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Programme Notes

Anniversary Dances Op. 95

This work was composed in celebration of the Centenary of the founding of the University College of North Wales, Bangor. It consists of a Prelude, Five Dances, and Finale.

The opening Prelude, with its dancing brass fanfares, leads without a break to the first Dance which is lively and vigorous. A harp glissando (with side drum roll) leads into the second Dance, which is slow and mesmeric - in total contrast. Dance No.3, marked Vivace, has strong hints of parody, even to the momentary use of castanets, while No.4 (Allegro scherzando) is spiky and edgy in its use of woodwind and muted brass. No.5 (Andante cantabile) is warm and Celtic in mood, featuring a broad-spanned melody first heard in the horns. A brief harp glissando leads without pause into the Finale, which redeploys and develops the music of the work's opening towards a highly energetic and positive Coda.

There are no direct folk-song quotations. Despite their variety the Dances are linked in musical terms, allowing the work to form a kind of Dance Ceremony for orchestra.

Carillon for organ (1990)

Carillon was first performed by Todd Wilson at the Montreat Conference on Music and Worship in Montreat, North Carolina, in June 1990. The piece was commissioned by the Allen Organ Company as 'an extension of their commitment and responsibility to the organ community and the cause of organ and sacred music'. The composer was asked to provide a piece 'appropriate for both church and recital... within the grasp of a normal player and a normal audience'.

As its title suggests, Carillon is inspired by the sonority of bells - more particularly, the overtone harmonies generated by bells, and the type of music associated with the carillons of Belgium and Holland: simple, bright, and generally repetitive tunes played over relatively slow-moving, sonorously constant pedal harmonies.

The piece, luminous and festive in nature, builds to a climax in which the various bell pedals are juxtaposed in bracing harmonies while the tunes peal out jubilantly above.

Concerto for Harpsichord, Strings and Percussion Op. 56 (1971)

1. Toccata
2. Aria
3. Capriccio

Commissioned by the 1971 Fishguard Festival in association with the Welsh Arts Council. First performance, Fishguard Festival, 25 August 1971, William Mathias, John Ward, String Ensemble of University College, Aberystwyth, conductor Christopher Hogwood.

The harpsichord is in the first instance the solo instrument in this Concerto, generating as it does all the main musical material. At the same time, it plays the role of “primus inter pares” in the exploration of relationships between the varying timbres of harpsichord, strings, and percussion. The latter part (taken by one player) has within itself a wide variety of timbre - e.g. marimba, vibraphone, bongos, glockenspiel, block, cymbal, side drum.

The opening Toccata explores a number of ideas which are partially re-stated following a contrasted central section. The central Aria (the term here used to describe a movement of a lyrical and song-like nature) has a prominent obligato part for vibraphone; the music develops to a climax of expressive intensity afterwards closing in the contemplative mood of the opening. The final Capriccio is a lively dance-like movement giving full play to much varied writing for harpsichord and to the various textural combinations inherent in the work as a whole.

Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra

Commissioned by Llantilio Crossenny Festival in association with the Welsh Arts Council.

1. Allegro non troppo
2. Adagio espressivo
3. Vivace

The first movement is tautly argued, and its material is drawn almost entirely from the opening string chords and following oboe tune.The central Adagio is a deeply expressive slow movement drawing on the oboe's inherent melodic qualities. The rhythmic finale finds the oboe in a more dance-like mood, and there is a cadenza before the coda brings the music to a decisive close.

Dance Overture

This Overture was commissioned by the 1962 Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales, where it was first performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Direct and light-hearted in character, the music makes extensive use of popular (particularly Latin-American) dance rhythms.

Within its own terms the work’s structure is nevertheless taut. There are three main ideas; two of these are basically canonic or imitative by nature, and are furthermore heard simultaneously in the compressed recapitulation section. Canon, imitation, superimposition – such devices are here used in contribution to a sense of musical play and to the spirit of the dance inherent in the Overture’s title.

