A Symphonic Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was a music lover. His favourite composer seems to have been Richard Deering, who was in fact a Catholic and court musician! He would surely have approved had he known that a symphony was to be performed in his honour, even if it took nearly four hundred years. On 26th November 2005, at Hitchin Town Hall, the Hitchin Symphony Orchestra, under its conductor Paul Adrian Rooke, gave the world premiere of the ‘Oliver Cromwell Symphony’, composed by Rutland Boughton (1878-1960) in 1905. The work is described as a ‘character symphony’. It attempts to delineate Oliver’s personality, rather than events in his life, in contrast to a ‘programme’ symphony. The piece is powerfully written and scored and an undoubted masterpiece. Boughton (1878-1960) was a composer whose reputation once stood high. Unfortunately his uncompromising and radical musical and political views resulted in his being marginalised by the Establishment. No doubt Oliver would have understood.

The first movement depicts Oliver’s character in a ‘Cromwell Theme’ striving, virile, and purposeful with majestic passages, almost Elgarian in their ‘nobilmente’ nature. The second movement, inspired by Cromwell’s letter to his wife after Dunbar, depicts the Protector’s domestic attributes, his relations with his wife and family and, perhaps, his inner doubts resolved by his religious faith. The third movement is less effective. It is entitled ‘March of the Puritans’ (surely it should be ‘March of the New Model’?) and it is interesting to note that the composer removed it from the original MSS score. These seem amiable, rather than triumphant, Puritans and it is odd that no reference is made (as far as I could tell) to any of the great Puritan battle tunes such as ‘Let the Lord Arise’ or ‘York’. The finale, however, is marvellous. It is a setting for baritone soloist of Oliver’s final prayer. It was sung on this occasion by Ian Boughton, a grandson of the composer. The orchestral music is both poignant and noble, re-stating the ‘Cromwell Theme’ in a transcendent mode.

The programme also included another world premiere – Paul Adrian Rooke’s own Second Symphony, a contrast in style, but not in quality, to the Boughton. The concert book included a synopsis of the life of Cromwell in a very attractive programme.

For more information about Rutland Boughton see
www.rutlandboughtonmusic.org.uk
www.hyperion-records.co.uk

CARL NEWTON