WWI Concert Programme

8/10/2019 WWI Concert Programme

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Help for Heroes is a British charity devoted to providing better facilities for servicemen and women who have been wounded or injured in the line of duty. It was founded inOctober 2007 by Bryn Parry OBE and his wife Emma ParryOBE, and the charity endeavours to deliver an enduringnational network of support for wounded members of the

services and their families, and to inspire and enable those who have made sacrices for the country to achieve their fullpotential.

Half of every donation made tonight will go toHelp for Heroes to support their work.

The audience is reminded to remain silent forthe two minutes following the last post.

Thank you.



Finlandia, Op. 26 (1900)Jean Sibelius

Heroic Elegy, Op. 36 (1918)Ernest Farrar

Symphony No. 1,‘Sinfonia in memoriam’ (2014)

Matthew Holmes



Finlandia, Op. 26-Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius was born in 1865 into what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland,part of the Russian Empire. He studied music in the Helsinki Music Instituteas a young man, and later studied in Vienna and Berlin. The composer wrotethe tone poem Finlandia in 1899 as the last of a set of pieces to be performed

with a tableau depicting Finnish history, and its rst performance was held inHelsinki in 1900. Sibelius wrote the piece in a time when Russian inuence overthe freedom of Finland was increasing, and it became something of a protestagainst the censorship and restrictions of Russian occupation. It is, therefore, adepiction of the struggle for freedom and peace in the midst of conict, and the

serene chorale which emerges near the end of the work (which has become veryfamous with its arrangement as a hymn), is a musical portrait of the composer’slonging for peace. Many works by Sibelius, including Finlandia, have become

symbols of the national identity of Finland. Edward Liebrecht

Heroic Elegy. Op. 36

-Ernest Bristow Farrar (1885-1918)Like George Butterworth’s, Ernest Farrar’s promising musical career was cutshort by the senseless slaughter of the First World War. Born in Lewisham on7th July 1885, the son of a clergyman, his family moved when he was two yearsold and he was brought up in a Yorkshire vicarage in the village of Mickleeld,mid-way between Leeds and Selby. Farrar attended Leeds Grammar Schooland, by the time he left, was playing the organ well enough to be organist athis father’s church, passing his ARCO examination when he was just 18.

Soon afterwards, he enrolled at Durham University for the Mus. Bac. degree but won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1905 on the strengthof compositions submitted. He won various College prizes and was evidently

well thought of by his teachers, who included Stanford, Sir Walter Parratt, SirFrederick Bridge and Parry, who was director of the College at the time. In fact,Stanford himself conducted the rst performance of Farrar’s choral work The

Blessed Damozel in 1908. Stanford, Parry and Parratt recommended Farrar fora temporary organist’s post at the English church in Dresden, which he took upin 1909, and subsequently for a permanent post in South Shields. From there

he moved to become organist of Christ Church Harrogate from 1912 and kept busy with playing, teaching and conducting whilst producing a steady streamof compositions. The most prominent of his pupils was the young Gerald Finzi,



who started lessons with Farrar in 1914 at the age of thirteen and later dedicatedhis Requiem da Camera to the memory of his teacher. Farrar volunteered forthe Grenadier Guards in December 1915 but did not join his regiment until the

following August. He received a commission in the Third Battalion DevonshireRegiment in 1918 but, after only two days at the front, was killed at the Battle ofEpéhy on 18th September, only a few weeks before hostilities ended.

The Heroic Elegy was to be Farrar’s last orchestral work and is a minormasterpiece which, along with his other orchestral music, deserves to be betterknown. The score is inscribed at the end “Royal Barracks, Devonport, May/18” and the composer was granted leave to conduct the rst performance inHarrogate on 3rd July. The emphasis is denitely on the ‘elegiac’ rather than

the ‘heroic’ but it is a noble tribute to the bravery of his fellow soldiers, to whomthe piece is dedicated. It is a powerful work which evokes the bleakness of the

battleeld and the dignied tread of a funeral march. The score is dominated bya dotted triplet rhythmic gure, which rst appears as a mued trumpet call,echoed by the horn, and the steady pulse of the timpani. In it, Farrar introducesas a second subject ‘The Agincourt Song’, a familiar fteenth-century Englishtune, which is richly scored for brass. The manuscript score, which remainsunpublished in the Bodleian Library, is prefaced with a quotation from Henry

