conducting some of his Lighter Music
THE WIRELESS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Overture, 'The Butterflies' Ball'
In Fairyland
(3) Flower Fairies; (5) Moonbeam Fairies; (6) Dance of the Witches
Gavotte, 'Yellow Jasmine' (The Language of Flowers), Set
I. Lover 's Minuet (Old English Dances), Set II.
Wistaria (Will You Dance With Me?) (The
Language of Flowers), Set II.
'FROM the earliest days of my youth,' Sir Frederic Cowen has said, 'I was intended for music. Even if I rack my memory I cannot discover that I ever had the opportunity of thinking of or choosing anything else.' Even so, not many musical youngsters achieve an Operetta at eight-Sir Frederic's feat. It was written to a libretto by a girl cousin, and its title was Garibaldi. 'It had a run of two consecutive nights in the Royal Opera House back parlour,' we hear-doubtless, to enormous applause from the entire family.
Sir Frederic, who came to England from Jamaica in 1856, four years before the important event described above, has been composing and conducting ever since.
His Overture, The Butterflies' Ball, is delicately and daintily orchestrated, with many trills and flutterings on Flutes, 'light converse of the Wood-wind and Strings, and so forth. There are suggestions, too, of the delicious languor of a summer's afternoon'.