Best of British

Holst St Paul’s Suite

St Paul’s Suite for string orchestra

I               Jig

II             Ostinato

III            Intermezzo

IV            Finale: The Dargason

The British composer Gustav Holst is known today mainly for his massive suite The Planets – one of the most performed of all orchestral works. He also wrote smaller pieces, not least among them being the cheerful St Paul’s Suite, which was completed shortly before the outbreak of the First World War.

As well as having a busy career as a performer (on the trombone), composer and conductor, Holst was a great believer in teaching, and he had a long-standing relationship with St Paul’s Girls School in Hammersmith. This Suite and a companion piece, the Brook Green Suite were both written for the pupils at St Paul’s, and he had previously also composed for the girls of James Allen’s School in Dulwich. Holst took pains not to write down for his intended young performers, and these works are full of delightful intricacies. The St Paul’s Suite is in four movements, whose titles are self-explanatory; Holst used a number of familiar folk tunes, combined with his own original material, and the work as the whole comes to a grand climax at the end of the lively Dargason.

© Ian Lush

Judith Weir I Give You the End of a Golden String

Judith Weir:

‘My aim when I began this piece was to create a long length of string music out of a single strand of melody. While experimenting at the beginning, shaping and extending a melody in many possible directions, I came across William Blake’s lines….

‘I give you the end of a golden string;
Only wind it into a ball,
It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate,
Built in Jerusalems’s wall

‘…and this became my working method, winding a single tune around itself so that it gradually formed itself into a much richer, more complex texture. The process happens three times, producing the equivalent of a continuous three movement concerto.

‘The ‘first movement’ is engendered by two solo violas (the melody at the beginning already entwined with a slightly alternative version of itself). The ‘slow movement’ (a more extended, more decorated development of the opening tune) is introduced by a solo cello (soon winding itself into a quartet of celli). The fast ‘finale’, led by two solo violins, focuses on decorations within the melody, rolling out ribbons of (Britten-like?) thirds. The duration of the whole piece is around sixteen minutes.

‘I give you the end of a golden string was commissioned by the Britten-Pears Foundation and the Royal Philharmonic Society.’

Elgar Serenade for Strings

I           Allegro piacevole
II          Larghetto
III         Allegretto

Two of Elgar’s most frequently performed works are for string orchestra: the Serenade, and the Introduction and Allegro Op. 47. The latter was composed in 1905, but the Serenade, though written when Elgar was already 35, is one of his early instrumental works. It dates from 1892, the year after he left London for Malvern where he was at last able to devote himself chiefly to composition.

One of the distinguishing features of Elgar’s scores is the effectiveness of the instrumental parts. He was himself a professional player and was therefore able to acquire a considerable practical knowledge of most instruments. In his youth Elgar had been a member of the Birmingham Orchestra and in 1882 he became the leader of the orchestra in Worcester. The score of the Serenade Op. 20 shows the benefit of his experience as a string player, and orchestral musicians derive as much pleasure from his expertly written parts as listeners do from the subtleties of his instrumentation.

The addition of the word piacevole to the tempo indication of the first movement suggests the mood which pervades the entire work. There are no dramatic moments anywhere, nor are there any really fast movements. The rhythmic figure in the opening of the Allegro would lose its character if played too quickly, and since much of the thematic material used in the first movement returns in the last, the basic speed of the finale is given from the start of the Serenade. The Larghetto provides the necessary contrast. It has a short introduction leading to a lyrical melody played by the first violins. The melody is then developed and clothed in richer harmonies. At the end of the Larghetto, the music of the introduction appears once more and thus contributes an important element to the construction of a satisfying musical form.

© Stefan de Haan

Judith Bingham Clarinet Concerto

Having studied composition and singing at the Royal Academy of Music, Judith Bingham sang with the BBC Singers for many years before leaving to concentrate fully on her composing career. Her prolific catalogue includes choral and vocal works, along with church and organ music. Her Clarinet Concerto was premiered earlier this year.

Judith Bingham on the Clarinet Concerto:

‘I’ve written for two clarinets, the B flat and the E flat. The E flat to me has a more ethereal sound, the B flat can sound chunkier, though both instruments have a wide range of possibilities, everything from humour and jazziness to aggression and real beauty. I think they blend very well with the string ensemble, which for two of the movements is divided into 11 parts, and into the more usual 5 for the other two. I’ve written quite a few concertos now for 11 strings and a solo instrument, I really like it, and it is a practical line up as well, and one that doesn’t overwhelm the soloist as a full orchestra can. The clarinet is often at odds with the ensemble, like a figure in a landscape. I think there is a lot of the English landscape in the sound as well, which seems to me really appropriate as the premiere will be on Romney Marsh, such a thrilling and archetypically English landscape.’

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