Bax: Symphony No. 5

Description

Arnold Bax (1883-1953)Symphony No. 5; TheTale the Pine-Trees KnewArnold Bax was born to an affluent, cultured family where it followednaturally that he should be introduced to music at an early age. When he wasten years old his father took him to the Crystal Palace Saturday Concerts andhis keen musical interest quickly became apparent. The concert programmes werekept neatly bound by his father and Bax spent hours amusing himself byimprovising piano pieces from the short musical extracts printed in them.During his mid-teens he showed significant pianistic talent and in 1900 heentered the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Frederick Corder.Compared to the Royal College of Music, where composition was taught with arather Brahmsian bias under Stanford, the Academy tended to be freer and angledmore towards the directions of Wagner. Corder himself was a devoted Wagnerian,but influence of the Russian Romantics was equally strong, as was Liszt (whomthe Principal had known in person) and Richard Strauss. In this sympatheticatmosphere with the encouragement of established musical figures and giftedpeers, Bax was free to develop an extraordinarily imaginative and complexmusical style entirely his own.In 1902 Bax made a discovery which had tremendous influence on the restof his life: the heady poetic world of W.B. Yeats. He related naturally toIreland and Celtic folklore, its aspirations, mythology and history firing botha musical and literary vision. In 1904 he wrote A Celtic Song-Cycle andbegan publishing novels in Dublin under the pseudonym Dermot O'Byrne. One ofmany highly evocative tone-poems, In the Faery Hills (1909), wasfollowed by his first Piano Sonata (1910), an expressive piece redolentwith memories of Russia after a recent trip in pursuit of his first love. Womenplayed an important part in his life, including a short-lived marriage whichfailed as soon as he encountered the pianist Harriet Cohen, for whom he wrotenumerous pieces, and friend and lover Mary Greaves, who travelled with him toScotland on frequent occasions.In addition to his passion for all things Irish, the wilds of Scotlandsimilarly captivated Bax and each winter from 1928 to 1940 he escaped thebustle of London and journeyed to Morar in Inverness-shire. There, the bracingair and breathtaking views across the Atlantic to the Hebridean Islandscatalysed his seven symphonies. They speak with his deeply personal voice ledby harmony and instrumental colour, with emphasis on the metamorphosis ofthematic ideas. With the onset of the Second World War, Bax's compositionslowed considerably and he wrote nothing between August 1939 and the summer of1942. From 1941 to 1953 he lived in a hotel in Sussex during which time he madea brief foray into film music, but it was clear that his youthful vision hadconsiderably faded. He died peacefully while holidaying with friends inIreland, by then a much-honoured composer.At the same time that Bax discovered Morar he was drawn to the uniquesoun