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Re: RE: A Downland Suite

Alan

Good to hear from you.  Just back from another good weekend in Darlo...  The
'Boot and Shoe' still sells beer at 99p/pint so we really had to take full
advantage.

And no I can't resist your challenge...if you can use any of this (see
below) please feel free to translate it into Iowan!  I suspect the top bands
don't feel that they represent a sufficient technical challenge these days
but both make great concert pieces.  I know that Dyke included Downland in
their concert programmes a 3/4 years ago but it's a while since I heard
Comedy played in anger.

Trevor Halliwell (hi Trevor!) is correct in every respect except that it was
Comedy rather than Downland Suite that became the London Overture.

Cheers

David

Having enjoyed considerable success with works by Holst, Bantock and Elgar,
John Henry Iles (organiser of the National Championships at Crystal Palace,
London) turned in 1932 to John Ireland, a younger English composer who was
enjoying his first major successes at that time.  In some ways it was a
brave choice since Ireland was best known as a 'miniaturist', a composer of
songs and short works for piano.  However both of Ireland's works for band
have withstood the test of time and demonstrate an instinctive and
imaginative command of band scoring.  Interestingly both 'A Downland Suite'
(1932) and 'Comedy' (1934) are unusual in having been re-scored for
orchestra following their successes as band music, an unusual reversal of
the norm.

'A Downland Suite' is cast in four movements, like a classical symphony in
miniature, with a profoundly elegiac second movement and an elegant minuet
as the third.  The bustling finale develops ideas from the first movement
and reaches its climax with a Grandioso quotation of the theme from the
Elegy.

--


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