Daffodils: a
graceful sketch Back
to list of works index
|
Medium |
Artists |
Label |
Matrix |
Format |
Date |
Review |
Locations |
Archive |
|
Piano |
Rosemary
Tuck |
Marco
Polo 8.223699 |
CD |
1993 |
BL,
NX, PD, TM |
cd01 |
Dance of the Merry Mascots: descriptive piece
Composer’s
synopsis
The
Mascots go to a Fancy-dress Ball dressed as Pierrots, Pierrettes, Japanese and
Spanish dancers. They start with a Waltz
for the Pierrots and Pierrettes, (during which Weber's "Invitation to the
dance" is played as a counter-melody), then follow two movements for the
Japanese and Spanish dancers; the Waltz is now resumed, and towards the end
some of the Mascots who have got a little bit too "merry",
find it rather difficult to keep in time, but they manage to finish all
together! The chimes now indicate that
it is near midnight and the Mascots are heard taking their departure.
|
Medium |
Artists |
Label |
Matrix |
Format |
Date |
Review |
Locations |
Archive |
|
Piano
with orchestra |
Orchestre
Raymonde, Walter [Goehr] |
CA 14442-1 |
10”
78 |
[Oct
34] |
Oct
34 p.185 |
BL,
(TM CAS), (TM CD) |
||
|
Piano
with orchestra |
Michael
Reeves, London Promenade O, Faris |
Philips
6514152 |
LP |
1982 |
Apr
82 p.1423 |
BL,
PD, TM |
lp07 |
|
|
|
Re-issue |
- Philips 7337152 |
|
CAS |
1982 |
Apr
82 p.1423 |
WC |
|
|
Re-issue |
- Philips 400 011 |
CD |
1982 |
Apr 83 p.1152 |
BL,
PD, TM |
cd14 |
||
|
Re-issue |
- Philips 4380772 |
|
CD |
1992 |
|
WC |
||
|
|
Re-issue |
-
Philips 4380774 |
|
CAS |
1992 |
|
WC |
|
|
|
Re-issue |
-
Decca/Universal 4737202 |
|
CD |
2003 |
June
03 p.50 |
BL,
WC |
|
Walter Goehr uses an amended scoring, including
accordeon and saxophone. In the Spanish
Dance there are two new countermelodies for violin. The recording has numerous small cuts, and
the ending is rewritten to include a timpani roll before the chimes are heard.
Faris plays the piece
complete and almost as written. The only
variant noticed is an extra piano glissando 20 bars from the end.
Neither version includes
the optional vocal effects.
|
Medium |
Artists |
Label |
Matrix |
Format |
Date |
Review |
Locations |
Archive |
|
Orchestra |
Empire
SO, Ketèlbey? |
Columbia 26695 |
S 665 |
10”
78 |
[Dec 09] |
|||
|
Re-issue |
- Rena 1219 |
10”
78 |
[Dec 09] |
|||||
|
Re-issue |
-
Naxos 8.110869 |
CD |
2003 |
BL,
NX, PD, TM |
cd05 |
The
ensemble includes flute, clarinet, cornet, trombone, violin and gong. There is an extra repeat of 72 bars. Played at the correct pitch of G major as on
the Naxos transfer, the 244 bars take 170 seconds, giving a metronome speed of
dotted crotchet = 172; this is considerably slower than the published metronome
marking is 200.
