THIS SCEPTRED ISLE
Music inspired by the events of the 20th century
Double CD. BBC Music. £14.99
This wide-ranging collection of British music is a by-product of the recent radio series, also called This Sceptred Isle, which traced the history of Great Britain to the present day, although these particular pieces all date from the 20th century.
It is a remarkable collection of music, in that it includes so much which most citizens of this country will immediately associate with key events or periods in our national history; it makes full use of the fact that music has an extraordinary capacity to conjure up the atmosphere of a particular time or place. For instance, the grandiose imperial statements of Elgar and Butterworth speak of the false optimism of the early years of the century. Walton's 'Spitfire Prelude and Fugue' and Eric Coates's 'Dambuster's March' have obvious connections with World War II, and Taverner's 'Song for Athene' became widely known at the Princess of Wales's funeral.
Other composers include Gustav Holst, Hubert Parry, Ronald Binge and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Lest the Celtic fringe be forgotten, Scotland is represented by Hamish MacCunn and Wales by William Matthias.
There is quite a lot of church music included on the CD, and of particular interest to EN readers will be excerpts from Vaughan Williams's incidental music for a dramatisation of The Pilgrim's Progress, dating from 1943.
In a sense this music says a lot about Britain and Britishness, because the events commemorated do so as well. While the works from the early part of the century remind us of the complacency of that time, and the exaggerated belief in the goodness of human nature, there is also the admirable determination and pride of the World War II pieces; we are reminded too, of our strong Christian heritage, and how badly missed it is today. The performances on this CD are uniformly excellent, and I can thoroughly recommend this unique slice of musical history.
