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Fantasia on Auld Lang Syne

The Fantasia on Auld Lang Syne is a piece for orchestra composed by the British light music composer Ernest Tomlinson in 1976. The original version was written for 16 saxophones. It was orchestrated in 1977 and there were later arrangements made for concert band and for "two pianos and two turnovers".[1]

The first version was commissioned by instrument maker Buffet Crampon as the finale for the 5th World Saxophone Congress, held at the Royal College of Music in July 1976. Tomlinson scored it for 16 saxophones: the (classical) London Saxophone Quartet, the (jazz) Peter Hughes Saxophone Quintet, and a third group including one each of the complete members of the saxophone family, from sopranino to Contrabass. The first orchestral performance was in March 1977 at the Palace Theatre in Manchester.[2] It was first broadcast by BBC Radio on 4 January 1982 with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Ashley Lawrence.[3]

The piece, lasting around 20 minutes, is a set of variations on Auld Lang Syne in the form of a quodlibet - a musical composition that combines several different melodies, usually popular tunes, in counterpoint, often in a light-hearted, humorous manner. The composer conceived it as an answer to Elgar's Enigma Variations, in which the original theme is never stated. Here Tomlinson introduces at least 129 well-known tunes,[4] often overlapping, taken from classical and folk sources. Auld Lang Syne is always present as a counter melody.[5]

According to Tomlinson "it is a well known fact" that Elgar used Auld Lang Syne as the basis for the hidden theme of the Enigma Variations.[6] "What is not generally known", continues Tomlinson "is that all other sets of important variations were also based on this song. Indeed, all the greatest tunes in musical history are based on Auld Lang Syne".[2]

Morag Grant has pointed out that, as well as extremely famous melodies such as the Toreador theme from Bizet's Carmen, Beethoven's Ode to Joy and the carol Good King Wenceslas, the piece also includes a 12-tone variation "in distinctly Webernian style".[5] Elgar's theme appears at rehearsal number 8 in the full score, set against Auld Lang Syne in the minor key.[2] The conductor Gavin Sutherland has called it "a work of contrapuntal genius".[7]

Themes quoted

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References

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  1. ^ Ernest Tomlinson (1983). Fantasia on Auld Lang Syne: For Two Pianos and Two Turn-overs. Preston: Electrophonic Music Company
  2. ^ a b c Ernest Tomlinson (1976). Fantasia on Auld Lang Syne. Programme note
  3. ^ Alistair Mitchell (2019). A Chronicle of First Broadcast Performances of Musical Works in the United Kingdom, p. 446
  4. ^ This is the composer's figure: the exact number has been variously reported. Programme note by Ernest Tomlinson (1976)
  5. ^ a b M.J Grant (2021). Auld Lang Syne: A Song and its Culture, end of Section 7.3
  6. ^ This solution was first proposed by Richard Powell (husband of Dorabella) in Music & Letters, Vol. XV, July 1934, pp 203-208, but Elgar had already denied it in a postcard responding to a query from critic Dyneley Hussey in 1920. He replied, “No. Auld Lang Syne won’t do.” Turner, Patrick. Elgar's ‘Enigma’ Variations - a Centenary Celebration. Thames Publishing, 1999, p. 107
  7. ^ Rob Barnett (2002). 'An Interview with the Conductor: Gavin Sutherland', at MusicWeb International
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