Bax, Arnold

Preface

Bax, Arnold – Symphony No. 6

(b. Streatham/London, 8 November 1883 – d. Cork/Ireland, 3 October 1953)

(1934)

I Moderato (p. 1) – Largamente (p. 9) – Allegro con fuoco (p. 10)
II Lento, molto espressivo (p. 50) – Più mosso (p. 63) – Andante con moto (p. 65) –
Meno mosso (p. 68)
III Introduction. Moderato (p. 73) – Tranquillo (p. 74) – Scherzo. Allegro vivace (p. 78) – Trio. Andante semplice (p. 89) – Poco più lento (p. 91) – Tempo primo (p. 93) – Allegro vivace (p. 99) – Poco largamente (p. 116) – Molto largamente (p. 118) – Tranquillando (p. 121) –
Epilogue. Lento (p. 123)

Preface
Even at the time of his death, Arnold Bax was already largely forgotten, only to be rediscovered in the early 1970s (Lewis Foreman’s achievements must be particularly mentioned here). Bax studied at the same time as York Bowen, Benjamin Dale, Myra Hess, Montague Phillips, Paul Corder, Arthur Hinton, William Henry Reed and Harry Farjeon at the Royal Academy of Music with Frederick Corder and Alexander Mackenzie (the latter still had known Liszt personally), where he became a good pianist, but on the other hand felt an aversion to conducting his own works or conducting at all. Bax earned a high reputation, however, particularly in the area of orchestration. Robin Hull wrote in 1942: “The orchestration of Bax’s symphonies confirms previous evidence that his natural mastery and original handling of this medium belong to the foremost rank. His scoring, though apparently generous, rarely outweighs the material: few composers can handle large resources with such self-restraint and fine judgment. Bax’s musical substance requires for its expression many novel and fascinating relationships between instruments whose combined use has opened up immense possibilities in the field of orchestral writing. He yields nothing to the disastrous fallacy that originality may be attained by the pursuit of novelty per se; but both novelty and virtuosity are given their legitimate place.”

Bax created his Sixth Symphony in 1934, which he dedicated first to Karol Szymanowski and then, when the contact had loosened, to Adrian Boult. This time, unlike the four-notes-theme in the First Symphony, it is a six-notes-theme that gives the first movement its cohesion, a unity that is sustained even through the many kaleidoscopic changes of mood. The movement is clearly structured as a sonata first movement, and it is, as David Cox has written, “full of dramatic urgency (the more peaceful second subject forming a brief respite)”. The slow movement, “full of romantic nostalgia, ending with a curious slow march-like section (Andante con moto) in 6/8 time”2, offers a clear contrast. As later in the Seventh Symphony, the final movement is of a special conception that may have been inspired from Chares Villiers Stanford’s Seventh Symphony: Introduction – Scherzo and trio – Epilogue. The introduction leads into a lively, powerful scherzo with trio, and this is followed by an “Epilogue of grave, wistful beauty” (Cox), which emulates that of the Third Symphony. This movement structure is a natural vehicle for Bax’s contrasting ‘episodes’. Certainly this conception is one of the most formally successful that Bax created in his symphonies. A quotation from Sibelius’s Tapiola has been identified in this movement. …

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