#arnold bax

[lesser-known-composers]

Arnold Bax (1883-1953) - String Quartet No. 1 in G Major, GP 199 (1918)

Movement One: Allegretto semplice - 0:00 Movement Two: Lento e molto espressivo - 8:30 Movement Three: Rondo - 16:50

Performed by the Maggini Quartet

[jacquesbonhomie]

Arnold Bax - ‘November Woods’ - Tone Poem for Orchestra

[zero-zoxx-international]

Tintagel, 2004 by J.G.Wind - Oil on canvas, inspired by the tone poem of Arnold Bax

[larapeteira]

Now That’s What I Call Mozart!

The thing that’s probably taken the most time in putting together these ragbag selections of musical scraps from Mozart in the Jungle, is coming up with a title to collect them under. In the end, if it succeeds in communicating anything it’s that they will be entirely whimsical, subjective, and reliant on wordplay.

S1E1 ‘Pilot’: Overture to a Picaresque Comedy

As with any pilot, the main work of this episode is to set the scene, the characters, and the key themes and tones of the narrative. In Mozart in the Jungle much of this depends on music, so the episode also introduces some frameworks for its use and the kind of musical references it draws on (classical and popular, in a range of settings). With apologies to Arnold Bax for stealing his title, these come together to give an overall flavour of the affectionate and playful irreverence which lies ahead. What follows are some of my highlights:

The episode opens with Hailey teaching an oboe lesson, but later we see her (and separately, Cynthia) hot-footing it out of the New York Symphony’s performance to play in the ensemble of a Broadway show: Styx: Oedipus Rocks!. It’s a glitzy parody of jukebox musicals (Oedipus blinds himself with cartoonish golden lightning bolts to the strains of ‘Come sail away’), but not necessarily a scathing one.

I don’t think that the series finds its understanding of creativity in making glibly cynical judgements about the value of different forms of musical expression. Not least because it seems unlikely when one of the creators/executive producers, Alex Timbers, has a well-established career in musical theatre. Both Hailey and Cynthia, though at different career stages, have to compile their incomes from multiple sources, yes, but is the show a beggar’s opera to them? Their enjoyment in playing suggests it’s more than just a simple question of staking out conflict between financial interests and creative ones. Looking ahead in the series then, precarity is a symptom of a musician’s existence and living by their wits is a source of the narrative’s picaresque elements. 

Cynthia’s riff on the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra is neither a tuneful nor explicit (except in the other sense) musical reference. However, its homage to Britten, and Bernstein is an enjoyable, and witty, mechanism for exploring the meaning of ensembles, Cynthia’s character, and framing the mentoring dynamic of her relationship with Hailey.  

Lizzie and ‘Let’s get Bizet!’: I’ll be honest, I’d stand up and fight for the pun alone on this particular character introduction. Still, I also like how Escamillo’s aria ‘Votre toast’ could function as a synoptic overture for the subsequent scenes at the party.

En garde! allons! allons! Ah! Toreador, en garde! Toreador, Toreador! Et songe bien, oui, songe en combattant Qu'un oeil noir te regarde, Et que l'amour t'attend, Toreador, L'amour t'attend!

En garde! Let’s go! Let’s go! Ah! Toreador, en garde! Toreador, Toreador! And dream away, yes, fighting dream on, That dark looks follow you, And, yes, that love awaits, Toreador, yes, love it waits for you!

In one stanza we can read the irony of Hailey’s thwarted attempt to sleep in order to realise her dreams, the duel between creativity and competition/performance of the game of ‘Showdown’, and Alex and Hailey’s continued flirtation - all dancing between farce and plainer drama.

Alex’s unexpected arrival at the party is heralded by the first appearance of what comes to be Hailey’s theme throughout the series: Mozart’s ‘Oboe Concerto in C Major’. The episode touches on the first movement (allegro aperto) in this and another moment, but it comes into its own with the third movement (allegretto) in the last act. Believing she’s missed her opportunity to audition for the orchestra, Hailey takes her only chance to play on that stage and for her own enjoyment. Or so she thinks: Rodrigo’s attention is drawn by her playing and so the rondo of this movement establishes the enmeshed creative and romantic orbits which will drive the series.

Just before Hailey starts this movement, she plays a tentatively ambitious not quite final note, regretful and hopeful all at once. We absorb its reverberations in the Symphony’s hall with her for a couple of seconds before she springs into action and the sound of the rest of the orchestra starts to fill in around her. Mozart in the Jungle is done tuning up. Now, play on!

[lesser-known-composers]

Arnold Bax (1883-1953) - Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, GP 342:

I. Overture, Ballade and Scherzo. Allegro risoluto ·

Bryden Thomson · London Philharmonic Orchestra ·

Lydia Mordkovitch · violin

[lesser-known-composers]

Arnold Bax (1883-1953) - Piano Concertino: I. Lento - Piu mosso ·

Mark Bebbington, piano

Conductor: David Curtis

Orchestra: Orchestra of the Swan

[lesser-known-composers]

A lovely piece by Arnold Bax (1883-1953) - String Quartet in E Major, "Cathaleen-ni-Hoolihan" ·

Maggini Quartet

[lesser-known-composers]

Arnold Bax (1883-1953) - Piano Sonata No. 3 in G-Sharp Minor, GP 279: II. Lento moderato ·

Eric Parkin, piano