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var events_country = 6;
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var events_title = 8;
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var events = new Array();
events[0] = new Array("2001","NOVEMBER","24","Saturday","7:30pm","","","Concert",
"Symphony No. 1 in D","WORLD PREMIERE of SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN D","The Town Hall, Hitchin",
"£8 (adults) and £6 (concessions). Available by telephoning 01438 72630 (Chairmans home) or 07711 617561 (my mobile) or by post from The Box Office, 95 Nightingale Road, Hitchin, Herts. SG5 1RL or at the door. Please make cheques payable to \"Hitchin Symphony Orchestra\"","",
"This work was composed between January and December 2000. It is written for an orchestra of classical proportions and was composed with Hitchin Symphony Orchestra in mind, the amateur orchestra that I have conducted for the past 17 years.
In many ways the Symphony itself is `classical`. It has four movements: a Sonata Allegro, a Minuet and Trio, a lyrical slow movement (Aria) and a Finale consisting of a Passacaglia, Aria and Fugue.
The first movement has a regular Exposition with a first subject comprised of a slow arching melody alternately played on the upper and the lower strings and accompanied by a syncopated rhythm on the wind. The string melody and the accompaniment make much use of the interval of a semitone. The second subject - `classically` in F major, the relative major key - similarly consists of a melody on the strings accompanied by another syncopated rhythm on the wind. Again, much use is made of the semitone. These two subjects, with their melodies and rhythms, are the materials for the Development, which reaches its climax when all four elements are combined. This climax subsides quickly and leads to a `classical` Recapitulation with both subjects in the tonic. The Coda oscillates between major and minor (the difference being a semitone).
The second movement sprang from the idea of alternating a chord of C major (white note chord on a keyboard) with a chord on each of the black notes. So, the harmony (one chord per bar) is: C major - B flat minor - C major - A flat minor - C major - F sharp minor - C major - E flat minor - C major - D flat major - C major. Then the order goes into reverse - and the melody turns upside down! The Trio begins in F sharp minor (as far away from C major as you can get!) with a rather folk-like tune. In the middle it slips down a semitone to F minor before returning with new counterpoints in F sharp minor. The Minuet is then repeated.
The slow movement is an Aria in D major. A haunting melody oscillates around a small number of notes and is accompanied by soft and gently moving muted strings. The tune is given to solo wind instruments: clarinet, trumpet, flute. A shift to B flat minor (all three notes of whose tonic triad are each a semitone away from those of the tonic triad of D major) introduces solo strings (violin then cello). A return to D major gives an opportunity for a final clarinet solo with the movement then ending very quietly.
The Finale begins with a Passacaglia in D major. The theme is played ten times by the lower strings with variants in the upper strings and woodwind before a central section is reached. This consists of a fully orchestrated version of the Aria theme. This apotheosis then gives way to a four voice Fugue based on the Passacaglia theme, but this is short lived and the music returns to the Passacaglia proper. The Symphony ends with a whispered reference to the Aria theme.
This is no attempt at a masterpiece! It is not a profound work, though parts of it may attempt seriousness of expression. Conversely, the Minuet is overtly humorous. But it is a work that I have much enjoyed writing and I trust that it is enjoyable for performers to play and for listeners to hear. It is dedicated to my son Jonathan.
What of influences? Well, Elgar figures in all my music - that habit of his of making harmonic side-steps. And the chord structure of the Minuet was prompted by the tonal (A flat major-D minor) structure of his Symphony No. 1. Parts of my first movement have echoes of Shostakovich and its end derives from the end of last movement of Vaughan Williams` Symphony No. 6. The Finale (Passacaglia, D major, lower strings) is a son of the Finale of Vaughan Williams` Symphony No. 5. Its climax is reminiscent of Tchaikovsky. One of the orchestral players has even found echoes of Peter Warlock, very little of whose music do I know! However, though I may have drunk at their fountains, the final brew is mine, a mix of tradition and innovation but with nothing too frighteningly modern!
I should be so pleased to see any of you at the first performance. Do come if you can. Also, let your friends know.
