(Continued)
(Carnegie Collection of British Music)
THIS, Stanford's Op. 56, written in 1894, was inspired by the two poems of Milton named in its title. The work received one of the awards of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust.
FIRST MOVEMENT. To this are prefixed two quotations from L'Allegro beginning :-r-
Hence, loathed Melancholy,
Of Cerberus and blackest midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn,
'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks and sighs unholy !
Find out some uncouth cell; and Haste thee. Kymph. and bring with thee Jest, and youthful jollity ...
Two little motifs on which the opening
Introduction is based (one On the Flute and the other on the Trombone) are later used as material for development. The Flute theme
. is found in the opening tune of the Movement, and the Trombone theme plays a leading part throughout.
SECOND MOVEMENT (Minuet). This is preceded by the lines describing pastoral scenes and sounds:—
Oft listening how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn.... Sometimes with secure delight The upland hamlets will invite,
When the merry bells ring round, And the jocund rebecks sound
To many a youth and many a maid, Dancing in the chequer'd shade ;
And young and old come forth to play On a sun-shine holy-day ...
THIRD MOVEMENT (Slow and calm). This has as a suggestive background some lines from Il Penseroso:—
But hail, thou goddess sage and holy, Hail, divinest Melancholy ! ...
Come, pensive nun, devout and pure, Sober, steadfast, and demure ...
But first, and chiefest, with thee bring Him that yon soars on golden wing, Guiding the fiery-wheeléd throne, The cherub Contemplation ...
LAST MOVEMENT:—
Oft, on a plat of rising ground
I hear the far-off curfew sound
Over some wide-water'd shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar : Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy
In scepter'd pall come sweeping by ... And, as I wake, sweet music breathe Above, about, or underneath ...
But let my due feet never fail
To walk the studious cloister's pale ... There let the pealing organ blow To the full-voiced quire below
In service high and anthems clear,
As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies,
And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.
The curfew is sounded at the opening, and then we go on to the vigorous and stirring musical suggestion of the thoughts of. the poet.