V: ‘Free from vainness and self-glorious pride’. Martin Holmes



Symphony No. 1, Sinfonia in memoriam-Matthew Holmes

Sinfonia in Memoriam is an expression of the emotion and literal pain of thesoldiers and their friends and families in WW1. It describes the whole span ofthe war from the initial trigger to the conclusion. Inspiration for the structureof the symphony came after reading some programme notes about RobertSimpson’s Symphony No. 1 in which I discovered that Simpson based the wholesymphony around the conict of 2 key centres a tritone apart. This powerfuldissonance and the conict between the 2 keys was the main stimulus for

Sinfonia in Memoriam. I took the keys C and F#, to represent the two sides inthe war and we hear them ghting for dominance throughout the work.

Sinfonia in Memoriam consists of two movements, both of which areapproximately the same length. The rst movement describes the majority ofthe war, opening with a very slow stacked rotation of contrary motion perfect4ths building up to a full 12-tone verticalisation. This intense dissonancedescribes the early tensions between nations before the war starts. Followingthis we are introduced to a theme by the horns, which depicts the patriotism felt

by the 2 sides and the theme is heard throughout the rst movement. At points,the patriotism theme is almost completely obscured, demonstrating how thesoldiers lost faith in their countries as they saw their comrades fall. The tritoneis now slowly introduced into the music along with a descending idea which is

built upon throughout the rst movement. Out of the tritone emerges a themethat I think of as the argument theme. This theme is very simple and barelychanges throughout the piece. The theme moves from C to F# and alternates

between the two as the piece progresses. The fact that both the keys state thesame argument theme represents how both sides are ghting for the same thingand that a compromise is easily met just by meeting in the middle.

Following this early argument, the key of E-at is introduced. E-at being themid-point between C and F# represents compromise between the two and isused throughout the work as the key representing peace. The rst appearance ofE-at is accompanied by frantic string movement which isn’t heard again untilthe second movement.

We next hear a very dissonant section in which the tritone is prominent.The thin scoring and quiet dynamic at this point represents the calm before

the storm while both sides wait for the other to make the rst move. But, as with all things in life, peace always comes to an end and the brass erupt intoa ferociously dissonant fanfare as the tensions become too much. Silence then



falls very briey before we are reminded of the initial tension.Following this is a very reective section based on the argument theme, played

by the strings, which represents families as they watch their sons and fathers go

o to war. The rst march that we hear is introduced by a high trill in the oboesand upper strings but is undermined by the introduction of a jerky rhythmin the lower strings. This rhythm foreshadows the marching of the woundedsoldiers who survive the war. The march starts close to E-at major to showthe optimism of the soldiers as they march towards the false glory that theyhad been promised. The key slowly deteriorates and moves to C minor as theargument theme is presented in the wind and strings.

After a short timpani roll the rst hellish battle commences in a bitonal fury made

up of 2 war calls along with a menacing bass line and frantic irregular rhythms.The argument theme recurs, now presented by the brass, and represents new

battle tactics.

Following this battle, the music becomes more still as a held tritone in theupper strings is played while the 2 sets of timpani exchange the tritone whichforeshadows the nal battle (to be heard in the second movement).The stillness isn’t maintained for long as we are almost immediately presented

with a new increase in tension, much more developed than the last to show the

progression of the war.

The second battle that we hear battle is far more organised than the rstalthough still includes motifs from the rst, one of which being the relentlessostinato in the lower strings which continues throughout the second battle. The

brass section sound the war calls in the same key until an explosion of gun resounds, heard in the upper strings and percussion. This second battle climaxesin a 7/8 version of the argument theme played by the brass over a frantic scalepassage in the woodwind. This section ends with the famous Christmas Truce

which took place on 25th December 2014.

The Christmas Truce here is represented by an E-at statement of the patriotismtheme for full orchestra played much faster than at other times and with chaoticarpeggios in the wind. The truce doesn’t last long. It ends with a very unstablesection before leading into the closing section of the rst movement.The rst movement ends in A minor which is a tritone away from E-at,indicating that we are as far as possible away from peace.

