15/107/94 A Belfast Music Society Celebrity Concerts

Philip Grange Joseph Haydn John Bull William Byrd WA Mozart PROGRAMME Peter Maxwell Davies Des Fins Sont des Commencements Divertimento in C Pavan and Galliard: "St Thomas, Wake!" La Volta; Alman; Coranto Sonata K304 Interval Hymnos Kirkwall Shopping Songs Dances from the Two Fiddlers Saturday 15 October 1994 Elmwood Hall, 7.30 pm

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INTRODUCTION 1 1320 I was delighted to be asked by the National Federation of Music Societies to suggest a programme that could be toured to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of their president, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Why? When I was a student at the Royal Academy of Music in the late 1960s there was much excitement in the musical life of the country. There were a number of composers emerging with strong new ideas, and individual musical voices. Many concerts of 'new' music were genuine events to be savoured. There was a real sense of adventure. Newly-formed ensembles and virtuoso performers dedicated themselves to the musical and technical challenges being offered. One of the leading figures was undoubtedly Peter Maxwell Davies - Max as he was known. One of his close friends and colleagues was the clarinettist Alan Hacker who was my clarinet professor at the RAM. I went to dozens of concerts where Alan was involved in performing Max's music. He would often bring the clarinet parts to my lessons to show me - hot from the composer's hand; I was his student when Hymnos was written, and many of the other works which made Max such an 'enfant terrible'. I met all the people who worked together so closely; sat in on rehearsals; did little errands; turned pages; and occasionally had the privilege as a young student, of playing with The Pierrot Players (later The Fires of London), the ensemble created and conducted by Maxwell Davies and Birtwistle, which performed predominantly their music. My first BBC recording was with the Pierrot Players. I quite often played bass clarinet parts in Max's arrangements of Purcell, 'deping' for Harry Birtwistle. I was second clarinet for the music Max arranged for the film The Boyfriend - Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Ken Russell all dancing together in front of us whilst we were recording, I remember. Many things for an impressionable student to soak up.

2 Happy sixtieth birthday, Sir Peter. Issinulos As we all know, Sir Peter is now an internationally renowned composer. Yet he still retains the interest in writing music for young people that he has always had. I wished to reflect this, and his commitment to The Orkneys, the people, and the music there (we were resident ensemble at the St Magnus Festival on Orkney in 1993 and can readily understand the attraction of the islands), by including Kirkwall Shopping Songs and Dances from The Two Fiddlers, and to offer my tribute to both him and my teacher by including Hymnos in the programme. HOITJUGO Des Fins Sont des Commencements 25Y Ian Mitchell Philip Grange This six-minute piece is based on ideas and musical fragments taken from the rondeau Ma fin est mon commencement by the fourteenth-century composer Guillaume de Machaut. These ideas and fragments are entirely subsumed into the substance of the piece to create a dance-like overture with a slow introduction. It was written both as a tribute to my teacher Peter Maxwell Davies, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, and as a vehicle for the unconducted virtuosity of the ensemble Gemini. PG The work was commissioned by Gemini with funds provided by the Arts Council of England and first performed at the Queen's Hall Arts Centre, Hexham on 21 September 1994 in a concert jointly promoted by the Hexham Abbey Festival and the Hexham and District Music Society.

3 Divertimento in C Major (London Trio No. 1) This is one of a group of four trios written in London in 1794 during Haydn's second highly successful visit there. They were all scored for two flutes and cello, or flute, violin and cello (which is the version to be heard tonight). This delightful work, the first of the set and lasting about nine minutes, is in three movements: allegro moderato; andante; Finale - vivace Pavan and Galliard 'St Thomas, Wake!' La Volta, Alman, Coranto Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) John Bull no (1563-1628) William Byrd (1543-1623) All quilled keyboard instruments were called 'virginals' from Henry VII to the Restoration, and virginal music reached its peak under Elizabeth I with keyboard figuration - rapid scale passages, broken chord figures, arpeggios, and brilliant ornamentation - reaching its climax in works by John Bull, the greatest virtuoso of all. This English style with its clear and imaginative grasp of string keyboard technique, as opposed to organ, then spread throughout Europe via such composers as Sweelinck in the Low Countries, eventually proving to be the origin of our western keyboard style. The St Thomas mentioned in the title of Bull's dances is probably St Thomas à Becket, martyred in the twelfth century. Maxwell Davies took the pavan from this pair as the starting point for his huge orchestral piece, Foxtrot: St Thomas Wake, which created a stir in the late 1960s (it was premiered in Dortmund in 1969). He arranged the three dances by Byrd for school or amateur orchestra in 1959.

