Joseph Holbrooke - Symphony No.2 'Apollo and the Seaman' (1907)

[Reverie]

In 1907 Holbrooke was approached by the poet Herbert Trench who suggested he might set his extended poem on immortality Apollo and the Seaman to music.  The completed work, entitled "An Illuminated Symphony", was first performed at Queen's Hall on 20 January 1908, conducted by Thomas Beecham. It was a multimedia event. The orchestra and chorus were hidden from the audience behind an elaborate screen in a darkened hall whilst the text of the poem was projected onto the screen using lantern slides at corresponding points in the music.

Only the final section of the poem (The Embarkation) is actually sung (by a male chorus), the rest of the score being a purely orchestral illustration of the verses.

Allegedly the lantern slides in this first performance got out of sync with the music which led to some confusion.

Interestingly the funeral march from Apollo was a favorite of Captain Robert Scott and was much played at memorials held for Scott after he perished on an ill-fated Antarctic expedition in 1912.

The work is for a huge orchestra and is in four parts. The first two parts follow:


Part 1:  Full orchestra (11 mins)
Part 2:  For wind and tuned/untuned percussion (3 mins)

(Parts 3 & 4 are to follow)


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PART 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eZp3YbJ-Tc



PART 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjWS227_7pw

[Alan Howe]

Sounds full of interest and excitement, not to mention innovation. I'd like to hear the reactions of our resident Holbrooke expert. What do you think, Gareth?

[ewk]

See also Bret Newton's introduction to the piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrdzqgPPMpw
Intrigued to hear more of it!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you VERY MUCH INDEED, Reverie, for giving us all a chance to hear some of this major score by Holbrooke. "Apollo and the Seaman" is a magnificent work - "innovative" as Alan says, and displaying the composer's distinctive voice and marvellous talent for orchestral colour. It is, of course, early film music, but deserves also to be considered a truly symphonic work, albeit loosely so. The orchestra employs a large and varied wind section (2 sarrusophones, for goodness' sake!), including 4 different types of clarinet and soprano and tenor saxophones; and Joseph could be relied on always to write beautifully for winds. The colours and sonorities in this midi rendition are spectacular. My only observation would be that I think the slightly faster tempo adopted by Bret Newton in his otherwise inferior version of the second movement works better, although, that said, Reverie's may be closer to the metronome marking of crotchet = 176 marked in the score. Either way, it is just glorious to be able to hear this terrific music and I hope Reverie will find time to give us the other movements, though I appreciate that this will be a lengthy operation with such a big score.