Of their time and place

I do not know anywhere near enough to be able to tell you why a particular composer sounds the way he or she does – but I know, when I hear it, a piece of ballet music is by Чайковский (Tchikovski) – or that a symphony is by Vaughan Williams. Mature Beethoven is Beethoven (although early sounds more like Haydn to me).

Some composers have managed to arrange the notes and instruments in such a way that it reflects an individuality.

I was acutely aware of this, this month, after downloading several pieces which just struck me as ‘typical’.

Copland’s ‘Third Symphony’ – in a great recording conducted by the composer himself with the LSO, for example. I was attracted to the download because of ‘Billy the Kid’, the ballet, which is one of my favourites, and then thought, I don’t know the Symphony. I listened and realised – that is so Copland.

Part of the effect I am sure comes from the composer’s own conducting – he knows exactly the effect he wants and is good enough to get it. There might, in the future, be better conductors who can get better performances out of an orchestra, but there will not be a more definitive performance. Pure Copland in essence.

It also contains a famous tune whose integration into the work is remarkable and could leave no one in doubt as to the composer.

The second download that cemented the ‘typicality’ thought for me was of Malcolm Arnold’s 9^th Symphony – again, a new piece for me. It is brassy – as brassy as a Northern barmaid! But there is also the typical contrast of brass with flute and then in comes the clarinet … and I am off thinking not only Arnold but late 50’s early 60’s black-and–white, English, kitchen-sink films. There are smoking chimneys and rugby matches, bikes running over the cobbles and men in Gabardines with the collars turned up fighting against a downpour …

It is given a great performance by the forces of National Symphony of Orchestra of Ireland under the baton of Andrew Penny. It appears on the Naxos label which is doing so much for serious music.

Not only was this so Arnold, it was also so of its time and of a place. Maybe because Arnold’s music was first exposed to me as incidental to films, or maybe because it manages to capture something of the feelings of the culture.

And another realisation followed – so too is Copland: The quintessential American. And it is 20^th Century American. A piece like ‘Billy the Kid’ may be about the wild west, but it is the Hollywood fantasy wild west.

The final piece I listened to in this spirit was by a near contemporary of Arnold, William Walton, his First Symphony. I had downloaded it last month but only just got around to listening.

Now I had a triangulation – again, elements of the typical – I might not at first listen have been able to say ‘Walton’ – but if you’d said, Henry V – I’d have gone, “Of course … “

The personal is there and so too is the territorial. This is English. A different English from the Arnold – but English none the less. There are some Holst-like bits, and an element of Vaughan Williams pastoral, but overall it is very distinctive Walton. We get the brass again but here it thuds along building storm clouds accompanied by a downpour of strings swirling underneath.

And is there is a moment of Copland?

Of course – we are in the 20^th century in an industrialised economy and Walton is incapable of escaping that. Mind you, it is a performance under Andre Previn, who, despite giving some of the most English of twists to all he conducted in England, couldn’t escape his own cultural background. Mind you, it is with a third Orchestra from this side of the Atlantic - this time the Royal Philharmonic.

How much of this is in the music I couldn’t say. It is certainly in my head when I listen.

Technorati Tags: William Walton, Aaron Copland, Malcolm Arnold, Andre Previn