Sonata for Piano and Violin K304 4 This sonata, written in 1778, is one of the so-called Mannheim Sonatas. Five of the seven were written in Mannheim and two in Paris. But Alfred Einstein* suggests a more appropriate title would be the Palatinate Sonatas as Mozart dedicated six of them to Maria Elisabeth, consort of the Elector of the Palatinate. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) These are Mozart's first sonatas for piano and violin where the violin is no longer condemned to occasional interjections or incidental imitations, it now alternates with the piano, and often doubles the melody an octave higher. This does not prevent it, however, from being given accompani- ment figures when the piano has the melody. Einstein says of K304: Mozart's respect for tradition is shown in his giving these works only two movements, like those of Johann Christian Bach whose influence is present in virtually everything that Mozart did in Mannheim and Paris. 11 one of the miracles among Mozart's works, it springs from the most profound depths of emotion, and goes beyond the alternating dialogue style to knock at those gates of the great world of drama which Beethoven was to fling wide open. Mozart does not become pathetic, and this reserve, this concealment of an inner fire, together within the portion in the major of the Tempo di Menuetto - a brief glimpse of bliss, only enhances the mysterious power of this apparently 'little' sonata. As always when Mozart is deeply in earnest, he has recourse to 'work' (Arbeit) - that is, counterpoint; in this Sonata he used it to accentuate transitions." The sonata has two movements, and lasts about twelve minutes. * Einstein, Alfred. Mozart, His Character, His Work. Cassell & Co Ltd. 1946.

5 Hymnos This work for clarinet and piano was written in 1967 for Alan Hacker and Stephen Pruslin and was first performed at the Cheltenham Festival that year. Its full name would be Hymnos Hesperinos after the text of Gregorio di Naziano. Peter Maxwell Davies The work is closely connected with the setting of a related text, 'O lux quam non videt, alea lux' which was used in my Five Motets of 1959. The writing for clarinet and piano is extremely virtuose, not only in the obvious sense, but also in the matter of exact timings of long paragraphs precisely related by complex proportions, as sometimes occurs spontaneously in Indian classical music. Hymnos has nine sections which, though played without a break, divide clearly into three sets of three; the ninth section is the longest and develops the material of sections 1, 4, and 7. Hymnos lasts about 12 minutes PMD #d Kirkwall Shopping Songs Kirkwall Shopping Songs describes a shopping expedition in Kirkwall, the largest town (population 5000) on the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland. It is an expedition with excursions into fantasy and adventure; for instance, in No. 2, 'Our Street', the road where the hero (or heroine) lives becomes a numbered sequence of dangers to be avoided at peril, and in No. 6, 'Oh, Mr Spence', the simple operation of having a sole and heel nailed on a shoe at the cobbler's leads to the protagonist's transformation into a seal, and a life and death seal-chase in Hoy Sound, the notoriously dangerous stretch of sea between the largest island of Orkney, upon which Kirkwall stands, and the smaller Hoy, where I live. Peter Maxwell Davies

6 The first and third instrumental interludes need a word of explanation. 'The Big Tree', in the title of the first, grows in the very small main street of Kirkwall, where the houses huddle together to afford some protection to shoppers from the lively breezes whipping in from the sea; there are precious few trees on the islands, and this one, although small by Scottish standards, has grown unusually high, despite the climate, and is preserved as an object of great distinction. The third interlude is a picture of Hoy Sound, where the seal-chase of the preceding song takes place. butiny The Songs last about fourteen minutes. Dances from The Two Fiddlers 1. When I got out of bed. 2. Our Street 3. The Big Tree: Instrumental Interlude I 4. I must buy 8. 5. At the Bakery: Instrumental Interlude II 9. PMD 6. Oh, Mr Spence 7. Hoy Sound: Instrumental Interlude III Down that stair Home to tea Peter Maxwell Davies The Two Fiddlers written in 1978 is an opera for young people to perform, with a libretto by the composer based on a short story by George Mackay Brown. It was first performed at the St Magnus Festival on Orkney in 1978. The basis of this suite is a series of dances played in the opera on the fiddle, Orkney-Scottish style, by Storm Kolson first at the Trolls' dance, and later, to break a spell cast on the Orkney islanders by the Trolls, at an island get-together. The original orchestration is for school orchestra; this arrangement was made by the composer for his own group, The Fires of London, and was first performed by them in London in October 1978. The dances run continuously for about ten minutes.

