Symphony in E, Irish

Symphony in E, Irish

The "Symphony in E", first performed on March 10 1866, was the only symphony composed by Arthur Sullivan. It is frequently called the 'Irish' Symphony.

There are four movements:
*Andante – Allegro, ma non troppo vivace
*Andante espressivo
*Allegretto
*Allegro vivace e con brio

The playing time is about thirty five minutes (or slightly longer if the exposition repeat is taken in the first movement).

History

Sullivan began work on his symphony in 1863, very early in his career. From holiday in Ireland, he wrote that 'as I was jolting home through wind and rain... in an open jaunting-car, the whole first movement of a symphony came into my head with a real Irish flavour about it – besides scraps of the other movements.' [Jacobs, Chapter 4] The composer later wrote, 'I always meant to call it the 'Irish Symphony', but I modestly refrained, as it was courting comparison with the 'Scotch Symphony' [i.e. Mendelssohn's Symphony No 3.] [Young, note 17 to Chapter 3] The title did not appear on the published score until after Sullivan's death, in the Novello edition of 1915.

The first performance of the symphony was at The Crystal Palace in March 1866, thanks to the popular singer, Jenny Lind, who sponsored the concert and attracted an audience of 3,000 for her singing in the first half of the programme. The conductor was August Manns who had previously conducted the première of Sullivan's incidental music to "The Tempest".

The symphony was well received, though the music critics, both then and later, observed the influence of other composers. "The Times" wrote, 'Mr Sullivan should abjure Mendelssohn, even Beethoven and above all Schumann, for a year and a day.' [Jacobs, Chapter 5] In his 1960 study of Sullivan's music Gervase Hughes also detects echoes of Schumann, and of Schubert as well. [Hughes, Chapter 2]

The symphony was performed frequently during Sullivan's lifetime, but received few performances in the twentieth century. It has, however, been performed more frequently in recent years and was the major work of the opening concert of the first English Music Festival (broadcast by the BBC) in October 2006. [ [http://www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk/emf2006.html Official website of the English Music Festival] ] Four CD recordings of the piece are available, and a new study score edition has been published by a German firm, Musikproduction Jürgen Höflich and is available [http://www.musikmph.de/musical_scores/composers_sales/scorelist_eng.htm here] (a reprint of the out-of-print Novello & Co edition, with a new introduction).

Musical structure

*The "Andante" introduction opens with the alternation in octaves of tonic and dominant in dotted rhythm, played by the brass, answered by a 'Dresden Amen' motif on the strings (a Mendelssohnian touch). The main Allegro part of the first movement has divided critical opinion. "The Gramophone" in 1969 commented, ‘The first theme in E minor may be very Mendelssohnian in shape, rhythm and key, but it provides the first real sign of Sullivan's genuine vitality of imagination,’ ["The Gramophone", February 1968, page 1167] whereas Hughes considers that though sonata form is competently handled, the first subject, ‘a violin cantabile of soaring promise, falls to pieces at the seventh bar.’ [Hughes, Chapter 2]

*The second movement, in B major, is based on ‘a very Mendelssohnian melody’ which ‘survives Salvation Army treatment on horns and alto trombone in octaves, only to culminate in an outrageous crib of the second movement of Schubert's Unfinished, a phrase first on oboes and then on violins.’ ["The Gramophone", February 1968, page 1167]

*The scherzo third movement, in C major, has attracted the most favourable comments from critics. Hughes notes that it is not in conventional symphonic scherzo form, following instead a pattern ABCA with a short coda based on B [Hughes, Chapter 2] in which Edward Greenfield heard an astonishing similarity to the finale of Schubert's Great C major Symphony ["The Gramophone", February 1968, page 1167.] The jaunty main theme of the movement is given to the oboe, always one of Sullivan’s favoured instruments.

*The finale contains no unconventional features, though Greenfield comments that it brings ‘one of those descants (fast dotted rhythm against a conventionally soaring melody) that became one of the trademarks of the operettas’.

Hughes sums the symphony up thus: ‘In spite of the promising first movement and a modicum of competent thematic development, the symphony cannot be counted as a satisfactory achievement. Too much of the material is machine-made – as yet we find few signs of true spontaneity. By contrast, Greenfield concludes that the symphony is ‘a charming example of Victorian art at its least inhibited.’

Recordings

*Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Charles Groves (EMI, 1968)
*BBC Concert Orchestra/Owain Arwel Hughes (CPO, 1993)
*BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Richard Hickox (Chandos, 2000)
*Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/David Lloyd-Jones (Naxos, 2007)

Notes

References

*"The Gramophone", February 1968, pages 1167/1168, review by Edward Greenfield of EMI recording
*Hughes, Gervase: "The Music of Arthur Sullivan", Macmillan, London 1960
*Jacobs, Arthur: "Arthur Sullivan", OUP, Oxford, 1986 ISBN 0-19-282033-8
*Young, Percy M: "Sir Arthur Sullivan", J M Dent & Sons, London 1971 ISBN 0-460-03932-2

External links

* [http://www.cris.com/~oakapple/gasdisc/sullorch.htm#symphony Discussion at the G&S Discography]
* [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Feb08/Sullivan_Pineapple_8570351.htm Recording by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor David Lloyd-Jones (2006)]
* [http://www.musikmph.de/musical_scores/composers_sales/scorelist_eng.htm Order details for study score]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Irish Guards Band — Infobox musical artist Name = Irish Guards Band Img size = 250 Background = Military Band Alias = Band of the Irish Guards Origin = Ireland and the United Kingdom URL = [http://www.army.mod.uk/music/corps band/481.aspx Home of the Irish Guards… …   Wikipedia

  • Symphony No. 8 (Arnold) — The Symphony No. 8, Op. 124 by Malcolm Arnold was finished in November 1978. It is in three movements:*Allegro *Andantino *VivaceThe work was commissioned by the Rustam K. Kermani Foundation and given its first performance in on 5th May 1979,… …   Wikipedia

  • Irish 1,000 Guineas — NOTOC The Irish 1,000 Guineas is a Group 1 flat horse race in the Republic of Ireland for three year old thoroughbred fillies. It is run over a distance of 1 mile at the Curragh in May. It was first run in 1922.In 2004, the filly Attraction… …   Wikipedia

  • Symphony of Six Million — Filmdaten Originaltitel Symphonie of Six Million Produktionsland USA …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • List of symphony composers — Among composers who have composed symphonies are (listed in chronological order of birth): From the earliest symphonies to 1800 (Date of Birth) *Andrea Zani (1696–1757). Italian composer of the earliest securely dated symphonies (part of his op.… …   Wikipedia

  • RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra — Background information Origin Dublin, Ireland …   Wikipedia

  • London Irish Symphony Orchestra — The London Irish Symphony Orchestra (LISO) is an Orchestra, founded in 2005 based in London, England.The London Irish Symphony Orchestra is the only ensemble in the UK working solely to promote classical music of Irish origin. They showcase the… …   Wikipedia

  • List of symphony orchestras in Europe — This non exhaustive list of symphony orchestras in Europe contains European orchestras with entries in the Wikipedia plus other particularly noted orchestras based there. For orchestras from other continents, see List of symphony… …   Wikipedia

  • National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland — The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra is the concert music orchestra of Radio Telefís Éireann. Considered one of Europe s major symphonies it is the primary symphony orchestra of Dublin and, true to its name, the leading orchestra of the Ireland.… …   Wikipedia

  • Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra — School University of Notre Dame …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”