SIR MALCOLM ARNOLD
(1921–2006)
First Hon. Vice-President
of the UK Sibelius Society
I am writing this tribute
to Sir Malcolm while listening to two
weeks of broadcasts of Sir Malcolm’s
music on Radio 3. He would have been
85 on the 21 October 2006 but sadly
died four weeks earlier, just as celebrations
in our concert halls were getting under
way. He was Radio 3 Composer of the
Week in mid-October 2006 and the
BBC are broadcasting all nine of the
symphonies over the same period.
Many lovers of good
music will say "About time!"
Those of us who attend the Proms will
know how shabbily he has been treated
under the current regime. In this, his
85th year, not one work was
heard at the Proms. This is not only
inexcusable but also spiteful on the
part of the Proms management. Arnold
had been a doyen of the Proms in the
1950s and the 1960s, with compositions
played and works (including those of
others) conducted. Radio 3, under Roger
Wright, at least is doing the right
thing in allowing us to hear a wide
range of Arnold’s output in his birthday
month.
Sir Malcolm’s death
is literally the end of an era of British
composers who indefatigably supported
the cause of Sibelius in the ever increasingly
avant-garde period of post-war music
in Britain. This was the time of a critical
back lash against just about everything
Sibelius stood for, basically predicated
around the writing of symphonies in
an age when such a "romantic"
notion was dead and buried. Another
composer to compare with Arnold’s thinking
was Robert Simpson, his exact contemporary.
Their creative lives were based on the
writing of symphonies in the sense that
each man would have liked their work
to be judged fundamentally on the value
of their symphonic thoughts. (Although
Arnold was not in the best of health
towards the end of his life he did live
into an era of almost total acceptance
of the genius and importance of Sibelius
in the context of 20th century
music, something that none of his contemporaries
quite managed.)
Both Arnold and Simpson
paid a heavy price for openly espousing
the qualities of Sibelius in the prime
period of their composing careers, which
was in the 1950s to the 1970s. Due mainly
to the BBC and the various Controllers
of Radio 3 (the Third Programme as was)
and a new, young wave of producers,
the climate for composition was defiantly
modernist. Arnold, Simpson, who himself
was a BBC producer, and a whole host
of other composers were simply ignored.
This was best shown by the drying up
of BBC commissions and broadcast performances.
In fact Arnold probably
suffered the least of all his fellow
reactionaries, as they would have been
regarded by the emerging younger composers
(such as drawn from the so-called Manchester
school, i.e. Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander
Goehr and Harrison Birtwistle.) He was
established as a multi-faceted writer
capable of producing high quality music
be it for films, orchestras, soloists,
chamber ensembles and so on. Indeed
Arnold’s capabilities were truly astonishing.
But they only served to worsen his mood
when his big works, his symphonies,
were laid waste by the critics each
time they appeared. His ambition was
to be taken seriously but his skill
was to write works that were accorded
public approval to the extent that it
worsened the situation with the critics.
In many ways he was hoist by his own
petard.
But this is history.
Today we can see the whole output in
the round. We can hear the happy, joyous
side to his personality in many works
including his anarchic Grand, Grand
Overture, written for a Hoffnung
concert [details],
and his serious side in his many concertos
and nine symphonies. The concertos are
a rich tribute to some of the finest
instrumentalists of their day, all personal
friends of Arnold. Their names are a
roll call of superlatives; Yehudi Menuhin,
Leon Goossens, Richard Adeney, Julian
Bream, Dennis Brain, James Galway, Julian
Lloyd Webber and Benny Goodman to name
a few.
The over 120 film scores
are merely a sign of his ability to
write appealing and highly effective
mood pieces that often caught the public’s
attention. But what an ability! It came
through his early facility in writing
music quickly, first in his head then
straight onto the staves. This was not
the happy lot of many others including
his friend William Walton, a painfully
slow writer of works. Humphrey Searle,
a post-war composer was asked to write
a ballet for the Queen’s coronation
at short notice and passed on his recommendation
for Arnold knowing of his speed at composing.
The result was Homage to the Queen,
revived this year at Covent Garden.