TONIGHT'S ARTISTS GEMINI Flute Clarinets Piano Percussion Violin Cello 7 Will Sleath Ian Mitchell (Director) Andrew Ball Simon Limbrick Caroline Balding Jo Cole With Belfast School of Music Junior Music Centre Chorale, Helen Frame (conductor) and Pauline Magowan (accompanist). GEMINI performs widely throughout the UK and abroad (Australia, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Oman), gives regular radio and television broadcasts; and has recorded for video, CD and tape. Gemini's latest CD was voted one of BBC Music Magazine's top 40 CDs of 1993. Also in 1993 Gemini was shortlisted for a Prudential Award. Recent appearances have included the Bath, Chester, Kings Lynn, St Magnus, Spitalfields and Huddersfield festivals, major London concert halls, and a tour of the Sultanate of Oman for the British Council. Gemini is a pioneer in the field of professional performers in education and the twin activities of performance and education develop hand in hand through residencies in which the ensemble works with young people. Gemini's repertoire incorporates standard chamber music, early and folk music arrangements, audience participation and more, with the focus primarily on music of the twentieth century.

8 PETER MAXWELL DAVIES was born in Salford, on 8 September 1934, in the same year as Harrison Birtwistle, and in the year that Elgar, Delius and Holst died. After studies at the Royal Manchester College of Music and Manchester University he won an Italian Government Scholarship to study with Petrassi in Rome. His first orchestral work Prolation won the Olivetti prize and was performed at the ISCM Festival in Rome in 1958. From 1959-62 he was director of music at Cirencester Grammar School. He then studied at Princeton University with Sessions, Babbitt and Kim on a Harkness Fellowship. In 1967 with Harrison Birtwistle he formed the Pierrot Players (rechristened The Fires of London in 1970) and wrote a remarkable series of ensemble and brilliantly flamboyant music theatre works for them to tour worldwide until the late 1980s. In 1969 a BBC Prom commission resulted in the large scale orchestral work Worldes Blis, the Foxtrot St Thomas Wake was premiered in Dortmund in the same year. He moved to a croft on the remote Orkney island of Hoy in 1970 where he still spends most of his time, and does his composing. Commissions and performances have come from major organisations in most parts of the world. He founded the St Magnus Festival in Orkney (1977); became successor to Sir William Glock as Director of Music at the Dartington Summer School (1979-83); succeeded Sir Adrian Boult as President of the Schools Music Association, and in 1985 was appointed Associate Composer/Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. This led to the commissioning of the ten Strathclyde Concertos for the orchestra. In 1992 he was appointed to a similar post with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. He has written for most kinds of forces and mediums, including six symphonies and other large scale orchestral works, full scale and chamber operas, ballets, music theatre works, brass band pieces, chamber and instrumental works, many realisations - mainly of early music, and a large

01.9 body of works for young people to perform. Throughout his career he has campaigned vigorously on behalf of music education in the country. Peter Maxwell Davies was awarded a CBE in 1981, and became a Knight Bachelor in the 1987 New Year's Honours. PHILIP GRANGE was born in 1956. He began composing in his teens, and taking the advice of Harrison Birtwisle, he attended Dartington Summer School from 1975-81 where the composition classes of Peter Maxwell Davies were the greatest single influence. He subsequently went on to study privately with him. In 1976 he went to York University where his teachers included David Blake (composition) and Alan Hacker (clarinet). He completed his doctorate there in 1984. Since then he has held posts at Trinity College, Cambridge (Fellow in Creative Arts) and Durham University (Northern Arts Fellow in Composition). He is currently Lecturer in Composition at Exeter University. He has been featured or commissioned by many major festivals including Bath, Brighton, Canterbury, Musica Nova, Huddersfield, St Magnus, Summerscope, the Proms, and the International Rostrum in Paris. Performers of his work have included The Fires of London, Capricorn, Gemini, Lontano, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Singers, London Sinfonietta, Alan Hacker, Stephen Pruslin, Linda Hurst, Jane Manning and Ian Partridge. He is currently at work on a wind octet, a piano trio and a score for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. His music is published by Maecenas Music.

