Arnold, Sir Malcolm (1921-2006)

[MickyD]

I've just received the Andrew Penny set - up to symphony 8. As someone who is listening to them for the first time, I confess I find the works hard going. Maybe that will change on repeated listenings.

[Roger Webb]

I've just received the Andrew Penny set - up to symphony 8. As someone who is listening to them for the first time, I confess I find the works hard going. Maybe that will change on repeated listenings.

Wait til you hear Sym 9 Micky!

[MickyD]

Yes, I've read it's a masterpiece, so am saving it for when I'm in good listening mood!

[Roger Webb]

Yes, I've read it's a masterpiece, so am saving it for when I'm in good listening mood!

A patient listening mood might work! It's a strange work!

I met Arnold once, and plucking up the misplaced courage of youth I told him how much I admired his music...his answer was short and not very sweet........ 'Bo***cks!'.

I don't know another composer with a bigger contrast between the 'serious' works and the 'popular ones.

[richardfinegold]

By coincidence I listened to the Penny Ninth a few days ago. I had just added Andriessen to my NAS and he displaced Arnold as the first composer alphabetically in the queue. It’s a bleak work and lacks the color of most Arnold scores. Did the original disc feature an interview with the composer? If so I must have omitted when I ripped the disc a few years ago.

[MickyD]

By coincidence I listened to the Penny Ninth a few days ago. I had just added Andriessen to my NAS and he displaced Arnold as the first composer alphabetically in the queue. It’s a bleak work and lacks the color of most Arnold scores. Did the original disc feature an interview with the composer? If so I must have omitted when I ripped the disc a few years ago.

Yes, the interview with Penny is at the end of the 9th symphony, which I have yet to hear.

[MickyD]

A patient listening mood might work! It's a strange work!

I met Arnold once, and plucking up the misplaced courage of youth I told him how much I admired his music...his answer was short and not very sweet........ 'Bo***cks!'.

I don't know another composer with a bigger contrast between the 'serious' works and the 'popular ones.

Charming!
I remember hearing his music for "Our Man in Havana" in a 70s Proms concert and finding it very amusing...I think it features vacuum cleaners to reflect the character in Greene's book of a vacuum cleaner salesman. I've never heard it since.

[LMcD]

Charming!
I remember hearing his music for "Our Man in Havana" in a 70s Proms concert and finding it very amusing...I think it features vacuum cleaners to reflect the character in Greene's book of a vacuum cleaner salesman. I've never heard it since.

The vacuum cleaners were the stars of the 1956 Hoffnung Music Festival. They were accompanied by an electric floor polisher.

[Barbirollians]

I am with you Micky D - Arnold was probably correct about his works to my ears. I had a cassette of concertos which was OK but I couldnt stick the symphonies at all.

[Petrushka]

I remember hearing his music for "Our Man in Havana" in a 70s Proms concert and finding it very amusing...I think it features vacuum cleaners to reflect the character in Greene's book of a vacuum cleaner salesman. I've never heard it since.

'Our Man in Havana' was composed by Malcolm Williamson not Malcolm Arnold and the performance you probably remember was at the Last Night of the Proms in 1976.

[MickyD]

'Our Man in Havana' was composed by Malcolm Williamson not Malcolm Arnold and the performance you probably remember was at the Last Night of the Proms in 1976.

Ah, thank you for that correction, it was indeed that Prom that I remember. No wonder I couldn't find a recording of it under Arnold !!?

I'm coming to the conclusion that the only Arnold I like is the Dances, but I'll persevere!

[Roger Webb]

The vacuum cleaners were the stars of the 1956 Hoffnung Music Festival. They were accompanied by an electric floor polisher.

And the work was 'A Grand, Grand, Overture'.....I think David Attenborough 'played' the floor polisher in a subsequent perfprmance. Edit. And we forgot the four rifles!

[Roger Webb]

Charming!
..................

Actually after the outburst (probably prompted by self-modesty) he was quite charming, and signed the back of my invitation card - we were at an industry award ceremony - with a stave on which he put minims f and g marked fff. I didn't dare ask what they meant....but I'm sure the g stands for great, but the f...well I've a good idea!!

I use the card as a bookmark in my copy of 'Rogue Male', his biography written by Anthony Meredith and Paul Harris - well worth a read, along with Tony Palmer's touching but disturbing docu 'Toward the Unknown Region', subtitled 'Malcolm Arnold - a story of survival'.

[vinteuil]

A patient listening mood might work! It's a strange work!
I met Arnold once, and plucking up the misplaced courage of youth I told him how much I admired his music...his answer was short and not very sweet........ 'Bo***cks!'.
I don't know another composer with a bigger contrast between the 'serious' works and the 'popular ones.

... the wiki page on Malcolm Arnold makes rather sad reading -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Arnold

extraordinary that the Court of Protection / Ministry of Justice refuse access to his archive and may even intend to destroy it. There may, of course, be background of which we are unaware.

[MickyD]

Actually after the outburst (probably prompted by self-modesty) he was quite charming, and signed the back of my invitation card - we were at an industry award ceremony - with a stave on which he put minims f and g marked fff. I didn't dare ask what they meant....but I'm sure the g stands for great, but the f...well I've a good idea!!

I use the card as a bookmark in my copy of 'Rogue Male', his biography written by Anthony Meredith (his carer in later life) and Paul Harris - well worth a read, along with Tony Palmer's touching but disturbing docu 'Toward the Unknown Region', subtitled 'Malcolm Arnold - a story of survival'.

Lovely memories for you, Roger, thanks for sharing the story.