It is well-known that Frank
Bridge (1879-1941) had been minded to compose a symphony since the 1920s. Various
other commitments got in the way, including commissions from his patroness
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and a loss of confidence in his stylistic development.
It was not until 1940 that he began work on this project. Unfortunately, before
his death, Bridge had completed only the first movement (a few bars had to be added
by the editor) and three sketches which may represent his thoughts for
subsequent movements. This implies that the present ‘Allegro moderato’ is
likely to have been a first movement, rather than a single movement symphony.
After completion of the Violin
Sonata, H.183 in 1932 there had been relatively few new works. The Overture: Rebus for orchestra, H.191 was completed
in August 1940. The previous year had seen the Three Pieces for organ, H.190.
The most significant work of this period was the expressionist and demanding
Fourth String Quartet, H.188 (1937). The only other piece of importance was the
Bergian Three Divertimenti, H.189 (1938). There had been a number of false
starts including fragments of a concerto, H.184 (1934), a short seasonal piece,
A Merry, Merry Xmas for oboe,
clarinet, trombone piano, H.185 (1934), sketches for a Viola sonata, H.186
(1935-6) and a String Quartet movement, H.187 (c.1936).
Jürgen Schaarwächter (2015) writes that
Bridge had affixed a visiting card on the score stating ‘Unfinished Symphony
for Strings, Nov/Dec 1940 – Jan (10) 1941.’ A footnote suggests that the ‘(10)’
was probably added by another hand: it has ‘been written over an earlier erasure.’
It was not the composer’s usual
compositional practice to begin the full score of a work until the ‘rough
draft’ was complete. Paul Hindmarsh (1983) has suggested that Bridge may have
felt that he would not finish the entire symphony so began orchestration
immediately. Frank Bridge died on 10
January 1941, a few days after this card had been affixed. He was staying at Friston in Sussex at this
time.
It is well-known that Marjorie
Fass, the composer’s friend and companion, asked Benjamin Britten to complete
the symphony. He declined or ignored the request. She had written to him:
Benji darling,
What a sad, sad
grief our telegram must have been to you. I am so deeply sorry for what you
have lost in our lovely old Franco, with all his sweetness, his greatness and
his gentleness. Thank heaven he was spared suffering – for his heart just
stopped in his sleep. He had been out in the snow and bitter wind for a day or
so and must have caught a chill on his tummy… By the time… [the] doctor came it
was too late… His arteries were hardened and his heart too weak to stand the
vomiting… Lovely that during this war he could turn his mind with his beautiful
world of sound, and write the Overture Rebus… and he was making a fair copy of
a string symphony he liked very much – and told Eth[el]. that we should like.
Alas the score isn’t finished – and how we long for our Benji to look over the
sketches and see what he meant to do. Perhaps you will some day… Friston
23.1.41 (Hindmarsh, 1983)
In the late 1970s Dr Anthony
Pople produced his performing edition of the ‘Allegro moderato’ from the
surviving score and sketches. The last twenty-one bars of the movement were
orchestrated from a ‘complete and fairly explicit sketch’. The details of the methodology behind the movement’s
completion are included in Paul
Hindmarsh’s Frank Bridge: A Thematic Catalogue (1983).
The full score and parts were
published by Faber in 1979. A study score of the work is also available.
Hindmarsh (1983) has suggested
that this fragment ‘offers a gritty and a powerful foretaste of what might have
been.’ It is clear that Frank Bridge was ensuring that his music was once again
becoming more accessible to the concert-goer than some of his recent ‘modernist’
experiments.
Fabian Huss (2015) writes that
the ‘Allegro moderato’ is ‘classical in tone’. It uses ‘modest forces’ and has
a ‘more restrained idiom’ than is usual for Bridge’s orchestral music. Huss
adumbrates some reasons for this: ‘concentrated expression, economy of means
and forces and emphasis on contrast between strongly characterised sections’ of
the work. He presents a detailed analysis of the music.
The ‘Allegro moderato’ has some
379 bars. The music develops almost imperceptibly, but works up to a
considerable climax. The movement ends on the same chord with which it
opened. Hindmarsh (Liner Notes, Chandos
CHAN 10188) explains that this ‘elaborate sonata form’ does not have the
‘internal range or contrast that his single movement ‘Phantasies’ possess.
Interestingly much of the
harmonic material of this movement utilises ‘quartal chords’ – that is chords
built up on the interval of a fourth (C-F) rather than thirds (C-E), although
use is also made of triadic harmonies in this movement.
On Wednesday 20 June 1979 the
first performance of Frank Bridge’s ‘Allegro moderato’ was given at the
Aldeburgh Festival.
Other works at this concert at
the Maltings, Snape included Benjamin Britten’s Nocturne for tenor voice, seven
obligato instruments and string orchestra, op.60, (1958) and Young Apollo: Fanfare for pianoforte
solo, string quartet and string orchestra (1939). Bridge was also represented
by with his tragic ‘Lament’, H.117 (1915) for string orchestra (1914) and his
Suite for string orchestra, H.93 (1910). The English Chamber Orchestra was
conducted by Steuart Bedford and the soloists were Peter Pears (tenor) and
Michael Roll (piano).
The report on concert given by
Kenneth Loveland in the Musical Times
(August 1979), proclaimed that this was ‘a real Aldeburgh occasion…[which]
brought together music previously unheard at the festival from teacher and
pupil: a pleasantly contrapuntal ‘Allegro moderato’ intended by Frank Bridge
for a symphony for strings that never materialized…and Britten's Young Apollo written for the Canadian
Broadcasting Service in 1939 for the unusual forces of piano (Michael Roll
making much of the virtuoso writing), string quartet and strings, a piece
fairly bursting with exuberant invention.’
Richard D. C. Noble (Music & Musicians, December 1979) reviewing
concert and recording insists that the ‘Allegro moderato’s’ ending is too
‘inconclusive’ to imply that the work was ‘complete in itself’. He notes the
expansive sonata form underlying the work’s construction, but devoid of a
‘development section as such.’ Noble
concludes his review by suggesting that it ‘clearly serves as a prelude for
unknown things to come, troubled things we may be sure, for the music is dark
hued and disturbed, yet expertly written.’
The remaining sketches of the subsequent movements would bear this
contention out.
To be continued...
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