German: Dances from Henry VIII

Day 128

Edward German: Dances from Henry VIII

Northern Sinfonia

Richard Hickox

Edward German is best remembered as the composer of Merrie England, a work which was once the mainstay of amateur musical societies - Wikipedia says that over 500 amateur societies performed the opera in Queen Elizabther’s coronation year - and I believe that when Sadlers Wells was looking at how to open its first season after the war there were many who suggested that Merrie England would have been a better choice than Peter Grimes.  I wonder how the history of music in post-war England might have gone had they got their way.

These dances, written for Irving’s 1892 production, were delightful. I have expected them to be very much in the ‘ye olde England’ tradition but they were fresh as a daisy. What did surprise me was how French they sounded - at times we seemed to be in the world of Delibes or Massenet. German’s career seems to have fizzled out around the turn of the century and he seems to have been saddened by the changing tastes in music which meant that his work seemed old-fashioned.  I hadn’t realised that he lives through to 1936, so much do I think of his as a late Victorian/Edwardian figure. But quality light music such as these dances will always be worth listening to - there is room both for  Merrie England and Peter Grimes in the musical pantheon.