A Desert Romance: descriptive sketch
|
Medium |
Artists |
Label |
Matrix |
Format |
Date |
Review |
Locations |
Archive |
|
Orchestra |
Casino
O, Ketèlbey |
Columbia
3342 |
A
313 |
10”
78 |
[Jan
24] |
BL,
PD, TM, (TM CAS) |
7805 |
|
|
Re-issue |
- Naxos 8.110869 |
CD |
2003 |
BL,
NX, PD, TM |
cd05 |
|||
|
Orchestra |
Pathé Concert O |
Pathé 1859 |
? |
10” 78 |
[June 25] |
|||
|
Re-issue |
- Actuelle 10821 |
10” 78 |
[Aug 25] |
Among
the instruments omitted in the composer’s recording are bassoon, tom-tom and
bass drum. In the second section (in the
major key), 32 bars are cut. It can be
heard at http://www.mgthomas.co.uk/Soundfiles/Orchestral/Soundfiles-Orchestral.htm
Devotion: mélodie passionnée
The
work was originally published in 1924 under the title “Love’s Devotion”. The music is prefaced by the quotation from Twelfth
Night: "If music be the food of love, play on!"
|
Medium |
Matrix |
Format |
Review |
||||
|
Organ |
Terance
Casey (mighty Tivoli Theatre organ) |
Columbia
5384 |
WA 8646-1 |
10”
78 |
[June
29] |
July
29 p.76 |
BL |
|
Orchestra |
Viennese
O |
XX 1760-2 |
10”
78 |
[July
29 or earlier] |
BL,
(TM CAS), (TM CD) |
||
|
Orchestra |
Philip
Lewis & his Palladium Octette |
Edison
Bell Winner 3529 |
6853E |
10” 78 |
earlier
than 1930 |
BL |
|
|
? |
? |
HMV |
? |
ad.1929 |
|||
|
? |
? |
Metropole |
? |
ad.1929 |
The
Viennese Orchestra makes 3 small cuts, totalling 15 bars. Their ensemble includes a piano.
A Dream of Christmas
Composer’s
synopsis (from the published orchestral parts)
A child falls asleep and dreams of
Christmas. The melodies of Carols become
mixed up in the dream with dancing fairies, the waits and the "Wolf"
in the pantomime. The child is awakened
by the joyous ringing of church-bells and the carol "Christians,
awake", sung by the Carol Singers.
The Carols employed are "Good King Wenceslas", "While
Shepherds watched", Portion of "God rest ye merry Gentlemen",
"The first Nowell", and "Christians, awake". (The audience is invited to sing
"Christians, awake" with the orchestra.)
An expanded version of this is read as an
introduction to some of the recordings below.
|
Medium |
Artists |
Label |
Matrix |
Format |
Date |
Review |
Locations |
Archive |
|
Chorus
with orchestra |
baritone, Court SO, chorus, Ketèlbey |
Columbia
9138 |
WAX
1999-2 |
12”
78 |
[Dec
26] rec.Oct 26 |
Jan
27 p.315 |
BL,
PD |
7812 |
|
Re-issue |
-
Naxos 8.110848 |
CD |
2002 |
BL,
NX, PD, TM |
cd04 |
|||
|
Orchestra |
? |
Homochord
D 1177 |
? |
10” 78 |
[Dec
27?] |
|||
|
Orchestra |
London
Palladium O, Sheldon |
Edison
Bell/Electron X 517 |
? |
Feb
28 p.384 |
||||
|
Organ |
F. Roland-Tims (Capitol Cinema, Haymarket,
London) |
HMV
B 2867 |
BR 2174-2, 2178-2T1 |
10”
78, 2 sides |
[Dec
28?] |
BL |
||
|
Chorus
with orchestra |
Nellie
Walker (c), bass, narrator, W.G.Webber
(organ), Concert O, chorus,
Ketèlbey |
WAX
4618-1, 4619-1 |
12”
78, 2
sides |
[Nov
29] |
Dec
29 p.320 |
TM,
(TM CD) |
||
|
Orchestra |
John
Johnson and his International O, narrator, singer |
Decca
F 2620 |
GB 3273-1,2. 3274-1,2 |
10”
78, 2
sides |
[Dec
31] |
Dec
31 p.281 |
||
|
Chorus
with organ |
Charles
Saxby (Astoria, Finsbury Park), chorus |
Regal
MR 710 |
WAR
1492-2, 1493-1 |
10”
78, 2
sides |
[Nov
32] |
Dec
32 p.276 |
||
|
Chorus
with orchestra |
Essie
Ackland (c), Stuart Robertson (bt), Alan Howland (narrator), Westminster Singers,
Herbert Dawson (organ), Grand O, Greenwood |
HMV
C 2490 |
2B 3432-3, 3433-2 |
12”
78, 2
sides |
[Dec
32] |
Dec
32 p.280 |
BL,
(TM CAS) |
|
|
Chorus
with orchestra |
Robert
E. Sherwood (narrator), American Folk Singers of Boston, Massachusetts
SO, Attila Poto |
RCA
MSO 58444 |
? (American) |
?LP 16” |
[1941?] |
WC |
Ketèlbey’s
1926 recording can be heard at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xxrI6PDs6M
The
baritone soloist on Columbia 9138 has been identified by Peter Dempsey as
Robert Easton. The chorus sounds like a
vocal quartet. The organ is replaced by
brass at its only solo. The First Nowell
has the scoring augmented by a tuba, the carol is cut by 16 bars.