Best wishes and kind regards to you all.");
events[1] = new Array("2002","JUNE","9","7.30 p.m.","","",
"Concert",
"-",
"\"The Selfish Giant\" - World premiere performance",
"Performers
Kingshott School Chamber ChoirStevenage Choral SocietyHitchin Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Robin Osterley","The Gordon Craig theatre, Stevenage",
"","",
"Also in the programme:
Grieg: Incidental music to \"Peer Gynt\"Mozart: Pianoforte Concerto No. 21 in C majorSoloist: Alex RoweConductor: Paul Adrian Rooke
\"The Selfish Giant\" was written to a commission by Stevenage Choral Society for a piece for the Stevenage Arts Festival 2002. It is a setting of the story by Oscar Wilde for children`s chorus, mixed adult choir and orchestra.
Wilde`s story, appealing to both children and adults alike, is a wonderfully poetic piece. Its prose language is beautiful, imbued by Wilde the Poet rather than Wilde the Wit. Indeed, Wilde the Wit makes only a rare appearance in the fable. The rest is pure verbal magic, with exquisite phrases, imagery and imagination.
I therefore decided not to alter a word of the story. It is an object of art in its own right, a fact which induced in me the utmost respect. But that meant that there were to be some severe practical problems in composing the piece. As Tippett found when he came to set prose for his \"Boyhood`s End\", it is all a matter of phrase lengths or rather scansion. In prose, the phrases will be of different lengths, sometimes easy or simple to set, but at other times too short or, which is worse for the singers, too long! Tippett solves the problem magnificently. I had already flexed my muscles in my piece, \"The DTs\", a set of five articles from \"The Daily Telegraph\" which I had composed for solo voice and pianoforte the previous year. I hope that people will find I have solved the problems in \"The Selfish Giant\" well enough. No doubt the singers will let their feelings be known if I have not.
The story is a Christian allegory. Children play daily in the Giant`s garden while he is away. But when he returns he chases them from the garden. When spring comes flowers and trees can be seen bursting into life in all the gardens around, but in the Giant`s childless garden it is still winter. One day a little boy appears near one of the trees in the Giant`s garden and the Giant lifts him up into the tree. At once it springs into life. The penny drops and the Giant invites all the children back. The whole garden bursts into life and spring arrives. He grows old. One day, as he is watching the children play in his garden, he realises that the little boy is not there. Nobody knows where he is. Then the little boy returns. But as the Giant approaches him, he notices wounds on each of his two hands and wounds on each of his two feet. He threatens to kill those who have wounded the little boy. \"No\", says the little boy, \"these are the wounds of love.\" And, reminding the Giant that he had let the little boy play in his garden, the boy says that today the Giant can come and play \"in my garden, which is Paradise.\" That evening, the Giant lays dead at the foot of the tree.
There is ample scope in setting Wilde`s words for the musical imagination to run free: garden music, music for Winter, for Spring, for Paradise and so on. I had great fun composing the music, which is, as Malcom Arnold would say, very much like meringue in places! - sweet, sugary, romantic. However, it is not all like that: Winter and the wounding scene, in particular, are suitably dissonant. The idea that pleased me most was to make the children`s chorus sing the part of the Giant all the way through! Normal composers might have given this to a basso profundo soloist, but not me! They are usually accompanied by muted trumpet.");
events[2] = new Array("2003","NOVEMBER","22","Saturday","7:30pm","","","Concert",
"Hitchin Concert Orchestra
(Leader: Janet Hicks)
Conductor: Paul Adrian Rooke",
"Mendelssohn: Overture to \"A Midsummer Night\'s Dream\"
Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G Minor
(Soloist: Iwona Boesche)
Sibelius: Suite - Pelleas and Melisande
Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 in D (\"Classical\")",
"Hitchin Town Hall","£10 (Concessions: £8; Under 12: Free)",
"","");
events[3] = new Array("2004","MAY","22","Saturday","7:30pm","","","","Gala 75th Anniversary Concert","John McCabe: Burlesque
Rachmaninov: Pianoforte Concerto No.2 In C minor
Soloist: Samantha Ward
(Guildhall School of Music and Drama)
Brahms: Symphony No.1 in C minor","Hitchin Town Hall","Tickets for all concerts available by telephoning 01462 458614","","For full information about the activities of Hitchin Symphony Orchestra visit the website: www.hitchinsymphony.org.uk");
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