on 8th September 1843, and first performed at a concert at Tivoli a week later, on 15th September. Hans Christian Lumbye 5 Les Zouaves, Galop (1859) (Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen) The Zouaves were an elite regiment of French infantry, established after France’s conquest of Algeria in 1830. This regiment was enlarged in 1831 to three battalions, and in 1852 Napoleon III made an additional regiment out of each battalion, while the imperial guard from that year itself created a Zouave regiment with two battalions. From that time, the Zouave regiments consisted predominantly of specially selected soldiers from Paris, who had participated and fought with 8.225263 10 3 8.225263 225263 bk Lumbye 19/09/2003 12:36 pm Page 4 distinction in their country’s war. Lumbye composed his bubbling military galop, Les Zouaves, on 8th May 1859 as a Coda, ging in die Geschichte des Balletts als Dänemarks Beitrag zu diesem Genre ein. La Lithuanienne wurde tribute to the elite French regiments. His inspiration came from a visiting corps of Zouaves, who appeared in late 1858 in a rasch so erfolgreich, dass das Stück auch in Privattheatern in Kopenhagen getanzt wurde, zunächst im Casino- series of mimed scenes and tableaux vivants at the Folketeater in Copenhagen, where the regiment’s achievements on the Theater am 5. Mai 1847, später auch bei Gastspielen in Norwegen und Schweden. battlefield were represented to great public acclaim. The work, which was first performed at a public concert in the Tivoli concert hall on 28th May of that year, counts among his best and most brilliantly orchestrated galops. @ Den lille trompet, Galop (La petite trompette) [Die kleine Trompete] (1847) Der Kleine Trompetengalopp ist eine spritzige Komposition mit Soloeinlagen für hohe Trompete. Das Werk wurde 6 Kong Georg den 1.s Honneur Marsch [King George I’s March of Honour] (1863) vermutlich für einen talentierten jungen Trompeter komponiert. Lumbye, der selbst ausgebildeter Trompeter war It was in connection with the visit to Copenhagen in the summer of 1863 of a Greek deputation sent by the liberating hero, und in seiner Jugend im Orchester der Kgl. Reitergarde gespielt hatte, schöpft in diesem Galopp, der deutlich seine Kanaris, that Lumbye composed his King George I’s March of Honour, in honour of the Greek king. As a Danish prince, Vorliebe für Blechblasinstrumente unter Beweis stellt, aus dem Vollen. Uraufgeführt bei einem Tivoli-Konzert am he had accepted the offer of the Greek throne from the Greek national assembly on 6th June 1863, and began his reign in 13. August 1848 wurde das Stück aufgrund seiner Popularität sowohl in Dänemark als auch in Deutschland in den Athens on 31st October of that year. Lumbye’s march in honour of this first Greek monarch of the house of Glücksborg folgenden Jahren in vielen Klavierbearbeitungen veröffentlicht.