(From Birmingham)
THE BIRMINGHAM STUDIO AUGMENTED
ORCHESTRA
Leader : FRANK CANTELL
Conducted by JOSEPH Lewis
(A Prelude to a Dance Suite of Anglo-Saxon
Days)
(First Broadcast Performance)
NORMAN DEMUTH 'S music has already figured in the B.B.C. programmes, though this piece is being broadcast now for the first time. He learned his art at St. George's, Windsor, and at the Royal College of Music, where he was a distinguished pupil.
The Dance Drama to which this is the Prelude, is by Terence Gray of the Festival Theatre, Cam-bridge. The composer explains that the drama is a combination of speech and movement, the first adapted to the expression of ideas, and the other, to which of course the music is welded, to express emotion. The author has set forth his ideas on the subject in a book, ' Dance-Drama : Experiments in the Art of the Theatre.'
' The music of the Prelude is mainly forceful and intensely emotional. It opens with a tragic theme in octaves on the Brass and thence leads to a stormy section that depicts the strife between the Saxons and Danes, and the general atmosphere of disturbance in the Danegeld. It is followed by a quieter section, the theme of which is associated in the drama with Gorcnflaith, the sister of the Danish Jarl Sigrid , and the work concludes with a dramatic coda. It is scored for full orchestra, with ad libitum parts for two alto and two tenor Saxophones.' It is dedicated to Sir Dan Godfrey , who has more than once shown Ms interest in the composer.
LESLIE WOODOGATE is one of the young English composers of the present day whose work is strongly influenced by the prevailing enthusiasm for folk song. A distinguished student of the Royal College of Music, lie won a Carnegie Award in 1923, when he was exactly twenty-one years of age, probably the youngest composer who has ever gained that distinction.
This piece was written after a visit to Cardiff, in honour of the city, and is appropriately based on Welsh themes.