Exploring Richard Rodney Bennett’s Anniversaries for orchestra (1982) Part 1

Context. Richard Rodney Bennett’s (RRB) (1936-2012) Anniversaries for orchestra was commissioned by the BBC to commemorate its 60^th Anniversary. It depends on what was being celebrated. The Corporation was formed on the 18 October 1922. It was some weeks later, on 14 November that the first broadcasts under the auspices of the BBC were made from 2LO located at Marconi House in The Strand. (Briggs, 1961, passim). For some reason, Anniversaries was premiered on 9 September 1982, at the Royal Albert Hall, during the Promenade Concert Series. I guess that the year is correct, at least.

Interestingly, RRB did not dedicate Anniversaries to the BBC but it was ‘…dedicated to my friend Bud Bazelon for his sixtieth birthday.’ ‘Bud’ Bazelon is not well-known in the United Kingdom. Irwin (Bud) Bazelon was born in Evanston, Illinois, on 4 June 1922. He graduated from DePaul University, Chicago in 1945, having gained a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Music. There were further lessons with Paul Hindemith at Yale College and Darius Milhaud in Mills College in Oakland, California. For much of his career Bazelon worked between New York City and his Long Island retreat at Sagaponak. During the 1950s and 1960s, he made a living by writing scores for documentaries, art films and incidental music for the theatre. This hard work served as ‘preparatory study’ towards his ‘concert hall’ music. Bazelon saw no contradiction in earning a living in the commercial world and writing ‘art’ music. He did not consider that he was sacrificing his artistic integrity.  His catalogues include nine symphonies, (a tenth was in progress when he died)

Richard Rodney Bennett gave the eulogy at Bazelon’s funeral. He said ‘Buddy and his music were both totally unpredictable, one never knew what thought was coming next, even if one was familiar with some of his characteristic states of mind… Both the man and his music were profoundly eccentric, in the best and most fascinating sense. He was absolutely uncompromising and entirely original both as a man and a composer.’ (Instant Encore Blog). ‘Bud’ Bazelon died on 2 August 1995. He was aged 73 years.

Major works composed by Richard Rodney Bennett around the time of Anniversaries included the Harpsichord Concerto (1980), premiered by the St Louis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin, with Rodney Bennett at the keyboard. The following year saw the first performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, of the ballet Isadora, devised to celebrate the life and dance of Isadora Duncan. Merle Park starred in the title role. In 1982, RRB completed the score for the thoughtful World War 1 drama film, The Return of the Soldier, starring Glenda Jackson, Julie Christie, and Alan Bates. Another work written at the same time as Anniversaries was the remarkable Noctuary, or ‘a diary of the events of the night’. This piano work was a fusion of Scott Joplin’s ragtime, Scriabin, Gershwin, and Ravel.  It was originally conceived as a ballet score for Kenneth MacMillan; however, I understand that it remains unperformed as ‘dance’.

Analysis. Stylistically, the Anniversaries was very much in RRB’s 1ate-1970’s style – a balance of dissonance and studied lyricism. Moreover, it is ‘an instrumental showpiece.’ (Meredith, 2010, p.309).  Structurally, Anniversaries is formed of 11 sections. The odd-numbered segments utilise the full orchestra and the even ones explore various instrumental ‘families.’ The fundamental ‘melodic’ material is heard in the opening bars of the ‘Fanfare’ – ‘Vivo e declamato’. This is a three-note group, G E D. The composer has stated that this gives ‘a strong tonal character [to the music] which colours the entire work.’ (RRB Programme Notes, passim). Interestingly, this melodic fragment was previously used as the ‘starting point’ for the austere Aubade for orchestra (1962) and the Five Studies for piano (1962-4). Use of this short ‘motif’ also gives the work significant thematic unity. The music is often ‘brilliant and extrovert’ but here and there the composer uses a more romantically charged language.  It could be argued that an alternative formal analysis reveals a ‘theme’ with variations. Musical phrases are re-presented throughout the work, but always subject to change and often increasing complexity on their recurrence.  

The first episode (Leggiero e fantastico) is for woodwind, ‘whirling against a cloudy background of strings, harp and piano’. This has a nocturnal feel. An aggressive ‘scherzo’ played ‘con fuoco’ (with fire) follows. It has a slightly calmer middle section before the belligerent music reappears. The second episode is scored for piano, harp, and tuned percussion. It is played ‘Drammatico.’ This segues into the gentler, central part of Anniversaries.  The slow ‘Arioso’ commences the emotional heart of the work, which leads to the third episode, scored for strings. After this, the music becomes quieter with evocative solos for flute and oboe and ‘chorale like’ passages for the brass.  This section comes to a magical conclusion. The 4^th episode is scored for percussion and timpani. It deliberately ‘blows away’ the preceding lyrical mood with its bright and extrovert sound.

There is a ‘Brillante’ bridge passage which reprises material from the ‘Con fuoco’ and the first episode, ‘leggiero e fantastico’ for woodwind. This leads into the final ‘episode’ which is marked ‘Strepitoso’. This Italian term simply encourages players to perform the music in a boisterous and noisy manner. Not surprisingly, Richard Rodney Bennett has made considerable use of brass and percussion in this riotous music. Progress does calm down considerably, prior to the music building up into a tumultuous climax, before dropping into the ‘Finale’ which features a much-expanded reappearance of the ‘vivo e declamato’ heard at the work’s opening.  The final bars include the easily missed appearance of the tune ‘Happy Birthday’.  

It is interesting that there is a substructure to Anniversaries that suggests a three-movement symphonic form. Sections 1 to 4 could be construed as the ‘first movement’, sections 5 to 7 would be the slow movement and 8 to 11 is the finale and coda. To be fair, this is not to suggest that the work is ‘classically constructed’ as a symphony, only to imply that the general impression of this piece lends itself to this possible interpretation. 

The score for Anniversaries is dated ‘New York City, Chapel Hill N.C., Cape Cod, Jan.10 – May 19 ‘82’. It is scored for Piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, Cor Anglais, 2 Clarinets in B flat, Bass Clarinet in B flat, 2 Bassoons, Double Bassoon, 4 Horns in F, 3 Trumpets in C, 2 Tenor Trombones, Bass Trombone, Tuba, 3 Percussion: I Xylophone, Glockenspiel, Ching-Ring (tambourine frame), 3 Timbales. II Vibraphone, Crotales, Claves, Side Drum, Tenor Drum, Small Bongo. III Marimba, Tubular Bells, Bass Drum, Tam-tam, 3 Woodblocks, 3 Suspended Cymbals. Timpani, Piano (doubling Celesta), Harp and Strings.

Bibliography:
Briggs, Asa, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume 1: The Birth of Broadcasting (Oxford University Press, 1961)
Craggs, Stewart R., Richard Rodney Bennett: A Bio-bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1990) Meredith, Anthony, Richard Rodney Bennett: The Complete Musician, Omnibus Press, London, 2010)
Bennett, Richard Rodney, Programme Note.
Files of the The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Musical Times, etc
To be concluded…