William Lloyd Webber: ‘The Moon’ for string orchestra.

One of my most recent discoveries on Classic FM was a performance of William Lloyd Webber’s short ‘prelude’ for string orchestra, The Moon. Although this piece has been available on CD for four years, I had just not come across it.  It is a short but deeply felt miniature that adds to Lloyd Webber’s small but near-perfect catalogue of works.

The Moon was originally written in 1959 as a part-song based on the eponymous poem by William Henry [W.H.] Davies. The same year, Lloyd Webber made a version for string orchestra.  Both pieces remained unperformed until the composer’s centenary year in 2014.

W.H. Davies was born in Newport Monmouthshire on 3 July 1871. As a young man, he emigrated to the United States. His experiences there as a ‘gentleman’ vagrant and labourer were epitomised in his once popular The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, published in 1908.

Davies’s most anthologised poem is ‘Leisure’, written in 1911 beginning with the immortal lines:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?

These words epitomise much of the poet’ character and his ability to capture a child-like response to nature.  Yet, these was another side to Davies’s character.  Many poems rail against poverty and injustice.  He is characteristically classified as a ‘Georgian Poet’ but much of his output did not reflect the aims and aspirations of this ad-hoc group which emphasised ‘romanticism, sentimentality and hedonism.’ Davies contributed 32 poems to the five-volume collection of Georgian Poetry.

The Moon

Thy beauty haunts me heart and soul,

Oh, thou fair Moon, so close and bright;

Thy beauty makes me like the child

That cries aloud to own thy light:

The little child that lifts each arm

To press thee to her bosom warm.

Though there are birds that sing this night

With thy white beams across their throats,

Let my deep silence speak for me

More than for them their sweetest notes:

Who worships thee till music fails,

Is greater than thy nightingales.

 ‘The Moon’ was included in the collection The Bird of Paradise and Other Poems published in 1914. I think that it is important to understand the sentiment of the poem, as this casts light on the progress of Lloyd Webber’s music. Here ‘nature is equated to humanity.’ A superficial reading of the poem reveals quite simply an adult’s praise of beauty. This is one of the defining characteristics of the ‘Georgians.’  Davies is quite simply amazed at how the birds ‘practice music’ within the context of the ‘greater harmony’ of ‘an ordered Universe.’ The poet is unable to articulate his appreciation [of the moon] in song’ but remains ‘confident in the belief that the child and the ‘birds that sing’ will continue their praise. (Rabinowitz, Ivan Arthur, The Lyric Vision of W.H. Davies, Thesis, 1973)

Fortunately, the Royal Holloway Choir has uploaded a beautiful performance of Lloyd Webber’s The Moon in its original choral version. It ranks with Stanford’s ‘The Bluebird’, Sullivan’s ‘The Long Day Closeth’ and John Ireland’s ‘The Hills’ as a flawless choral miniature.

The realisation for string orchestra is equally faultless. There is nothing here to disturb the listeners mind. Like the child in the poem, Lloyd Webber reflects the timeless beauty of the moon in silence rather than with a triumphant shout. The progress is slow and simple. It is composed in a largely diatonic style with just a few chromatic slips here and there. The entire piece is typically restrained, from the first bar to the last. There is no ‘breath-taking’ climax here, just the creation of a mood of wonder and peace. There is no attempt at musical onomatopoeia: there is no birdsong, just the most profound expression of a quiet, but deep wonder.

In March 2015, Naxos Records issued a performance of ‘The Moon’ on an attractive CD of English String Music, subtitled ‘And the Bridge is Love’ (8.573250). This title track refers to a work for solo cello and string orchestra by Howard Goodall. Other music includes several works by Edward Elgar, Two Pieces for strings from Henry V by William Walton, Frederick Delius’s two Aquarelles (arranged by Eric Fenby) and the now hackneyed ‘Minuet’ from John Ireland’s A Downland Suite. Julian Lloyd Webber conducts the English Chamber Orchestra. There is currently no YouTube upload of The Moon in the string version.

In his review of this CD for MusicWeb International, (July 2015) John Quinn writes that ‘family connections are…explicit with [Julian Lloyd Webber’s] inclusion of The Moon’ on this disc. Quinn considered that this piece adds to the ‘list of pleasing discoveries’ by William Lloyd Webber and is ‘a charming miniature…given here in a sensitive performance.’

Andrew Achenbach (The Gramophone, April 2015) simply states that The Moon is a ‘sweetly lyrical miniature.’ I would disagree with the ‘sweet’ description: there is nothing saccharine here. It is just quite simply beautiful music.