'~
Guildford
Philharmonic
Orchestra
D
This concert is promoted by Guildford
Corporation with financial assistance from
the Arts Council of Great Britain.
SATURDAY 9th DECEMBER
Civic Hall—Guildford
at 7.45 p.m.
Guildford
Philharmonic
Orchestra
Led by John Ludlow
Philharmonic
Choir
A section of the Proteus Choir
Vernon Handley
Conductor
The Musical Director wishes to
intricate, the composer has made sure to
acknowledge with thanks the help h2 has
provide his listeners with certain referencz
received in training the Philharmonic Choir
points. Although the ‘Eroica’ phrace, and,
from the assistant conductor, Mr. Kenneth
indeed, the first phrass heard, and later a
Lank, and accompanists Miss Mary Rivers,
tune beginning with accented repzated notes,
Miss Patricia Finch and Miss Prudence
Edden, and the help given by Miss Linden
returns in its original state at different
Andrew and Miss Christine Francis in
preparing a seatng plan to accommodate
the choir.
The semi-chorus in the
Hymn of Jesus is
drawn from the sopranos and altos of the
Proteus Choir.
This concert contains four neglected
masterpieces of twentieth century music.
are all subject to metamorphoses, yet each
points in the work, thus serving to remind
us what the developing lament is about, at
least musically. It is not until the final
page that the implications of the ‘Eroica’
theme are allowed to unfold in a simple
statement of that tune. The listener is
tempted to count out in detail the different
developments of the material, but it is
doubtful whether there is much prcfit in
and intellectual worlds, yet all are
this. The work is complicated in structure,
but exceedingly simple in sentiment, and
the reference points already mentioned serve
approachable at first hearing. They share
one characteristic, and that is that each
to carry the listener through the emotional
building up to the quiet, dark ending.
eschews easy popular effects to win its
audience, but relies on worthwhile artistic
The disposition of the 23 solo strings is ten
violins, five violas, five 'cellos and three
inspiration and procedures.
double basses.
They stem from very different emoticnal
Strauss was 80 when he finished
Metamorphosen, and lived for another
PROGRAMME
four years.
Metamorphosen
Richard Strauss 1864—1949
Between 1943, when Strauss heard of the
partial destruction of Munich, and 1945,
when Paul Sacher commissioned a work
from him, the Metamorphosen, subtitled a
Study for 23 Solo Strings, was composed.
Strauss was born in Munich in 1864, and
the Opera House, which had meant so much
to him, was in a part of the city that was
destroyed. The work, therefore, is a lament,
and includes as part of its thematic
material, a falling theme which has strong
resemblance to the second phrase of
Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Funeral March. The
design is a long one, rather in the form of
a huge arch, and because the work is
The Garden of Fand
Bax 1883—1953
The emotional world of The Garden of
Fand is no less real or powerful than that
of the Metamorphosen, but it is expressed
in a less sentimental idiom than that which
Strauss habitually used. Bax, like
Rachmaninov, was aristocratic in his
culture, and though the middle section of
this tone poem discloses a mighty passion,
Bax balances this in the centre of a form
which is otherwise colourful, but not
concerned with morbid personal emotion.
The Garden of Fand is the sea. The ancient
saga tells how Cuchulain, the Achilles of
the Gael, was lured from the world of
deeds by Fand, the daughter of Manannan,
Lord of the Ocean. The hero’s ship is
borne to Fand’s miraculous island on the
crest of an immense wave. The humans are
carried away by the dance and Fand sings
her song of immortal love, until the sea
overwhelms the whole island; the mortals
perish, the immortals laugh and dance on.
Bax pointed out, “The tone poem has no
special relation to the events of the legend’.
The different sections of the work, which is
in a clear beautifully controlled form, are
interrelated thematically and harmonically,
and this integrity of composition needs no
programme to be convincing. Nevertheless,
no opening of any piece of music concerned
with the sea could give a clearer picture
than does this one, and boiling out of it
surely comes a great wave, although the
chromatic crescendo is perfectly placed as a
bridge section to lead to the dance. Of
course, the dance spends itself, musically
and by the legend, and no-one can mistake
the passionate love song.
What critics often miss is that the second
The Bard, Op. 64
Sibelius 1865—1957
Sibelius wrote this short tone pcem in 1913,
so it dates from the same period as his
Fourth Symphony, a work thought by
many to be his greatest. It is like that
symphony in that it avoids any gesture
that would win it easy popularity. There is
no definite poetic programme, yet it is a
nationalistic work in that one cannot
imagine it having been written by anyone
but Sibelius, the Fin. Most of the music is
very quiet, and, indeed, there is only one
brief fortissimo climax, the heavy brass
being required to play only two notes.
Because the musical material sounds to be
mere wisps of sound, it is tempting to hear
in the clearest instrumental part in the score,
namely that of the harp, the composer
looking, as it were, through the mists of
time, at that figure so important to the
phrase that we hear from the double basses
early culture of many nations, the
and ’‘cellos under the Atlantic swell, is the
wandering bard, or harper. The picture of
basis of the prominent horn theme in the
dance; that the dance is made of a
quickened version of the cor anglais and
horn tunes heard at the beginning of the
this character is so distant from us now
that it is difficult to understand the
passionate, possibly war-like, legend that he
work, and that Fand’s song is a
sings of in this piece, yet Sibelius manages
metamorphosis of the scales that are
to convey the immense primitive culture that
fragmented over the whole orchestra in the
produced the bard, certainly no relation,
opening pages. From Fand’s song onwards,
the form of the work takes charge. A
recapitulation of the material takes place in
reverse order, and we are left, although
with an empty seascape, nevertheless with
a feeling of the inevitability of the work.
despite what some musical commentators
maintain, of the modern casual guitarist.
