This is one of the works that I have been waiting for. I first heard of
this piece in Philip Scowcroft’s essay on ‘English Composer’s for Amateur No.1: Alec Rowley’, which is published on the
website MusicWeb International.
Scowcroft notes that this work ‘shows
that Rowley, like many British composers, looked to the sea for inspiration. We
shall see other examples elsewhere among his compositions.’ It was published by
Paxton in 1933.
Rowley is best known for his piano works, many of
which are written for teaching purposes. However, he did compose a number of
works for orchestra including a Concertino for organ & string, A Nautical
Suite, three piano concertos and an English Suite for string orchestra.
At present he is represented on disc by a mere six
work, the most important being his Concerto for piano, strings and percussion.
The ‘Down Channel’ Overture is written in classical
‘overture’ form – which the composer suggested really meant written in ‘sonata
form.’ The main themes of the piece are
founded on the tunes ‘A-Roving’ and ‘Shenandoah’. However, Beryl Kington in her
study of the composer has indicated that there are ‘snatches of ‘The Girl I
Left Behind’ and ‘Hearts of Oak’ presented in the ‘development’ section of the
overture. The coda of the piece includes the tune ‘A-Roving in its
entirety. The work is scored for full
orchestras, including double woodwind, brass section including tuba,
glockenspiel, percussion and strings.
Guild has included ‘Channel Firing’ on their latest
CD in the Guild Golden Age of Light Music series ‘No-stop to Nowhere.’ It was originally recorded by the London
Promenade Orchestra, conducted by Walter Collins in 1946. It was released on
Paxton PR402.
I do wonder if the work has been cut down to fit
onto one side of a 78rpm record as the play-tome of 2:48 seems a little bit
meagre for an overture of this length.
‘Down Channel’ was broadcast on 31 December 1931 on
the BBC: it was the work’s firs performance. The BBC Light Orchestra was conducted
by Joseph Lewis. Rowley felt that it has ‘come through very well’ on a wireless
broadcast two years previously. I found
a reference in the Singaporean Straights
Times indicating that the work was relayed to Singapore in 1935 from the
Hotel Majestic in St. Anne’s-on-Sea in Lancashire. It was played by Jack Martin
and his Hotel Majestic Orchestra.
The overture is an attractive work that cries out
for a modern day recording. Certainly there are a number of other striking
pieces in Alec Rowley’s repertoire that could form part of a ‘retrospective’ CD
of orchestral music –these include the evocative sounding ‘From a Devon
Headland’, ‘Miniatures in Porcelain’, and the above mentioned ‘Nautical Suite’.
1 comment:
If you contacted Hampton School - at which I was a pupil during the 1970s - they would, I'm sure, send you a copy of a Rowley work of which you may be unaware. His "Song of Hampton School" was the official school anthem, with words by a former Head Master much stressing the strength of school-formed bonds in later life and the sacrifices made by Hamptonians during WWII. I'm not sure if it is still performed at school occasion these day, but I'm afraid it is a rather uninspiring effusion, both poetically and musically. The climactic moment, where - before a weak final cadence - there was a general pause in which all were supposed to shout out "Hampton!", always resulted in a beat of embarrassed silence.
The school had also commissioned another local composer for a Te Deum Hamptoniensis which I remember as being a surprisingly impressive piece in unexpectedly abrasive idiom and with a showy organ part. Wish I could recall the composer's name!
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