William Mathias: Vivat Regina, Suite for brass band Op. 75

Welsh composer William Mathias (1934-92) composed Vivat Regina, Suite for brass band, op.75 as a contribution to Her Majesty the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977. The piece was commissioned by The London Celebrations Committee, in association with Harry Mortimer and the British Federation of Brass Bands. This was the composer’s first and only excursion into the world of brass band music. The manuscript score is dated February 1977 and was first published in 1978, in a facsimile of the composer’s holograph.

Around this time, Mathias had completed his major orchestral work, Helios, op.76 for orchestra. This was dedicated ‘In memory of Grace Williams.’ Williams was a remarkable Welsh composer who died in February 1977. The previous year had seen the completion of the dynamic Dance Variations, a work that has not been given a professional recording.  It was premiered in June 1977. Other relevant works from this de facto ‘Welsh Master of the Queen’s Musick’ included a setting of ‘Land of Our Fathers’/’God Save the Queen’ and the A Royal Garland for unaccompanied double mixed chorus.

Vivat Regina – Long Live the Queen - consists of four short movements bookended by two contrasting fanfares. It lasts for about ten minutes. The work opens with a breezy ‘Fanfare’ (allegro) in full ceremonial mood.  This is followed by an ‘Air’ (andante maestoso) which seems to hint at several well-known tunes, but never quite quotes one in full. An exuberant ‘Jig’ (allegro alla danza) is written in Mathias’s signature dance music style. It is bouncy and full of joie de vivre.  The ‘Mountain Song’ (lento sostenuto) is the heart of this work. This is moody and introverted music, reflecting the deeper meaning of the commemoration. The penultimate section reminds the listener what the piece is all about. ‘Jubilate’ (allegro ritmico e vivace) is quite simply ‘shouting for joy’. And finally, the closing ‘Fanfare’. The faster music is written in a buoyant style, that is helped using mixed metres (time signatures) whilst the slower numbers are sustained and thoughtful. All four main ‘movemnets’ have ‘simple and memorable melodies.’ The entire work is brilliantly imaginative and resourceful. Despite being Mathias’s only venture into this genre, he handles the scoring and instrumentation with the skill of a brass band master.

Vivat Regina was premiered on Saturday 11 June 1977 at an event of massed brass bands at the Royal Albert Hall, conducted by Walter Suskind. The bands were Black Dyke Mills, Cory, Fairey Foden’s and Handwell and Morris. For the record, the number one hit record in the Pop Charts was Rod Stewart’s ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ with the anarchic Sex Pistols’ song ‘God Save the Queen’ at Number 2.

The score of Vivat Regina was first reviewed in The Musical Times (February 1979) by Niall O’Loughlin. He considered that this ‘six-movement suite of about ten minutes' duration [has] interesting parts for many of the players.  The faster movements have a lively wit and some imaginative rhythmic irregularities.’  In 1981 it also was reviewed in Music & Letters (April 1981) by Jim Simpson. He began by making a generalised statement about Mathias’s brass band music: ‘We must be grateful for any music which keeps our leading brass bands away from grotesque transcriptions of Mendelssohn and Berlioz overtures and the like. There is something to be said too for Mathias's respect for traditional groupings within the brass band medium, as opposed to the approach of Birtwistle or Payne, who treat it as a reservoir from which an infinite variety of timbral combinations might be drawn.’ Clearly, he is thinking about Harrison Birtwistle’s outstanding Grimethorpe Aria which was written in 1973 and possibly Anthony Payne’s Fire on Whaleness (1976). 

A recording of the Black Dyke Mills Band conducted by Roy Newsome has been uploaded to YouTube. It has been extracted from the album Black Dyke Mills: Champions of Brass, CHN 4160. The CD also includes music by Granville Bantock, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edward Gregson, and Gordon Langford. Vivat Regina was originally issued on the RCA Victor Label in 1977 (PL25143).

Reviewing the LP for The Gramophone (September 1978) Malcolm McDonald thinks that: ‘Mathias comes off [well], with a Silver Jubilee piece of five or six short movements with again some lively moments alongside some less lively, rather surprisingly conventional ones.’ He concludes his critique by stating that the entire album ‘is truly the very best of traditional brass-band sound.’   

I understand that an orchestral version of these Dances has been made by Philip Lane in 2004 and retitled Jubilee Dances. To my knowledge, this has not been recorded.