10 NATIONAL FEDERATION OF MUSIC SOCIETIES NEMS FLO Next Recital Brodsky String Quartet Saturday 3 December 1994 Elmwood Hall. 7.30 pm We gratefully acknowledge sponsorship from FLOGAS, and the assistance of Knight's Record Shop, Koinonia, and Tughan-Crane (Music) Ltd. GAS Funded by TO THE SVATAD ARTS COUNCIL OF ENGLAND Supported by the 127 ARTS COUNCIL

-ge. 8. Down that Stair Down that stair, there's a lady fair, Who sells tricks and spells of all kinds. And up that close, there's a shop with a ghost That hoots when the North Wind whines. Along that lane, there's a peedie window-pane, Where, if you stand and wait, An old gipsy woman will the powers of darkness summon, And read your hand and tell your fate. On the grocer's mat there's a fat pussy-cat That winks when you pass by, For he knows with his nose the kicking toes of his foes, And will hiss, scratch and bite them, if they try. I Oh, Mr. Grocer, I need butter, cheese - and how, Sir, Can I carry all my shopping home so far? If you wait for a while, I'll be closing, then the mile Will seem nothing, for I'll take you in my car. 9. Home to Tea It must be time to go home to tea, Where Granny from Westray will be waiting for me, Unless she got caught in the Westray tide, And was carried round the world to the other side. In that case I must take to the air, And fly to New Zealand or Australia, Stopping off for tea in Calcutta or Rome. But I think she'll be safe and snug at home. Now with our rooftop safely in sight, We bid you all a very good night.

1. When I got out of Bed When I got out of bed my mother said to me, That I must get the messages then she could be quite free To bake a cake with currants in, and bannocks for our tea, For Granny's due from Westray in a boat across the sea. Bobbing and bouncing in a boat through the storm, She'll be fussing and complaining to keep herself warm: But I know that for the boat trip she really is quite game, For it costs at least ten times as much, when you take the plane. So I shall get the messages, and when we have our tea, There'll be currant cake and bannocks for Granny and for me. 2. Our Street When you go down our street You must be careful who you meet. There's a funny old lady at number two, With a crosspatch face, who shouts at you. When you make a noise, or play hop-scotch or skip, She hobbles to the gatepost, waving her stick. At number three, there's a parrot in a tree, Who mimics all you say very wickedly; And at number four, there's a dog at the door, Which will bark and chase you right down to the shore. At number five, there are bees in a hive, Which buzz, buzz, buzz and around your head do dive. At number six, there are conjuring tricks, To turn you into jellyfish, and break your head with sticks. At number seven, there's a gate to heaven, But I'm not about to pass it, till a crown I've been given. At number eight, there's a terrible fate, For people who come to the classroom late. At number nine, there's a double yellow line, Where, if you stop and leave yourself, you'll have to pay a fine. At number ten, there's a lion's den, Where they feed the lion on ministers and council men. And at that number this little song stops, For if you've got so far, you're already at the shops. 4. I must buy I must buy Fat pig's fry Bacon, tripe, Apples ripe; Lemons, oranges, Cucumbers, porringers, Pepperymints, rat-traps, Tiddlywinks, flapjacks - All the things that I must buy, So we can bake them in a pie! Soap, rope, Matches, latches, Candles, bangles, Catches, patches. I must buy The clouds in the sky, The moon and the sun, To bake into a bun. Just think of the size of the baking tin We shall need to fit all the ingredients in. 5. At the Bakery I buy two bridies at 12p each, a cream cookie at 10p and a block of chocolate for 28p. I hand the assistant £1. And this is my char How many bridies and cream cookies is Mrs. Rendall buying, and how much does her chocolate cost? 6. Oh, Mr. Spence Oh, Mr. Spence, I've only ten pence To buy a sole and heel for my shoe. I know it's not much, but my pocket is such That that is the best I can do. If that is so, I'll have you know That my general stock's too dear, But I've got some old stuff which might be good enough, If selkie leather you'll wear. So he took my shoe, and as quick as one plus two, He'd nailed on a new sole and heel; And the next thing I knew, when I'd put on my shoe, Was that I had turned into a seal. Leaping with joy to the rocks off Hoy From the ice-green waves of the Sound, I did not see that hunter chasing me, Till he was poised to club me to the ground. But I rolled to one side, as his club grazed my hide, And plunged from the rock into the tide; So I saved my skin, though he clobbered my back fin, And the pain became too much for to bide. When I came to, I was the person I knew, Standing hard by Mr. Spence's store. But what could I do, for I had lost my shoe, When the seal-hunter chased me from the shore. When I get home, the truth I must own, But I bet no-one will see How selkie knew how I came to lose my shoe, And that selkie was really me.