Symphony No. 6 (Bax)
Encyclopedia
The Symphony No.6 by Arnold Bax
was completed on February 10, 1935. The symphony was dedicated to Sir Adrian Boult
, who often conducted Arnold Bax's works but criticized them for being formally loose. Arnold Bax's main aim with this work was to maintain his style but revert to a more classical form. It is, according to David Parlett, "[Bax's] own favourite and widely regarded as his greatest ... powerful and tightly controlled".
It has no. 331 in Grahame Parlett's catalog of Bax's music.
The symphony is scored for piccolo
, 3 flute
s, 2 oboe
s, English horn, 3 clarinet
s, bass clarinet
, 2 bassoon
s, double bassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpet
s, 3 trombone
s, tuba
, timpani
, bass drum
, tenor drum
, snare drum
, cymbal
s, tambourine
, triangle
, gong
, glockenspiel
, celesta
, harp
, string
s.
It is in three movements:
The first movement opens with a moderato ostinato on bass trombone with the woodwinds on top playing grinding, dissonant chords. The following allegro con fuoco section gives the ostinato to the violas, this time in diminution. A more lyrical second subject follows, before the main motives return to recapitulate in Bax's shortest opening movement out of all his symphonies.
The idyllic middle movement is also Bax's shortest second movement, where the violins introduce the main melody near the beginning and it is eventually taken up by the other sections of the orchestra, with an almost jazzy trumpet solo in the middle. It ends peacefully as to set up the last movement.
Widely considered Bax's greatest symphonic movement, and indeed his longest finale, the last movement opens with an extended, mysterious clarinet solo which forms a basis for much of the material throughout the movement. Then the other woodwinds play the second main melodic idea for the movement, which forms a basis for the scherzo, trio and the climax towards the end of the symphony. The main melodic ideas are characteristically stated in full force of the orchestra just before the tranquil epilogue which closes the symphony. In the middle of the movement (fig.25 through 27), the music incorporates a detailed reference to an idea from Jean Sibelius
's tone poem Tapiola
.
The symphony was given its world premiere by the Royal Philharmonic on November 21 of the same year.
Arnold Bax
Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of romanticism and impressionism, often with influences from Irish literature and landscape. His orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colourful instrumentation...
was completed on February 10, 1935. The symphony was dedicated to Sir Adrian Boult
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
, who often conducted Arnold Bax's works but criticized them for being formally loose. Arnold Bax's main aim with this work was to maintain his style but revert to a more classical form. It is, according to David Parlett, "
It has no. 331 in Grahame Parlett's catalog of Bax's music.
The symphony is scored for piccolo
Piccolo
The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
, 3 flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
s, 2 oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s, English horn, 3 clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
s, bass clarinet
Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
, 2 bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
s, double bassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
s, 3 trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
s, tuba
Tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
, timpani
Timpani
Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
, bass drum
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
, tenor drum
Tenor drum
A tenor drum is a cylindrical drum that is higher pitched than a bass drum.In a symphony orchestra's percussion section, a tenor drum is a low-pitched drum, similar in size to a field snare, but without snares and played with soft mallets or hard sticks. Under various names, the drum has been used...
, snare drum
Snare drum
The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
, cymbal
Cymbal
Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s, tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
, triangle
Triangle (instrument)
The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals like beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve...
, gong
Gong
A gong is an East and South East Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet....
, glockenspiel
Glockenspiel
A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, celesta
Celesta
The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box . The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal plates suspended over wooden resonators...
, harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
, string
String section
The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
s.
It is in three movements:
- Moderato - Allegro con fuoco
- Lento molto espressivo
- Introduction (Lento moderato) - Scherzo & Trio (Allegro vivace - Andante semplice) - Epilogue (Lento)
The first movement opens with a moderato ostinato on bass trombone with the woodwinds on top playing grinding, dissonant chords. The following allegro con fuoco section gives the ostinato to the violas, this time in diminution. A more lyrical second subject follows, before the main motives return to recapitulate in Bax's shortest opening movement out of all his symphonies.
The idyllic middle movement is also Bax's shortest second movement, where the violins introduce the main melody near the beginning and it is eventually taken up by the other sections of the orchestra, with an almost jazzy trumpet solo in the middle. It ends peacefully as to set up the last movement.
Widely considered Bax's greatest symphonic movement, and indeed his longest finale, the last movement opens with an extended, mysterious clarinet solo which forms a basis for much of the material throughout the movement. Then the other woodwinds play the second main melodic idea for the movement, which forms a basis for the scherzo, trio and the climax towards the end of the symphony. The main melodic ideas are characteristically stated in full force of the orchestra just before the tranquil epilogue which closes the symphony. In the middle of the movement (fig.25 through 27), the music incorporates a detailed reference to an idea from Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
's tone poem Tapiola
Tapiola (Sibelius)
Tapiola , Op. 112, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, written in 1926. It was the product of a commission from Walter Damrosch for the New York Philharmonic Society...
.
The symphony was given its world premiere by the Royal Philharmonic on November 21 of the same year.