Columbia
9138 lasts a single side, taking 3’ 56”, with just one small cut to the
published music. When 9767 came to be
recorded on two sides, much additional material had to be added, bringing the
playing time to 7’ 07”. An expanded
synopsis is read at the beginning, taking 48 seconds. Hush-a-bye baby is sung in full by
Nellie Walker, instead of only being 4 bars of clarinet. An additional verse of While Shepherds
Watched is sung, and Christians Awake is first sung unaccompanied
then repeated with organ and orchestra.
The bass soloist sings an extra 6 bars about the Wolf baying. The scoring is expanded include strings doubling
the celeste solo during the Fairies’ Dance, and all the carols are sung, mainly
be a vocal quartet. The cornet playing
the melody in The First Nowell uses the excessive vibrato favoured by
some brass band players. The tubular
bell part is varied slightly, and omits the final descending scale. The Gramophone review suggests Debroy
Somers as narrator and Harold Williams as bass, but the latter is
doubtful.
The recording on HMV
C 2490, also on two 12-inch sides, has many of the same expansions as Columbia
9767: there is a spoken synopsis, the Hush-a-bye
verse is inserted but at a slightly different point, there are extra verses of While
Shepherds Watched and Christians Awake, and the singers
join in the other carols.
A Dream Picture: lyric poem
|
Medium |
Artists |
Label |
Matrix |
Format |
Date |
Review |
Locations |
Archive |
|
Piano |
Rosemary Tuck |
Marco Polo 8.223700 |
CD |
1993 |
BL,
NX, PD, TM |
cd02 |
The Elephants' Parade (by “André de Basque”)
By 1926,
Ketèlbey’s music had become so popular that a negative reaction had arisen;
this can be seen in many of the reviews in the Gramophone magazine. Perhaps to avoid such prejudiced criticism,
his publisher launched a series of 6 pieces under the pseudonym of André de
Basque. No.1 was The Elephants'
Parade, No.2 A Japanese Carnival.
The remainder were never published as Basque pieces, but No.3 Butterfly’s
Frolic was reworked as Sunbeams and Butteflies, and it is likely
that No.4 Taormina, No.5 Confetti and Laughter and No.6 Under
the Fairy Lamps were also recycled under different titles.
|
Medium |
Artists |
Label |
Matrix |
Format |
Date |
Review |
Locations |
|
Orchestra |
Bosworth
O |
Bosworth
BC 1003 |
CP 1996 |
10”
78 |
[Apr
37] |
(TM
CD) |
This recording lacks effects specified in the parts such as elephants trumpeting (the drummer is instructed to “roar through a glass lampchimney”).
First
published as a piano solo in 1922, the orchestral version followed in 1924.
|
Medium |
Artists |
Label |
Matrix |
Format |
Date |
Review |
Locations |
|
Orchestra |
Pelly
Concert O, Barnard |
private
recording |
CD |
[2005] |
TM |