Mont Juic (Suite)

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Mont Juic , Suite of Catalan dances for orchestra (English: Suite of Catalan Dances for Orchestra ), was jointly developed by Lennox Berkeley and Benjamin Britten composed 1937th The suite is named after Montjuïc , Barcelona's local mountain, where the composers listened to Catalan music together in 1936. The work was published in 1938 as Berkeley's op. 9 and Britten's op.

Exhibition site on Montjuïc , 1929

background

Berkeley and Britten took part in the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) festival in Barcelona in 1936 . Berkeley had previously lived abroad for several years and never met Britten. They soon became close friends. Another friend of Berkeley, Peter Burra, was also there and became a friend of Britten too.

Britten played the piano part at the festival in the world premiere of his suite for violin and piano, op. 6, with the violinist Antonio Brosa . The highlight of the festival, which Britten, Berkeley and Burra experienced, was the premiere of Alban Berg's violin concerto , “In memory of an angel”, which took place on April 19 with the soloist Louis Krasner and directed by Hermann Scherchen .

The following day the three friends visited the Montjuïc hill . On April 22nd, they experienced Catalan folk music at a folk dance festival on the exhibition grounds there. On the same day they wrote down some of the melodies in a café in Barcelona.

The following year, back in England, Berkeley and Britten decided to co-write an orchestral suite on some of the melodies they had heard on Montjuïc. They simply called it Mont Juic and dedicated it to Peter Burra, who was killed in a plane crash in April 1937. The work was written between April 6 and December 12, 1937. It was published in 1938 by Boosey & Hawkes as Berkeley's op. 9 and Britten's op.

occupation

The orchestra consists of two flutes (one also piccolo), two oboes , two clarinets in Bb, alto saxophone (ad lib.), Tenor saxophone (ad lib.), Two bassoons (one also contrabassoon), four horns, two Trumpets in Bb, three trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion (with glockenspiel and cymbal), harp and strings.

sentences

The suite has four movements:

  1. Andante maestoso
  2. Allegro grazioso
  3. Lament: Andante moderato (Barcelona, ​​July 1936)
  4. Allegro molto

The two composers did not want to reveal who had written which part of the music. The manuscript that Britten forwarded to the publisher was only in his handwriting. In 1980, however, Berkeley told Peter Dickinson that he had composed the first two movements, Britten the other two, and that they had worked together on the orchestration, form and other details.

Tribute to Catalonia

During the composition the Spanish Civil War broke out. The composers described the third movement, Lament, in C minor, with the subtitle “Barcelona, ​​July 1936”, as a clear reference to the outbreak of war on July 18 of that year. The homage to Catalonia contains a solo alto saxophone and is based on the dance Sardana .

premiere

The premiere took place as in a broadcast of the BBC held on 8 January 1939 played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joseph Lewis .

Mont Juic was performed and recorded frequently.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Peter Dickinson: Lennox Berkeley and Friends: Writings, Letters and Interviews. ( English ). Boydell Press, 2012, p. 158 (accessed July 14, 2013).
  2. ^ A b Neil Powell: Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music ( English ). Hutchinson, 2013, p. 112.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Britten: Violin Concerto / Canadian Carnival / Mont Juic ( English ) Classics Online. Archived from the original on March 11, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 14, 2013.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.classicsonline.com
  4. ↑ Paul Francis Kildea: Britten on Music ( English ). Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 362 (Retrieved July 14, 2013).
  5. ↑ a b c d e Benjamin Britten: A Guide to the Orchestral Works. ( English , PDF; 408 kB) Boosey & Hawkes. P. 9. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  6. ↑ Colin Clarke: Berkeley Conducts Berkeley ( English ) musicweb-international.com. 2004. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  7. ↑ a b c Benjamin Britten / Lennox Berkeley Composer / Mont Juic, suite of Catalan dances for orchestra ( English ) Classical Archives. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  8. ↑ Lennox Berkeley ( English ) Chester Novello. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  9. ↑ John Bridcut: Essential Britten: A Pocket Guide for the Britten Centenary ( English ). Faber & Faber, 2012.