Gordon Jacob

[Guest]

Did you know that G.J. did some musical work for ITMA post WW2? (Heard this a.m. - a fantasia on "Happy Days Are Here Again" on R4 Extra).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I had to look this one up. My first hit on Yahoo was for the Trade Mark Association, but on adding the the compser's name, "It's That Man Again" came up. All before my time, I'm afraid.
Gordon Jacob for me is the man who completed Elgar's Soliliquy, orchestrated Elgar's Organ Sonata, wrote a very good book on orchestration (enabling me to make a bob or two) and edited the 30 Penguin Scores.

[salymap]

No, I didn't know that but he had many works in the Augener catalogue that never see the light of day now and seemed to turn his hand to concertos for several different instruments and many arrangements. A good jobbing composer, and that's not meant as a put down. A practical down to earth man.

[Andrew Slater]

By co-incidence I have been re-listening to his two symphonies today. Clearly another much underrated composer, and after listening to all of Malcolm Arnold's numbered symphonies the other week, the influence of Jacob on Arnold (who studied composition under him) is very obvious. There are moments in the Jacob symphonies which sound like Walton. I wonder who influenced whom, or is there a common third influence?

Jacob wrote music for all sorts of uses, so ITMA doesn't come as a surprise. I've just found the following in 'British Music' Vol. 17(available from the British Music Society): '...his willingness to try his hand at any unusual challenge led to a string of some two dozen light music arrangements for the war-time radio comedy series ITMA.'

[decantor]

One of my chief regrets is that there has never appeared a recording of GJ's "Highways - a cantata of travel", a 35-min piece for Baritone Solo, SATB chorus, and small orchestra. A wonderfully witty verse text by Christopher Hassall was set to music equally wittily by GJ. It included some clever pastiche - of Handel for the Sedan Chair in Brook Street, of plainchant & madrigal for the pilgrims, etc - as well as atmospheric effects for Roman chariots, Puffing Billy, and flying saucers. I hugely enjoyed performing it in a youth choir in the late 1950s, and the score (OUP) is still widely available.

I believe, too, that many of GJ's works for brass band are still part of the genre's standard repertoire, but on the whole history has treated him too harshly.

[Ventilhorn]

Gordon Jacob wrote a horn concerto for Dennis Brain, A trombone concerto for Denis Wick and also, I believe a flute concerto, but I have to confess that my abiding affection for his music is his arrangement of "Here comes the Galloping Major" which used to appear frequently on Housewife's Choice in the late forties.
A professor at the RAM when I was there and greatly respected. Yes, his work is neglected and I really can't understand why.

VH

[Dr Geoff Ogram]

It is good to see interest in Gordon Jacob's music. I first "discovered" it in 1956, followed it up, and over the years became friends with Gordon. I am in contact with his widow (his second wife, who was much younger than him) and promote GJ's music as much as possible. See my article on musicweb-international. I have recordings of many works broadcast over the years, and pretty well all CDs containing his works. There are about a dozen CDs of his music alone, for a few of which I have provided information to the performers. He is neglected by much of the UK establishment but has a good follo
wing abroad, especially in the USA. Lots of videos on YouTube of performances (varied in quality but worth investigation! )
His ITMA arrangements in the 1940s were brilliant. Yes, "before my time" for many people. But so was the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and yet many people have heard of it! "Before my time" should not be an excuse. It's called history!

[french frank]

Welcome, Geoff. Thank you for your contribution. The MusicWeb article is here.

[arundodo]

Gordon Jacob wrote an extremely fine bassoon concerto for Archie Camden. It is well known in bassoon circles but not alas, by the wider public.

[Alison]

I always get Gordon Jacob mixed up with Gordon Langford !

[ardcarp]

I always get Gordon Jacob mixed up with Gordon Langford !

I don't, 'cos Gordon L. lives just around the corner from me! On the subject of the other Gordon, however, I agree his slim volume on orchestration is very good in many respects; it gives the ranges and the transpositions of the standard orchestral instruments and indicates what they can and can't easily do. It is a bit conservative about what combinations of instruments sound good, however. If you want to do a bit of bread and butter arranging, then it's just fine. I think a score by Ravel or Stravinsky might have had GJ's red pen all over it though....so thank goodness they (or even Elgar for that matter) were not hide-bound by convention.