Fenestra

for solo organ

The English for Fenestra is Windows. The darkness of the work's opening is gradually illuminated by sound windows of varying tempi, brightness and colour. The player is invited to adapt this metaphor on each occasion to the given individuality of the instrument, allied to the acoustic in which it is placed. This work was composed very much with Jennifer Bate in mind as first performer and dedicatee. Its basic idea was, indeed, generated through knowledge of the infinite care Jennifer Bate devotes to the important matter of registration - something which has to be thought out anew for virtually every occasion and location. Important as colour is, it nevertheless remains a metaphor for the work's musical argument, which proceeds and develops in a one-movement span from darkness to light.

Flute Concerto

1. Allegretto grazioso
2. Lento molto
3. Allegro molto vivace

This commission gave me the happy opportunity of writing a concerto for William Bennett, to whom the work is dedicated. It is also a pleasure that his colleagues in this first performance will be the Guildhall Strings.

The work's three movements are strongly contrasted, and each may be thought to encapsulate an aspect of the flute as a musical instrument. Movement 1 draws on the flute's capacity for gracefulness and poise heard here not least in sinuous melodic lines. In severe contrast, Movement 2 is a study in far more intense and even tragic emotions - its jagged opening idea is marked `molto marcato'. The Concerto's rhythmic and bustling finale highlights the flute's capacity for display; the movement begins happily, and the spirit of play develops towards a hectic coda.

Flute Sonatina

Mathias' Sonatina, originally composed in 1953 but revised in 1986, is a slighter yet more approachable work. A considerable amount of straight repetition renders the music easily assimilable. For instance, both main themes in the opening sonata movement are repeated during the exposition; similarly a large stretch of the development consists simply of a transposed version of a previous passage. Only in the third and final movement does the structure become more complex, with the combination of variants of the main themes of the first movement. But such subtleties pale into insignificance when compared with the rhythmic ebullience and good humour of the outer movements, and the suave, urbane lyricism of the central Andante. If the listener is entertained agreeably, the Sonatina has done its job well.

In Arcadia

This orchestral piece was commissioned by the Alumni Association of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (with funds from the Welsh Arts Council) to celebrate its 100th Anniversary Year.

Mathias has used the occasion to write a work which meditates on the nature of Time. In Arcadia is entirely based on a short carol written by the composer in 1954 when he was himself a student at Aberystwyth. As such, it is almost certainly the only work of music knowingly based on a piece written by the same composer 37 years previously! (The carol In excelsis gloria was rediscovered in 1989 and is published by OUP this month.)

The concept of `arcadia' is symbolic of eternal youth, innocence, and joy. But Poussin's famous and beautiful painting of 1642 Les Bergers d'Arcadie reminds us that time and death are also ever present in relation to all earthly things.

"Et in arcadia Ego...."

Learsongs

1. Calico Pie
2 . The Owl and the Pussycat
3. The Duck and the Kangaroo
4, Uncle Arly
5. The Pelican Chorus

The so-called ‘nonsense’ poems of Edward Lear (1812-1888) were an instant success in publication in nineteenth-century England, and they have since become part of the heritage of children in many parts of the world. So much so that in his centenary year (1988) Lear was celebrated in Britain with a set of national postage stamps based on his work, and (the ultimate accolade) a commemorative plaque in ‘Poet’s Corner’ at Westminster Abbey.

Some commentators have seen a deeper side to the verse reflecting his rather sad and solitary life and it is certainly true that for adults the humour had more than a tinge of melancholy. But his primary appeal is to children, who understand the delightfully anarchic wit without any need for commentary.

I selected five of Lear’s best known poems to form a unified suite designed for Jean Ashworth Barle and the Toronto Children’s Chorus - to whom the work is dedicated. The instrumental accompaniment is either for piano duet alone, or for a chamber ensemble consisting of clarinet, trumpet, piano duet, percussion and double-bass. This little ‘cabaret’ band combines with children’s voices to create a particular sound world designed to reflect the uniquely humorous quality of Lear’s poetic imagination.

