| Pantalon and Columbine | |
| op2, ?1902-04 Subsequently incorporated into English suite 1 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, glockenspiel, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, harp, strings II Andante - Tempo di valse
(allegro) [200 bars] (9´) Musica Viva, late 1970s, no longer available
The fact that this work was described in The Staffordshire Sentinel of 15 January 1907 as Brian's 'opus 2', in a list which includes the English suite 1 as 'opus 12', suggests that he still considered at that date that it could be regarded as a separate work. The same paper had reported on 24 November 1905 that Sir Dan Godfrey had Pantalon and Columbine, which 'contains much that is visionary and symbolical in its emotional utterances', down for performance during the coming season at Bournemouth, along with For valour. One or other score (or both) had been recommended to him by JG Halford. In a reply, postmarked 18 February 1970, to a query by Graham Hatton, HB further stated that »... a performance was fixed to be played by the York Symphony Orchestra (Tertius Noble) & to be conducted by Coleridge-Taylor. I failed to get the parts ready so the performance didn't come off.« Brian was always vague on the question of whether, and to what extent, Pantalon and Columbine had been modified when it was incorporated in the Suite. In the same answer to Graham Hatton mentioned above, he stated: »No alterations as far as I can remember; originally a work of two movements«. But on 15 December 1944 he had written to Reginald Nettel »Pantalon and Columbine was a one-movement work«. Since movements 2 and 3 of the English Suite play without a break, with a brief recall of the style and tempo of the former in the latter (thus creating a single, loosely dovetailed structure), both statements might in fact be correct. Stylistically, there is nothing in the Valse to indicate anything other than a very early work - of approximately the same vintage as variations 3 and 4 of the Burlesque variations (the 5/4 waltz tune may directly reflect a first contact with Tchaikovsky's Symphony 6, which was presumably among the works lent to him by Halford) - nor, perhaps, in the lusher textures of Under the beech tree. It seems possible, however, that this section was at least rescored. The instrumentation required for the Valse movement on its own is only 2.2.2.2-2.0.0.0-timp,tgl-strings, which accords much better with the idea of a work for 'small orchestra'. The Commedia dell'arte figures of Pantalon and Columbine were later to arise in their own right in the Prologue to The tigers. Brian doubtless knew of the pairing of these two names in the Pantalon et Columbine movement of Schumann's Carnaval, op9. Malcolm MacDonald
Article Performing
Brian's music - James Kelleher
Performances 1 July 1994 27 May 1995 . St James' Church,
Piccadilly, London 990309 Havergal Brian - the official website HOME |
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