Serenade for Small Orchestra, op.26
performed Jan 19, 2003

Malcolm Arnold (b.1921), is one of the most traditional 20^th century English composers. Although there are traces of jazz (which he loves) in some of his music, his output is based almost exclusively on strong, engaging melodies supported by diatonic harmony, and has found a stable audience. He has written a vast amount of orchestral music, including dozens of concertos, overtures, and film scores, most notably the Oscar-winning score for The Bridge on the River Kwai. His style has changed so much over the years, including diversions into "lighter" styles, critics scarcely know what to make of him.

Reared in a musical family, Arnold received instruction on both piano and violin by the age of five. Listening to Louis Armstrong at the age of ten, he decided to take up the trumpet, and the passion held fast. At sixteen, Arnold won a full scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London. He completed his studies in 1941, receiving the Royal College's Cobbett Chamber Music Prize. He immediately became second trumpet with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, later moving up to principal trumpet. His tenure with the orchestra was interrupted by two years of military service in World War II. In 1948, he won a scholarship to study composition in Italy, and from that time forward devoted his energies to composition and conducting.

The Serenade, op.26 was completed in 1950, shortly after his return to England. The work is in three movements, and lends itself to tonal craftsmanship over the atonality of the day. Conspicuous throughout the work is finely wrought thematic material, subtle use of ostinatos (repeated background figures), and conversations between contrasting pairs of winds. Indeed it is one of the composer's most impressive works.