Prelude, Aria and Finale Op. 25

Prelude, Aria and Finale for string orchestra was written in 1964 for the Caerphilly Festival. The single-movement work was conceived as a compression of a multi-movement archetype and has three unified sections (rather than three movements). The work can be thought of as an imagined musical triptych, the outer two sections contrasting to the expressive central Aria. Although strikingly individual in character, the Prelude and the Finale are, in general terms, marked by their urgency of tone and juxtaposed rhythmic fragments; the Finale in particular captures the rhythmic quality associated with the spirit of dance. In contrast, the central Aria is a rich palette of melody, where divisi string-writing is utilised to enhance the expansive nature of the musical material.

Shakespeare Songs Op. 80

Commissioned by HTV Wales for the third Card Festival of Choirs, this work was first performed on 8 February 1979 at the Assembly Room, City Hall, Cardiff by the Dyfed Choir, conducted by John Davies with the composer as pianist.

Although these eight famous poems are taken from a number of different plays by Shakespeare (and hence from many different contexts), their variety of mood and feeling allowed me to set them in the first instance as a linked group almost, indeed, as a song cycle.

This concept is emphasised by the fact that the last song recalls some of the music of the first; both are winter poems. There is also a certain similarity of feeling (but no direct musical quotation) between the settings of No.II (Full Fathom Five) and No.VI (Dirge from Cymbeline). No.III (Lawn is white as driven snow) is for men's voices only and it leads virtually without a break into No.IV (Sigh no more, ladies) set for women's voices alone. No.V (Crabbed Age and Youth) makes the most of rhythmic opportunities afforded by the works, themselves full of internal contrasts. In the penultimate song (It was a Lover and his Lass) the words are sung only by the women of the choir, while the men whistle a recurring refrain - the two combining to produce a setting (as indicated in the score) "in the manner of a Roundelay".

The piano part is integral to the whole, helping to emphasise the different moods of these eight poems. It is particularly helpful in highlighting (however obliquely) Shakespeare's love of bell sounds to indicate the passage of time and the transience of human life.

Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano

This Sonatina (composed in the Spring of 1956) was first performed in a student concert at the Royal Academy of Music on 29 January 1957 by John Hempenstall and the composer. Its first fully public performance was given at the Cheltenham Festival on 13 July 1957 by John Davies and Else Cross, who also gave the first broadcast performance in December 1958 and subsequent performances in France and Poland. Performances in London were also given by Alan Hacker and the composer in 1957.

The work as now published incorporates revisions mainly to the textual layout (rather than the overall substance and structure) of the finale.

Soundings

First performance, Wigmore Hall, London, 13 May 1988, London Brass

I. Overture (Allegro alla danza)
II. March (Allegro giusto)
III. Elegy (Lento)
IV. Capriccio (Allegro non troppo)

The Overture immediately exposes (a) a dance-like idea (b) a chordal sequence and (c) a running pattern which form the basis not only of this movement but of the work as a whole. The succeeding March is ironic in nature, with its use of muted trumpets - except at the climax. The Elegy uses the instruments in a singing, deeply expressive manner. After recalling the chordal sequence from Movement I, the final Capriccio launches into a lively and metrically varied dance. Brass sounds are used throughout, but always within the context of an integrated musical argument.

Summer Dances

1. Maestoso - Allegro all danza
2. Allegretto preciso
3. Allegro non troppo
4. Moderato
5. Lento con moto, e flessibile
6 . Allegro ritmico

This work was commissioned by the 21st Fishguard Music Festival (in association with the Welsh Arts Council), where it was first performed on 25 July 1990 by the Fine Arts Brass Ensemble.

Zodiac Trio

This work was commissioned (in association with the Welsh Arts Council) by the Vale of Glamorgan Festival, where it was first performed by the Robles Trio - Christopher Hyde-Smith (flute), Frederick Riddle (viola), and Marisa Robles (harp) - on 19 August 1976.

The title derives entirely from the fact that it was composed for and dedicated to three personal friends, each of whom was born under a different sign of the Zodiac. An introductory Moderato leads directly into three distinctive movements: Pisces (Allegro vivo), Aries (Andante), and Taurus (Allegro alla danza).