The second movement represents the last battle of the war. It opens with a verylong section which slowly introduces all the themes that appear later in the



movement. This represents how long the last battle, and last march, must havefelt to the men who took part.

The texture of the marching section is very thin made up of pizzicato stringsplaying fragmented themes which slowly grow into those themes which are

stated later. The solo winds start by playing a variation on the war song, Run Rabbit, Run, before the clarinet plays a theme heard later as the tune to achorale. During this section, listen out for a bassoon melody which representsthe heartbeats of the soldiers as they march. We are introduced to the theme ofthe chorale on dierent instruments in dierent versions representing dierentsoldiers whistling well known tunes. Eventually, we hear an actual statement ofthe chorale.

The full chorale is played, for the rst time, by the horns and oboe. After this, a

side drum is heard to play a military call and drum roll to announce the nal fewsteps of the march. The second statement of the chorale is played by the lower

brass and is in C which triggers the nal battle.

This nal battle comprises string chords alongside the marching theme played by the celli-bass and wind. The brass play staggered, descending heartbeatmotifs. All this is happening during a Nielsen inspired timpani battle. The whole

battle continues to get more and more frantic and slowly introduces the originaltritone back into the music before settling on an E-at chord. We hear a new

peace call played twice showing that both sides now want the same thing.Following the peace calls, the piece now heads towards a sounding of the Lastpost. The tubular bells sound an E-at 11 times before the last post is nallyplayed by the ostage trumpet in E-at to signify the end of the war at 11 o’clockon the 11th of November 1918.

Following the last post, we all participate in a 2-minute silence after which thetrumpet sounds the Reveille. We are then reminded of the start of the war andhear a stacked 12-tone chord in which each note is introduced by a heartbeatmotif which represents the heartbeats of all those lost. Two nal statementsof the chorale, this time in E-at, signify that both sides are now at peace andremember the fallen together.

“Death august and royal sings sorrow up into immortal spheres”

– Laurence Binyon



The Oxfordshire Festival Orchestra is a symphony orchestra founded in 2014 by Matthew Holmes, Charlie Baker, Bethan Rose and Edward Liebrecht, with a

view to performing Matthew’s rst symphony in the context of a WWI MemorialConcert. One million, twelve thousand and seventy-ve young men and womendied over the course of the First World War, and as a way for the young peopleof Oxfordshire to commemorate those fallen, the debut concert of this orchestra

will be devoted to those who suered and died in all elds of warfare. Particularthanks must go to Oxfordshire County Council for their help in the funding ofthis ambitious project.

Edward Liebrecht is an Upper 6th form pupil at Magdalen College School inOxford, and is a trumpeter and aspiring conductor. He looks to study music inthe future, with a view to professional musicianship, possibly as a conductor.He has conducted several ensembles at Magdalen College School, and recently

was Music Director for the acclaimed RicNic production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein show ‘South Pacifc’ . This will be Edward’s debut conducting afull symphony orchestra in a concert setting.

Matthew Holmes is a 17 year old student in The Cherwell School Sixth Form.

He has had a passion for Classical music from a young age and took up thetrumpet when he was 9 and has been playing regularly ever since. He is current-ly rst trumpet in the Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra and attends manyother ensembles run both by Oxfordshire County Music Service and The Cher-

well School. He rst started composing in 2011 after he was inspired to writemusic and ultimately a symphony by listening to Beethoven. The aspiration to

write a symphony has stayed with him ever since and he nally wrote his rstsymphony, Sinfonia in Memoriam, in 2014. Since the initial trigger from Bee-thoven, Matthew has gone on to explore many aspects of the Classical genre

and is currently heavily inuenced by late Romantic composers such as Niels-en, Bruckner and Sibelius through to Contemporary composers such as Simp-son, Maxwell-Davies and Birtwhistle. He currently studies composition with DrJohn Traill and Sarah Coatsworth and has recently written several works for

brass ensembles and other chamber groups. He is in the process of attendinginterviews at 6 of the UK conservatoires where he has applied to study composi-tion in September 2015. This is the rst performance of one of Matthew’s major

works.

WWI Concert Programme

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Transcript of WWI Concert Programme