No. XVI OF THE THlRTY.FOURTH WINTER SERIES
Relayed from The Winter Gardens, Bournemouth THE BOURNEMOUTH Municipal AUGMENTED
ORCHESTRA
Conducted by Sir DAN GODFREY and HERBERT BEDFORD
ARNOLD TROWELL (Violoncello)
THE music of Herbert
Bedford may be said to be distinguished especially by its delicacy of feeling and refinement of workmanship. both of which qualities will be discerned in the two works to be played today.
Concerning the first of these, the Symphonic Interlude, Over the Hills and Far Away, the composer has stated that while the work has no explicit programme, it may be taken as a tone picture composed under the chivalric influence of Spenser's ' Faerie Queene ,' a fact which gives the clue to its character.
In respect of the second of Mr. Bedford's works being played this afternoon, Hamadryad, likewise described as a Symphonic Interlude, the following lines prefixed to the MS. score give an indication as to its general character :-
In the heart of the dense forest that through the past few centuries has entirely overrun the Valley of the Seven Hunters, there lies concealed an enchanted pool that was formerly known as The Dryad's Mirror.' ...
Its banks, rising sheer from the water's edge, are shrouded in a mist of wild hyacinth : but within Its depths, clear though they be as summer night, there is nothing to be seen, saving the reflection of the giant oaks crowding about it and of the slender tendrils of convolvulus that reach down from the overhanging boughs, fantastically twining and re-entwining like the arms of imprisoned dryads.
This piece may indeed well be called a dream-picture, for all that is painted here is overhung with a gossamer veil of mystery, through which its very sadness has a shimmering pictorial quality that in some way suggests a Barbizon picture.