Arthur Honegger: Mouvements symphoniques No.2 Rugby (1928)

It is hardly surprising that Swiss composer’s Arthur Honegger’s (1892-1955) “symphonic movement’ Rugby was inspired by the ever-popular game. In his youth, he was an enthusiast of the game. The story is told that Honegger was in conversation with the sports editor of a Paris journal. He told the correspondent that “he could imagine a symphonic poem which would picture in musical equivalents the impression of a football game.” Impressed, the journalist printed that Honegger was at work on the score. The news crossed the Atlantic and “was subject to comments more of less jocose.” Seemingly the composer was amused by the “fake news,” but then took the idea seriously. 

Honegger wrote, “I'm very fond of football, but rugby is closer to my heart. It seems to me more spontaneous, both direct, closer to nature than football, which is more scientific. Certainly, I'm not insensible to football's, prepared moves, but I'm more keenly attracted by rugby 's rhythm, which is savage, abrupt, chaotic, and desperate. It would be wrong to consider my piece as programme music. It simply tries to describe in a musical language the games attacks and counter attacks, and the rhythm and colour of a match at the stade de Colombes. I thought I ought to be honest and indicate my sources. That's why the short composition has the title Rugby.” (Cited Halbreich, Harry, Arthur Honegger, 1999, p.354)

Equally helpful to the listener is the work’s underlying formal concept of “a movement of teams (a melee of bodies = counterpoint, two supporters camps = two themes.”  “[Rugby] opens and closes in D major, but between these initial gambits there are many “passes” and “tries.”

The entire work is a vibrant scherzo that can be enjoyed by all, even those not enthusiastic about rugby league or union. It can be viewed as “incisive exchanges between orchestral groups imply a sense of opposing forces trying to secure the upper hand, culminating in the affirmative return of the chorale-theme to impart a sense of victory, though who has triumphed over whom is left.” (Liner note Naxos 8.55794). On the other hand, it can be conceived as a game or as a mirror of life itself.

The work was premiered at Theatre de Champs Elysees, Paris on 19 October 1928. The Orchestre Symphonique de Paris was conducted by Ernest Ansermet.

Listen to Arthur Honegger’s Rugby (Mouvement symphonique No. 2) played by the Orchestre de Chambre de la Radiodiffusion-Television Française, conducted by Michel Plasson