The Happy Forest
The Happy Forest is a
History
Bax's brother Clifford was editor of a quarterly magazine, Orpheus, to which the author Herbert Farjeon, better known as a writer of revue sketches and light verse, contributed. Farjeon's short story – he called it a "prose-poem" – "The Happy Forest", was described as a "Nature Poem" and depicted an idyllic rustic scene populated by galant shepherds and a satyr. It inspired Bax to compose a piano piece with the same title. Completed in May 1914, it was dedicated to Farjeon.[1]
After the First World War, Bax orchestrated the piece. His biographer Lewis Foreman comments that neither the serene rural scene nor the music Bax wrote for it could have been conceived after the collective experience of the war, and that Bax, in orchestrating the piece was "revisiting a world beyond recall".
Structure
The opening is marked "Vivacious and fantastic", and features muted horns and harp, playing at a moderate tempo at first, but the music quickly gathers momentum. It takes the form of a scherzo and trio, the lyricism of the latter contrasting with the ebullience of the outer sections.
Recordings
The Happy Forest was not recorded in the composer's lifetime. The first recording was made for
Notes
- ^ a b c Anderson, Keith (2000). Notes to Naxos CD 8.553608, OCLC 841925996
- ^ a b c Foreman, Lewis (2008). Notes to Chandos CD CHAN10446, OCLC 611485439
- ^ a b "Miss Harrison's Orchestral Concert", The Times, 4 July 1923, p. 12
- ^ a b "A New Work by Arnold Bax", The Manchester Guardian, 23 September 1925, p. 4
- ^ "Symphony No 3 and The Happy Forest", WorldCat, retrieved 7 October 2015
- ^ Parlett, Graham. "Discography", The Sir Arnold Bax Website, retrieved 7 October 2015
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