Sir Arthur Bliss

[relm1]

I like Groves' "Colour Symphony" very much - classic EMI analogue with the RPO in great form.  I like Wordsworth too but I would put Handley/Ulster ahead of him.  But to be fair I don't think there is a poor performance out there.  Lloyd-Jones is fine, Hickox I know but not as well as the others - for some reason it did not grab me quite as much as the others.  The old Bliss/LSO version suffers from simply not being in the same sonic league as the others and this is a rich and detailed score that needs to allow detail to register.

As a composer I think Bliss is under-rated.  He is a composer whose scores I collect of and it never fails to impress me just how well crafted they are when you look at them on the page.  The harmonic language he uses is more sophisticated than some might immediately think.  Technically he is hard to play well too.  From his autobiography it is clear he saw himself in quite self-effacing terms - definitely a 90% perspiration/10%inspiration kind of guy.  He had a very strict personal routine of trying to write a fixed number of bars of music every day, even if he came back to them the next day and threw them away.  Worth remembering all his important work at the BBC as an administrator.

I've never heard the Colour Symphony so I will check it out.  Your description is intriguing. 

[kyjo]

I like the Colour Symphony quite a lot but, to my ears, the later Meditations on a Theme of John Blow is an even finer work which conveys great emotional poignancy, beauty, and even contains some darkly disturbing passages (especially the section entitled Through the valley of the shadow of death).

[vandermolen]

I like the Colour Symphony quite a lot but, to my ears, the later Meditations on a Theme of John Blow is an even finer work which conveys great emotional poignancy, beauty, and even contains some darkly disturbing passages (especially the section entitled Through the valley of the shadow of death).

I like both works but, on reflection, I'm inclined to agree with you Kyle that the Meditations on a Theme of Blow has more depth to it. A Colour Symphony is immensely enjoyable though and stirring.

[Christo]

I like the Colour Symphony quite a lot but, to my ears, the later Meditations on a Theme of John Blow is an even finer work which conveys great emotional poignancy, beauty, and even contains some darkly disturbing passages (especially the section entitled Through the valley of the shadow of death).

I'm afraid - nu, quite sure - that both Jeffrey and I regard these Meditations as the other contender - especially for this section, in my case. 

[Maestro267]

I have thoroughly enjoyed the Meditations the few times I've listened to them.

[pjme]

After reading this (recent) remark by Mandryka

Anyway thanks to you I had an idea for Karl, I think he should write a setting of Gerard Manley Hopkins's God's Grandeur . It's crying out to be set to music and as far as I know no one's done it yet.

I did some research. The results were quite rewarding.!

https://www.youtube.com/v/N9C61nyJTeo
https://www.youtube.com/v/LJcT6a6aIDE

and Samuel Barber:

https://www.youtube.com/v/8yIRxpVcbzA

Benjamin Britten

https://www.youtube.com/v/zCoa728Mw5A

However, my favorite version could well be Kenneth Leighton's setting:

https://www.youtube.com/v/aJGLBTbFnRs

Anyway - I must listen (and read) again. Another version (Karl's !?) would surely be welcome.

[vandermolen]

I'm afraid - nu, quite sure - that both Jeffrey and I regard these Meditations as the other contender - especially for this section, in my case. 

I think that the Meditations along with Morning Heoes are Bliss's finest works, although I like much of his music, not least the lovely Oboe Quintet, Adam Zero, Miracle in the Gorbals and the Colour Symphony and both piano concertos.
He has been damned with feint praise often; for example the Meditations described as 'amiable but rambling' and his most memorable work as the March from 'Things to Come', which is, IMHO, rubbish.

[cilgwyn]

I must admit,I've never been very impressed by that film score! It sounds as if it should be great;but I usually end up turning it off! By the way,is the film worth watching? I'm sure it had an airing on BBC2,when I was a youngster;and it didn't make much impression ("No bug eyed monsters?!" ). Perhaps I was too young?!

