(Section C)
Led by LAURANCE TURNER
Conducted by B. WALTON O'DONNELL
The movements of Herbert Bedford's Chinese Comedy Suite are taken from incidental music, written for a romantic comedy on a Chinese subject by Benrimo. The instrumentation is for a small orchestra, supplemented by a number of percussion instruments. These include Chinese gongs, the pang-tzee, and the pankou. The first movement is the wedding procession of a mandarin ; pang-tzee and pankou contribute to the music which accompanies the procession. The second movement, Plumblossom
(or May Fah Loy), is a serenade. It leads without a break into the third movement, an Intermezzo. The last movement, ' A Piece of Old Nankin ', sets out in light-hearted fashion, suggesting something of the bustling movement of the street life of the ancient capital. Near the beginning of the movement a ' voice off' is heard ; it is a fragment of the characteristic cry of the vendor of sweetmeats so dear to the oriental. Later in the movement the cry appears in its complete form, punctuated by the pang-tzee. The movement is constructed on a ground-bass which, however, is not unduly insisted upon, and it ends in a turmoil of percussion.