The only piece of music by Cecil Armstrong
Gibbs (CAG) regularly played on Classic FM is ‘Dusk.’ It is invariably
heard in the Hyperion (CDA66868) version with Ronald Corp conducting the New
London Orchestra. To my knowledge, the presenter rarely, if ever, mentions that
this piece is an extract from a larger work.
As far as Classic FM are concerned, the composer is a ‘one hit
wonder.’ On the other hand, it is good that Armstrong Gibbs is heard on the
wireless at all.
The ever
popular ‘Dusk’ was, in fact the third movement of Armstrong Gibbs’s dance suite
for orchestra, Fancy Dress, op.82, written in 1935. The other movements
are ‘Hurly-Burly’, ‘Dance of the Mummers’ and ‘Pageantry (Processional)’. Angela
Aries in her biography of the composer, explains that the work ‘was composed at
the suggestion of Leslie Boosey (of the publishers, Boosey & Hawkes) …that
CAG should write a light suite for orchestra’. Armstrong Gibbs himself wrote that
‘This [suite]…had a moderate success, but by no stretch of the imagination
could it have been said to have set the Thames on fire.’ He was modest about
the popular ‘Dusk’, writing that ‘it makes no pretensions to be ‘great’ music,
it is not a pot-boiler, nor am I in the least ashamed of having written it.’ The
work was dedicated to Leslie Boosey.
The entire
Suite is both charming and well-constructed. The opening ‘Hurly-Burly’ is a
tour-de-force that never gets out of hand. In fact, the central big romantic
tune is quite delicious and is the antithesis of the title. ‘The Dance of the
Mummers’ is written in an archaic style with a subtle modern twist. It is
typically wistful in effect with the middle section rising to a rousing climax,
before the thoughtful music returns. Little need be said about ‘Dusk’ save to
say that it is Delian in effect. The listener is in no doubt that the composer
is painting a musical picture of evening. CAG has written that ‘it sets out to
portray the long, languorous twilight of a summer evening.’ He considered that with
the theme and the ‘harmonic colour’ ‘Dusk’ ‘achieves precisely what it aims
at.’ The orchestration which is effective in the entire Suite is especially
felicitous here. ‘Pageantry’ is a march, which (deliberately, I think) has neither
the swagger of Elgar nor the rhythmic swing of Eric Coates. It is not
jingoistic in any way. More of a ‘local’ rather than a ‘national’ celebration.
Fancy Dress suite was also arranged
for small orchestra. The scores have never been published but the holograph and
parts are available on hire from Boosey and Hawkes.
Several arrangements of ‘Dusk’ have been
made including for piano, clarinet or trumpet and piano and recorder ensemble.
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs was born in the
village of Great Baddow, Essex on 10 August 1889. After a general education at Winchester
and Trinity College, Cambridge, he served for several years as a schoolmaster.
After the end of the Great War, he began to composer music. He studied with
Adrian Boult and Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music (RCM). In
1920, he joined the staff at the RCM and became Professor of Harmony and
Counterpoint. Around this time,
Armstrong Gibbs moved from London to the Essex village of Danbury, where he was
to live until his death on 12 May 1960. After the Second World War he was much occupied as an adjudicator for, and eventually
Vice-President of, the National Federation of Music Festivals.
Much of
Armstrong Gibbs music was composed for ‘amateur’ choirs, orchestras and
theatres. However, there is a solid core of music that fulfills the
requirements of the professional concert hall and recital room. His
masterpieces may well be the choral symphony Odysseus, and the Symphony No. 3 ‘Westmorland’, written on the
death of his son David in battle near the River Sangro in Central Italy.
Singers are surely grateful for his wide range of solo songs: instrumentalists
have much to discover in his enormous catalogue of chamber music.
The only full
performance of Cecil Armstrong Gibbs’s Dance Suite: Fancy Dress can be
found on Lyrita SRCD 214. The CD also includes Granville Bantock’s Russian
Scenes, Phyllis Tate’s London Fields, Elisabeth Lutyens’s En
Voyage and some waltzes by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The Lutyens and Gibbs
is played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Joy. The other
works feature the London Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Barry Wordsworth.
At the time of writing, this version of the Fancy Dress Suite can be heard on YouTube.
In his fulsome
review of this disc, Rob Barnett (MusicWeb International May 2007)
reminded listeners of the ‘phenomenally successful’ Dusk. He considers that ‘Hurly-Burly’
is ‘knockabout Prokofiev-like stuff’ with the ‘Dance of the Mummers’ ‘doff[ing]
a hat and a deep bow towards [Peter Warlock’s] Capriol and RVW’s English
Folk Song Suite’. As for ‘Dusk’, Barnett thinks that it is ‘delectably
emotional slow Delian waltz – light yet searching but not deep.’ Finally, the
final march ‘Pageantry’ has ‘a splash of [Eric]Coates and Elgarian nobilmente.’
Andrew
Achenbach (The Gramophone, August 2007) reviewing this CD wrote that
‘the fragrant waltz (Dusk)…made the composer’s name back in the 1940s and ’50,
but the rest of the work proves an endearing find.’
It would be splendid
if Classic FM were to play some of the other movements in this charming
Suite. Cecil Armstrong Gibbs is certainly no ‘one-hit-wonder.’
2 comments:
Has Dusk ever been used in a movie? I'm sure it sounds familiar and Audrey Hepburn springs into my mind every time I hear it! Please can anyone enlighten me as it's driving me crazy 🤪
I thought the same. When I heard it I instantly recognised it, but I can't remember where from
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