Exploring Ernst Toch’s Big Ben: Variation-Fantasy on the Westminster Chimes (1934)

Several composers have become beguiled by the sound of the Westminster Chimes. Organ music enthusiasts will know Louis Vierne’s great paean of praise, the Carillon de Westminster, the final piece in the third volume of his 24 pieces de fantaisie, op.54, first published in 1927.  Some years earlier, Ralph Vaughan Williams had introduced the ‘chime’ motif into his great London Symphony (1914, rev.1936). Best known of all, is the beautiful second movement, ‘Westminster’ of Eric Coates London Suite. This was completed in 1932 and includes the ever-popular ‘Knightsbridge March’.  

There are (at least) two stories about the composition of Ernst Toch’s (1887-1964) Big Ben: Variation-Fantasy on the Westminster Chimes. The first part is common to both tales. Toch stated that when he was in London (1933-34), he was out walking in a ‘fog enshrouded’ evening. He went across Westminster Bridge. As he did so, he heard once again the ‘deep-toned’ chimes of Big Ben. On this evening they seemed ‘to be especially strange and moving, muffled as it were, in the mist the blanketed the River Thames.’ At this point he decided to write a ‘fantasy in variation form, basing it on the chimes of Big Ben’.  Ernst Toch elaborated on his thoughts of that night’s peregrination: ‘The familiar theme lingered in my imagination for a long while, and evolved into other forms, somehow still connected with the original once, until, finally, like the chimes themselves, it seemed to disappear in the fog from which it emerged. I have sought to fix the impression in my variation fantasy.’ (New York Philharmonic Programme Note, 8 February 1943)

The second part of the story has two versions. In the first, the work was written whilst crossing the Atlantic on board the Laconia. This is the romantic tale. The other is that it was largely composed during his first weeks on the staff of the New School for Social Research in New York.  This is the mundane narrative. The piece, then, was probably written later in New York, during October and November 1934." It is dedicated to Serge Koussevitzky.

To confuse the issue further, Paul A. Pisk and Manton Monroe Marble (The Musical Quarterly, October 1938, p.446) state that Big Ben was composed in 1932 whilst the composer was in New York. This implies that it was written whilst Toch was on his tour of United States during the spring of 1932.  This was before the composer came to London.

For interest, in 1934 the Austrian composer Ernst Toch had left the United Kingdom bound for the United States. He departed from Liverpool on 15 September on board the Cunard Line Laconia. His London address is given as 88 Leadenhall Street which was at that time the shipping company’s offices. Interestingly, Toch’s occupation was given as ‘Medical’! Unsurprisingly, he was accompanied by his wife, Alice.

Musically, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s programme notes (20 December 1934) explain “The score opens and closes with the full Westminster chimes to a background of violin figures, and finally to a roll of the timpani and small drums. There are sections in contrasted tempi suggesting variations, but after the theme is fully stated by the strings in the first (Vivace) it recurs only in fragmentary fashion. Different instruments give one of the "quarters," but with rhythmic attention or embellishment of the essential notes. The listed tempi (andantino — scherzando leggiero — slower, free — molto tranquillo) suggest the course of the variation fantasia.”

The Big Ben: Variation-Fantasy on the Westminster Chimes was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Burgin on 20 December 1934. It was held at the Sander’s Theater, Harvard University. Unfortunately, Serge Koussevitzky was ‘indisposed.’  This concert was part of the Fifty-Fourth Season, 1934-35. Other works at this concert included Edward Burlingame-Hill’s Symphony No 1 in B flat major, op.34 and Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No.4 in E minor, op.98.  Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck’s Sinfonia in G major, edited by Hans Gál was to have opened the concert, but this was cancelled.  Ernst Toch’s Big Ben Fantasy was reprised at the ninth pair of Symphony concerts held at the Symphony Hall, Boston held on the 21 and 22 December. Toch had been heard previously in Boston, where his Piano Concerto, his Little Theater Suite and his Bunte Suite had been performed.

The Christian Science Monitor (22 December 1934, p.11) reported on the concert. The critic, L.A.S. insisted that this Big Ben Fantasy, is an ‘impression’ which ‘has involved a good deal of ingenuity, considerable cleverness and some able contrapuntal writing.’ On the downside, ‘the score is uneven. Some of its inspirations were quite brilliant; others were dull and obvious, verging at times on vulgarity.’ Despite this, the work ‘was well received.’

I do not agree with this assessment. This is a magical score that creates a numinous impression of the River Thames and the ‘Tower of Big Ben’ (Elizabeth Tower) that is unequalled by musician or painter.  It is the musical equivalent of a Whistler painting.

The Fantasy was composed for a large orchestra: two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets in B flat, clarinet in E flat, tow bassoons, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, bass tuba, tympani, low chimes (E-D-C-G), small chimes, large drum, side drum, cymbals, xylophone, triangle, castanets, two small Chinese wood drums, tam tam, celesta, harp and strings.

The next post will look at the single recording of this work.  Meanwhile Ernst Toch’s Big Ben: Variation-Fantasy on the Westminster Chimes can be heard on YouTube. (Accessed 27 January 2021).