Reading, ' Westward Ho ! ' (Charles Kingsley )
(Picture on page 322.)
This listing contains language that some may find offensive.
Relayed from the Theatre Royal
MICHEL Dore
HAMISH MACCUNN , a native of Greenock, only lived forty-eight years (1868-1916). His death was a distinct loss to native music, for he was happily inspired by Scots life, history and romance, and most of his larger pieces are based on Scots themes.
His Concert Overture, Land of the Mountain and the Flood, written for the Orchestra whilst he was a student at the Royal College of Music, has as a motto the familiar passage from Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel, beginning, ' 0 Caledonia, stern and wild, meet nurse for a poetic child ! '
The First Main Tune, of typically Scottish character, comes at once.
A new phrase leads, through various keys, to the Second Main tune, like an old love-ballad.
These subjects are worked up into a romantic and exhilarating celebration in music of the beauties of the Composer's native land.
His three impressions in Highland Memories are entitled: (1) By the Burnside ; (2) On the Loch ; (3) Harvest Dance.
THREE pieces make up Foulds' Suite:-
1. THE CLANS. There are three chief features in this first piece. The rugged, energetic opening Tune seems to suggest the Highlands. Later, a more tranquil, rustic Tune is heard, characteristically Scottish. Then we hear a Call (perhaps the summoning of the Clans), and after this most of the foregoing material is treated in various ways, including suggestions of the bagpipes.
2. A LAMENT. This piece has been likened to
Welsh folk-song. It consists chiefly of a simple, expressive melody which is worked up by the Orchestra to a telling climax.
3. THE CALL. There are in this three tunes, respectively jiggy, in hornpipe style, and march-like.
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