Notes on Alun Hoddinott: Symphony No.5, op.81 (1973) Part 1

Alun Hoddinott was one of the most significant Welsh/British composers of the second half of the twentieth century. His musical output was considerable and covered virtually every form and genre from opera to his ten symphonies. He was born in Bargoed, Glamorganshire on 11 August 1929. After an education at Gowerton Grammar School he went up to University College in Cardiff.  He was a founder member of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. After university he studied with the composer Arthur Benjamin. Apart from composing, Hoddinott held a number of academic posts including lecturer in music at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, and then as Lecturer, Reader and Professor of Music at University College, Cardiff. In 1967 he co-founded the Cardiff Festival of Music with the pianist John Ogdon. Alun Hoddinott died on 11 March 2008.

Hoddinott’s musical style was eclectic. He embraced serialism and aleatory music, jazz and popular idioms through to his ‘nocturnal’ moods often characterised by dense chromaticism and ‘brooding’ Celtic intensity.

Hoddinott’s Symphony No.5, op.81 was completed in February 1973. It was a commission from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with additional fund from the Welsh Arts Council. It is scored for a large orchestra with a large percussion section and harp. The work is dedicated “To Moelwyn Merchant with great affection and admiration.”

William Moelwyn Merchant (1913-97) was an academic, writer, sculptor, poet and Anglican priest. He wrote libretti for Alun Hoddinott, including the oratorio The Tree of Life (1971) and The Bells of Paradise, a Christmas cantata (1984).

The composer explained: “The ideas for this symphony began to emerge during a summer stay in Switzerland and Italy, and it would perhaps be not too fanciful to detect here and there in the score the presence of alpine horns, cattle bells, and Tuscan mists. The music is in two movements - first an Allegro which is formed as an interrupted passacaglia. A ritornello-like section precedes and concludes the movement and also provides the interruptions. This music is more agitated and rhythmic than the broadly flowing lines of the passacaglia.”

For reference, a Passacaglia is typically a slow instrumental piece characterized by a series of variations on a particular theme played over a repeated bass part. Ritornello here implies a returning musical passage in between new sections of music.

Hoddinott wrote that “the second movement is in six sections, reflecting in an arch-form - that is, 1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4. A slow tempo reflects a fast and the sequence is adagio, allegretto, andante, allegro, adagio, and presto.”

Basil Deane (Liner Notes SXL 6606) provides a succinct discussion of Alun Hoddinott’s Symphony No.5. He begins by explaining that “Hoddinott’s symphonies have been central to his development. Through them he has explored new sonorities on the full orchestra and has evolved varied large-scale structures drawing on pre-classical as well as classical techniques and integrating diverse formal structures.” Turning to the present work he states that this exploration has continued here.

Finally, Deane notes that “material from the first movement is integrated in this [the second] movement.” The resulting work has “wide scope and contrast as well as overriding unity, one in which the composer’s distinctive musical personality is manifest.”

The premiere performance of the Symphony was given at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 6 March 1973. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was conducted by Andrew Davis. The work was published in 1975, by Oxford University Press. In 1973, the Symphony No.5 was issued on a Decca LP (SXL 6606). It was coupled with the Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, op.65 and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, op.21. The LP was recorded at the Kingsway Hall, London in 13-15 March 1973. The soloists were Martin Jones, piano and Barry Tuckwell Horn. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was conducted by Andrew Davis. It was re-released on Lyrita SRCD 331 in 1996. Here it is coupled with Hoddinott’s Symphonies No.2 and No.3.

Alun Hoddinott’s Symphony No.5 can be heard on YouTube, in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recording conducted by Andrew Davis.

To be continued…