Listings
: Broadcast to Schools: The Magic Crystal: Life in a Mediaeval Monastery
Mr. C.H. DriverContributors
: An Orchestral Concert
The Station OrchestraConductor, Warwick Braithwaite
The play, Ruy Bias, which Mendelssohn describes as 'inconceivably contemptible', was to be performed for the benefit of the Theatrical Pension Fund. Mendelssohn's name was wanted as a 'draw', so he was asked to write the overture. For this he said he had no time; but he composed instead a Romance for the play. The officials who were getting up the performance replied, probably quite innocently, that he would be given longer notice next year. This answer nettled Mendelssohn, who, in the midst of much other work, wrote the Overture in two days. For the next performance, he said, he would call it the 'Overture to the Theatrical Pension Fund'. Later, he revised the work, and it is the second that has become the standard version.
It is in the common form of Overtures-the 'Sonata' consisting of the statement of two Main Tunes (sometimes also, as here, of subsidiary ones), their Development and Recapitulation.
The opening consists of the alternation of two phrases: (a) consisting of slow, solemn chords on Woodwind and Brass; (b) of soft, rapid, detached notes on Strings; (b) is an anticipation of the First Main Tune (very quick) which presently arrives, starting in Strings and Flute. The volume of tone gradually increases to a climax. This leads to a recurrence of the Woodwind and Brass phrase (a), which precedes the Second Main Tune, that starts with a very soft series of detached notes in Strings. It is repeated and continued, Clarinets, Bassoons, and 'Cellos doubling the Tune as a sonorous, sustained unison melody.
A few other tunes appear, but these are the outstanding features.
Contributors
: Afternoon Topics: The Welsh Author of the American Declaration of Independence
Mr. F. J. HarriesContributors
: My Favourite Songs: VI: Part I
A Recital by Frank Titterton (Tenor).Contributors
: An Orchestral Interlude
The Station OrchestraConductor, Warwick Braithwaite
This Overture was actually written for a 'melodrama' called The Magic Harp, not for the play of Rosamunde.
It starts with an Introduction in a bold style, after which comes the First Main Tune, in the Violins, very softly. Its springing theme is full of fresh-air gaiety. The Theme is a little enlarged upon, and the Second Main Theme comes as the most perfect contrast. It is given out by Clarinet and Bassoon, an octave apart, while the Bass Strings sustain a low note, which is called a 'pedal.' Note the dainty echo of the last couple of bars of the Tune by Flutes and Oboes, first, then by Clarinets, and finally by Bassoons.
On this material the Overture is built, with unflagging spirits. Its Coda is long, and carries us to the conclusion in a still gayer time.
In Mussorgsky's Opera, Prince Ivan Khorvansky, sitting at table in his palace, and oppressed with gloomy forebodings, is interrupted by a messenger, who brings him a letter of warning that he is in great danger. He disbelieves the warning, and, to drive it from his mind, calls for his troop of Persian Dancers.
Contributors
: An Orchestral Interlude: Orchestra
Smetana, the first Bohemian composer to achieve distinction, was a great lover of his native land. He wrote a set of Orchestral pieces entitled My Country, celebrating in music its natural beauties, its history and legends.From Bohemia's Woods and Fields, the fourth of this cycle of Tone Poems, contains suggestions of folk songs and dances, as well as of the dignity of the forests and the charm of the countryside. The fresh tints of Nature, and the simple cheer-fulness of those who live close to her, could not be better conveyed than by such a tune as that which Oboes and Bassoons sing out soon after the start of this work. Later comes a theme for muted Violins, high up, that seems to picture the stir of tiny life in the woodlands; and a little after that there is the gay rhythm of a Polka, one of Bohemia's national dances.
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