Here is another work that refutes entirely
the popular belief that if a work is modern
it has to employ strange effects and strange
instruments, and make a lot of noise.
Strange effects there are, but obtained with
the economy characteristic of the two
composers in this half of the concert.
INTERVAL
During the interval, refreshments will be
served in the Surrey Room by members of
the Concertgoers’ Society.
Hymn of Jesus
For two choruscs, semi chorus
and orchestra
Holst 1874—1934
wonderful examples of Holst’s musical
originality and detail are of secondary
importance to his mastery of a completely
tight form, for after the outburst of the
Hymn one assumes that the material of the
introduction has been left behind, and yet
The story behind this astonishing work is a
strange one. Whenever Holst felt the need
to compose a work of original form, he
immersed himself absolutely in the subject
of the work long before he started to
compose, and it was in August 1917 that he
began work on the Hymn of Jesus, taking
his text from the Apocryphal Acts of St.
John. Just as he had worked at Sanskrit
for the Rig-Veda Hymns, and as later he
was to work at Keats for his Choral
Symphony, so now he copied out each
Greek word separately, adding the
pronunciation and the literal English
equivalent. Then, as his daughter tells us,
he made his own translation, keeping as
near as possible to the spirit of the original.
The Hymn of Jesus is nothing like
those plainsong chants recur in unexpected
circumstances, but do not shock with their
return because they seem so inevitable.
Inevitable also, and perfectly placed in the
span of the work, is the return to ‘Glory to
Thee, Father’. After this second outburst,
Holst, with characteristic economy,
compresses the musical ideas that have gone
before in order to finish the work, and he
brings together as one choir the two
choruses, while the semi chorus, who
throughout the piece have linked the ideas
of the other choirs with their floating
‘Amens’, also join the rest of the singers and
the orchestra for the final cadence.
Holst is
a much neglected composer
whose highly original music should be
known the world over. If the ‘Planets’ is
nineteenth century oratorio, and although
his most extrovert piece, the Hymn of
uncompromisingly of the twentieth
Jesus is one of his most religiously exalted.
century is has recourse to older music and
If he had written only these two works he
mediaeval chants for some of its material.
would have deserved a place in the world
The prelude is tranquil and almost cold;
repertoire.
built on two plainsong hymns, the Pange
lingua and Vexila Regis. Although we hear
Vexila regis prodeunt
these chants, the way the orchestra discusses
Fulget Crucis mysterium
them gives us an almost timeless back-cloth
for the outburst of the Hymn itself. At
this outburst one realises that this
Quo came camis Conditor
Suspensus est patibulo
is called the Hymn of Jesus and not a
Pange lingua gloriosi praelium certaminis
Hymn o Jesus. Although many critics
Et super crucis trophaeum
have drawn attention to important and
dazzling passages in the piece, for example,
the setting of “Ye who dance not, know not
what we are knowing’, the extraordinary
radiance of “To you who gaze, a lamp am
Dic triumphum nobilem qualiter
Redemptor orbis
Immolatus vicerit. Amen.
Glory to Thee, Father! Amen. Amen.
I’, and the quivering harmony of ‘Know
Glory to Thee, Word! Amen.
in me the word of wisdom!’, these
Glory to Thee, O Grace! Amen.
Glory to Thee, Holy Spirit! Amen.
To you that know, a mirror. Amen.
Glory to Thy Glory!
To you who knock, a door am 1.
We praise Thee, O Father; we give thanks
to Thee, O shadowless light Amen.
To you who fare, the way. Amen. Amen.
Fain would I be saved; and fain would
In me who speak, behold yourselves. Amen.
I save. Amen.
Fain would I be released; and fain
would I release. Amen.
Fain would I be pierced; and fain
would I pierce.
Fain would I be borne; fain would
I bear.
Fain would I eat; fain would I be eaten.
Fain would I hearken; fain would I
be heard.
Fain would I be cleansed; fain would
I cleanse.
[ am Mind of All! Amen.
Fain would I be known.
Divine Grace is dancing: fain would
I pipe for you.
Dance ye all! Amen.
Fain would I lament: mourn ye all!
Amen.
The Heavenly Spheres make music for
us. Amen.
The Holy Twelve dance with us—
All things join in the dance!
Ye who dance not, know not what we
are knowing. Amen.
Fain would I flee; and fain would 1
remain. Amen.
Fain would I be ordered; and fain
would I set in order.
Fain would 1 be infolded; fain would
I infold.
I have no home; in all I am dwelling.
Give ye heed unto my dancing.
And beholding what I do, keep silence
on my mysteries.
Divine ye in dancing what 1 shall do,
For yours is the passion of man that
I go to endure.
Ah! Ah! Ah!
Ye could not know at all what thing
ye endure,
Had not the Father sent me to you
as a Word.
Beholding what I suffer, ye know me as
the Sufferer.
And when ye had beheld it, ye were not
unmoved,
But rather were ye whirled along, ye
were kindled to be wise.
Had ye known how to suffer, ye would
know how to suffer no more.
Learn, and ye shall overcome.
Behold in me a couch; rest on me! Amen.
When I am gone, ye shall know who I am.
For I am in no wise that which 1
now seem.
When ye are come to me, then shall
ye know.
What ye know not will I myself teach you.
Fain would I move to the music of
holy souls.
Know in me the word of wisdom!
And with me cry again:
Glory to Thee, Father!
Amen. Amen.
I have no resting place; I have the earth.
Glory to Thee, Word! Amen.
I have no temple; and I have Heav'n.
Glory to Thee, Holy Spirit!
To you who gaze, a lamp am L. Amen.
Amen. Amen.