This side of his musical genius could
irritate Arnold. He was once congratulated
for writing the score for The Bridge
on the River Kwai in ten days as
if it was some wonderful gift he had.
He replied, "Nonsense, I was told
I had to write it in ten days.
There is a big difference!"
Arnold may have been
out of step with the radical side of
the musical establishment but he was
certainly part of a much bigger movement
of satire that sprung up in the 1950s
with such radio and television shows
as the Goons, Round the Horne and TW3.
He was at the centre of performing satirical
music in collaboration with Gerard Hoffnung
in the Hoffnung concerts at London’s
Royal Festival Hall, writing works especially
for the concerts with huge success.
Accused of being a clown in some quarters
it is easily forgotten that most if
not all the members of the musical establishment
took part in these events. They pricked
a number of metaphorical balloons to
very good effect and helped popularise
serious music (that is to say music
that is performed in a concert hall)
far more effectively than the happenings
of Stockhausen and Boulez.
When I asked Sir Malcolm
to become our first Hon. VP he graciously
replied, "I would be honoured".
I subsequently had a series of conversations
with him as recently as three years
ago and I was always struck by his complete
absence of ego. He could apparently
become annoyed by being asked all the
same old questions and he always preferred
the company of musicians. My talks were
peppered with anecdotes some unpublishable
here but how many musicians can talk
at ease with first-hand knowledge of
both Ginger Rogers and Wilhelm Furtwängler?
He was by all accounts
a generous man both with his money and
his time in writing works for people.
Julian Bream had asked him for a guitar
concerto for ages and finally gave him
a cheque in advance. Arnold relented
and sent him one of his most famous
works written in the space of days together
with the cheque returned! Strangers
would write to him seeking help with
a musical issue only for Arnold to solve
the problem with a new work. He loved
attending concerts of his own music
be they in this country or abroad. In
retirement he derived much pleasure
form travelling to many parts to hear
a work. He wintered in the Middle East
for many years and was invited to visit
Oman to hear Chris Adey give the local
premiere of the 2nd Symphony.
I recently gave a talk
at my old school on Arnold’s compositions
and ran out of time in playing a range
of his music starting with the ubiquitous
March from the River Kwai Suite,
which earned him an Oscar, and finishing
with the finale of the Sixth Symphony.
I did not play any of his famous compositions
or any of his 20 or so concertos because
there seemed other sides of his genius
worthy of hearing, particularly his
symphonic output. Only one pupil had
heard of the film The Bridge on the
River Kwai but they all queued up
for a complimentary CD at the end!
The nine symphonies
are an extraordinary series of compact
organic thought allied to a startling
melodic dimension that completely undermined
any sense of credibility Arnold may
have had in the minds of most contemporary
critics. In post-war Britain, with its
eventual backlash against former musical
icons such as Sibelius and Vaughan Williams,
you simply did not write tunes in symphonies.
Tunes were for film scores of which
Arnold wrote over 120. He was, in fact,
the original cross-over composer capable
of writing film score gems such as for
Whistle Down The Wind (his favourite)
and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
alongside serious concert works
such as the Double Violin Concerto and
the 2nd String Quartet. The
trouble was most of the narrow-minded
critics could not understand nor accept
Arnold’s ability to make this cross
over. In this respect he resembles Leonard
Bernstein, a polymath musician of enormous
talent. Listening to two of the respective
composers’ finest works, Arnold’s Double
Concerto and Bernstein’s Serenade
for Violin and Orchestra we are
struck by the sweetly lyrical mood of
the two middle movements. Both wrote
some of the best film music of the 20th
century and both wished to be taken
seriously in their big concert works.
Arnold was the better composer because
he concentrated on writing whereas Bernstein
was deflected by his conducting career.
The irony is that Arnold said he began
writing music for films so as to be
able to learn how to conduct. He always
loved waving the baton around whenever
he got the chance.
How did he achieve
the writing of music in so many styles?