[vandermolen]

I must admit,I've never been very impressed by that film score! It sounds as if it should be great;but I usually end up turning it off! By the way,is the film worth watching? I'm sure it had an airing on BBC2,when I was a youngster;and it didn't make much impression ("No bug eyed monsters?!" ). Perhaps I was too young?!

Can't remember seeing it right through (certainly not at the cinema - I'm not that old  ) but clips from history documentaries look interesting. Isn't the scenes of cities laid waste by bombing from the air considered to be one of the many factors which encouraged the British policy of Appeasement towards Nazi Germany in the 1930s. I like the music, especially the ominous sound of 'Machines' foolishly left out of some of the film suite arrangements, although Bliss himself included it.

[cilgwyn]

Some people seem to rate the film highly. Maybe,I'll buy the dvd,one day? But I must resist!!!

[cilgwyn]

A customer review of some of the audio,on the  Network dvd of the movie,gives me a convenient reason to avoid making another dent in my bank account! Describing some of it as (sounding like it is) "being relayed through a warbling frog that's simultaneously being gargled by a flatulent bulldog!" 

[Roasted Swan]

I like the music, especially the ominous sound of 'Machines' foolishly left out of some of the film suite arrangements, although Bliss himself included it.

I think "Things to Come" is possibly (almost certainly!) the first great British film score.  Including the March which you're not so keen on.  The reason I like it is apart from being an honest-to-goodness good tune is that the surprisingly dissonant harmony gives it an underlying sense of ill-ease which the more superficial swagger can blur.  Also the end of the Suite with the epic modulation into a "happy ever after" ending including full organ is about as cinematic as it comes.  Wonderfully captured by Charles Groves and the RPO on their recording originally coupled with an excellent version of the Colour Symphony.

[vandermolen]

I think "Things to Come" is possibly (almost certainly!) the first great British film score.  Including the March which you're not so keen on.  The reason I like it is apart from being an honest-to-goodness good tune is that the surprisingly dissonant harmony gives it an underlying sense of ill-ease which the more superficial swagger can blur.  Also the end of the Suite with the epic modulation into a "happy ever after" ending including full organ is about as cinematic as it comes.  Wonderfully captured by Charles Groves and the RPO on their recording originally coupled with an excellent version of the Colour Symphony.

I don't dislike the March but only the suggestion (repeated ad nauseum in the Penguin Record Guide) that it is the 'most memorable' thing that Bliss ever wrote. I agree with you about Groves although he is one of those who misses out 'Machines' in the Suite 

[Maestro267]

I found it strange that the suite of music from Things To Come that I've got (Naxos, coupled with Miracle in the Gorbals and Discourse for Orchestra) does not include the March.

[Christo]

But I must resist!!!

(You won't). 

[vandermolen]

I found it strange that the suite of music from Things To Come that I've got (Naxos, coupled with Miracle in the Gorbals and Discourse for Orchestra) does not include the March.

Nor 'Machines'.

[Maestro267]

Apparently there's only ten numbers in the score. Why not just have all of them and be done with this "suite" nonsense?

[vandermolen]

Apparently there's only ten numbers in the score. Why not just have all of them and be done with this "suite" nonsense?

Totally agree with you.

And also, if there is a suite why exclude movements which Bliss himself included?

[Maestro267]

Same applies to the "Checkmate Suite", which comprises more than half of the complete score. It's only 55 minutes, and complete performances of the likes of The Rite of Spring, The Firebird and even Daphnis et Chloe are quite common. The complete Checkmate is a thrilling work.

[vandermolen]

Same applies to the "Checkmate Suite", which comprises more than half of the complete score. It's only 55 minutes, and complete performances of the likes of The Rite of Spring, The Firebird and even Daphnis et Chloe are quite common. The complete Checkmate is a thrilling work.

I agree with you. It's on Naxos I think with the rather fine Melee Fantasque.