Percy Whitlock: Holiday Suite (1939)

Percy Whitlock’s Holiday Suite (1939) is one of my favourite pieces of ‘light music.’ The titles of its three movements express the sentiment that surrounds the thoughts of a holiday by the sea in England (or Scotland, Wales, and Ulster.) It is an epitome of much that has passed into history as people head to Benidorm and Tenerife. However, days at Bournemouth, Morecambe and Swanage will always be with us. And if people enjoy the simpler pleasures of a British seaside holiday, this suite will serve as a reminder of what is precious in our psyche. This may be strong words for a slight work – but this is what ‘light’ music is about – approachability. 

A friend of mine who does not claim to understand or appreciate the complexities of Bartok String Quartets or the transcendental piano studies of Franz Liszt finds this Holiday Suite full of evocative images. And these are images of her holidays too. Memories of her girlhood at Scarborough and Bridlington are evoked in these three movements. And who is to say that Max Jaffa (The Spa, Scarborough) is not as important to aesthetic enjoyment as Yehudi Menuhin or Nigel Kennedy? Certainly, not these gentlemen! 

Three movements and one enigma. The suite opens with a fine Waltz: ‘In the Ballroom.’ This is in the spirit of so many similar pieces by Eric Coates – a fine English Dance. We feel that at times it is a restrained movement. Is it a tea dance? But then the orchestra breaks out into a fine sweep, which along with the saxophones leads back into a typical lilting swing. Then a short codetta and off into the next eight! I can so easily see a pre-war audience moving gracefully around the ballroom. The ‘Ballroom’ in the title is the one behind the Bournemouth Pavilion Concert Hall.

The second is a delightful polka that manages to incorporate the good old English tune ‘Cherry Ripe.’ This had been done already by Frank Bridge in one of his string orchestra pieces and by Eric Coates in his London Suite. Whitlock would have known both these works. It is the composer’s delightful sense of humour that gave this movement its back to front title – ‘Spade and Bucket’ Polka. It is a well-written miniature, which certainly evokes thoughts of major excavations on the beach!

The last movement is entitled quite simply, ‘Civic March.’ Yet there is an enigma here. The Performing Rights Society has this listed as the ‘Picnic March.’ The score and the parts all have the current title of ‘Civic March.’ I spoke with the Whitlock expert Malcolm Riley about this discrepancy, and he is of the opinion that the official title links it in nicely to the ‘municipal’ – the ballroom and the Pavilion belonging to the town council. I have listened to this march a number of times and I am unable to imagine processions of councillors and the newly made Mayor and civil dignitaries and their partners.

Personally? I’m not buying it. The music is too bright and breezy. There is an open-air quality to this tune. It is easier to imagine the Famous Five and Timmy the dog, off on a picnic with their ginger beer and jam sandwiches: it fits in with the idea of ‘being at the seaside.’ The last thing I would want to do as a child is watch old fogeys dressed up in outdated clothes shamble along the High Street! Nevertheless, I will defer, for scholarships sake and concede that this last movement is a bright and carefree ‘civic’ march. Humph.

Listen to Whitlock’s Holiday Suite on YouTube, here.  The RTÉ Concert Orchestra Conductor: Gavin Sutherland and it appears on Marco Polo 8.225162.

Repost from 1 November 2008 with edits and new link.