His early liking for jazz meant he had
an unconventional musical upbringing
although his studies on the trumpet
under Ernest Hall at the Royal College
of Music gave him a solid grounding
sufficient to become a section principal
in the wartime LPO. He was fortunate
to have a sympathetic composing tutor
in Gordon Jacob. What is striking about
his composing profile is the immediate
"Arnold" sound heard in his
early Beckus the Dandipratt overture
(1943). In this respect he resembles
Sibelius where Kullervo and En
Saga also announced an individual
voice in music
Arnold stated that
Sibelius and Berlioz were his two most
admired composers. From the 1st Symphony
onwards Sibelius’s influence can be
heard in the tight organisation of musical
material and various devices such as
ostinatos, swelling brass chords, pedal
notes in the bass, short snippets of
melody gradually expanding into broad
statements and so on. But Mahler and
Shostakovich can also be heard in many
of the nine symphonies. A comparison
with the Russian composer is instructive.
Both men met a number of times and the
6th Symphony was begun, without
a commission, after the last meeting.
The finale has the same extravert spirit
as we hear in, say, the Shostakovich
10th. Arnold’s 8th is also
shot through with dark and light thoughts
as we hear in Shostakovich’s 6th.
I would go so far as to say that Arnold
is as great a composer as his Russian
counterpart. They lived in different
musical environments and today we laud
Shostakovich for his withstanding Soviet/Stalinist
pressures to conform. Arnold also failed
to conform to the musical mores of his
day by steadfastly ignoring all the
post-war "isms" that plagued
British contemporary music. (But he
admired Webern and incorporated some
Schoenbergian tone rows in certain works
always in an Arnold mould!). The difference
in the two great composers is one of
global recognition. Arnold’s serious
side remains unappreciated whereas Shostakovich
is not given sufficient credit for his
many and wonderful film scores.
Arnold today remains
the victim of a musical snobbishness
where a composer capable of writing
The Padstow Lifeboat march and
the English Dances cannot possibly
be expected to write interesting and
well-wrought symphonies. This just doesn’t
happen. But neither Britten nor Tippett
were capable of such range in their
output. What is extraordinary in Arnold’s
output is his mirroring of so many styles
and yet maintaining the ability to be
his own man. Hence we hear the heraldic
sound of Arthur Bliss; the ceremonial
style of William Walton; the technical
fluency of George Lloyd; the obduracy
of Robert Simpson and the astringency
of Benjamin Britten. Only in the music
of Michael Tippett do we not really
hear any connection at all. However
Arnold was keen for everyone to know
he played in the premiere of A Child
of our Time by Tippett!
No-one, even Britten,
had the sheer range of output we hear
in Arnold where every note is written
to make its mark. The works might be
uneven but they are clearly the work
of a consummate craftsman who sometimes
did not take life too seriously. But
if we truly listen to the nine symphonies
we hear a weighty composer who connects
with his audience in a way that other
post-war symphonists such a Robert Simpson
and Peter Maxwell Davies have failed
to do.
My prediction is our
grandchildren will think today’s generation
of music-lovers hopelessly old-fashioned
in its stinginess towards Arnold’s total
output, the honourable exception being
certain quarters on Radio 3. Our senior
orchestras ignore Arnold to their shame.
But it is not too late to celebrate
a remarkable composer, one of the most
interesting and enjoyable of his generation.
His music has touched the hearts of
ordinary listeners in a way not heard
since Elgar. When I ask conductors why
they perform Arnold the reply is always
the same, "Because audiences love
his music."
Arnold himself said
he wrote too much music (itself a miracle
in the face of enduring mental health
problems) and that inevitably it was
uneven. But his sound is inimitable
in a world of often grey conformity
and his spirit is imbued with a brilliance
of orchestration, a genuine and memorable
melodic gift and a genius for communication
that mark him out from virtually any
other composer of his day. Apart from
the handful of famous works, which will
remain immortal, there is a substantial
body of wonderful music that should
be explored, starting with the nine
symphonies.
We send our condolences
to Antony Day, Arnold’s long term carer
and manager and to his family.
Edward Clark
Sibelius Society
The
Malcolm Arnold Society pages
see also MusicWeb
Obituaries
Malcolm
Arnold - an Obituary by Rob Barnett
Sir
Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006) A Greater
Composer than Some Might Think -
Paul Serotsky
[DVD - Toward
the Unknown Region Malcolm ARNOLD
– A Story of Survival - A Film
by Tony PALMER]
