TYRER’S MUSIC FOR MARLOW’S "FAUSTUS"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 45, 3 May 1940, Page 11

TYRER’S MUSIC FOR MARLOW’S "FAUSTUS"

Dunedin Will Hear It First In Festival Tour

Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Andersen Tyrer’s music for Marlowe's "Faustus" will be Dunedin. On Saturday, May 11, the festival tour will officially begin with a presentation of Mendelssohn’s "Elijah," to be followed by " Faust." Already the orchestra and the famous soloists have given a celebrity concert in Wellington in aid of patriotic funds. On Thursday of this week they leave Wellington for Christchurch, rehearse there from Friday, May 3, to Sunday, May 5, and rehearse in Dunedin from Tuesday, May 7, to Friday, May 10. On Saturday, May 11, there will be in Dunedin a performance of " Elijah," with Isobel Baillie, Gladys Ripley, Heddle Nash, and Raymond Beatty as soloists. ge -wl to hear the National Centennial Festival The Dunedin Programme The full Dunedin programme will be: Saturday, May 11: " Elijah," Sunday, May 12: After church servicé concert. Monday, May 13: "Faust." (Soloists: Misses Baillie and Ripley, Messrs. Nash, Beatty, Bermingham.) Tuesday, May 14: The Symphony Orchestra. (Conductor: Andersen Tyrer) in a symphony concert, (Soloists: Heddle Nash and Oscar Natzke.) Wednesday, May 15: "Faust" (second performance), Thursday, May 16: Orchestral concert. (Soloists: Misses Wallace and Ripley, and Oscar Natzke.) Friday, May 17: Chamber Concert, with the Vincent Aspey Quartet, and Noel Newson (pianist); and Heddle Nash as vocal soloist. Saturday, May 18: Festival Concert by Combined Choirs with Miss Baillie in a group of songs, Oscar Natzke, Frank Bermingham. Monday, May 20: "Faust" (third performance). One of the most interesting items in the Dunedin programmes will be a transcription by Andersen Tyrer of one of Bach’s greatest. works. It was during the voyage from England to Australia in 1936 that Andersen Tyrer began the transcription of Bach’s magnificent Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, The whole work was begun and finished between Port Said and Perth. Its initial performance was in November, 1936, when Andersen Tyrer was guest conductor with the Melbourne Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra; and incidentally the dedication of the work is to that orchestra. Larger Orchestras Now When Bach was writing his compositions the size of orchestras was much smaller than to-day. Now a new technique in orchestration is possible with the new-found resources of the modern symphony orchestra, The effect is more stirring and virile than in the days when the old masters wrote for " Beethoven " orchestras, The larger orchestras allow a much broader musical canvas on which shades and subtleties of musical expression can be drawn. Andersen Tyrer has therefore found it necessary to add eightpart free counterpoint to this work. The Story of "Dr. Faustus" In 1588 a young English poet, Christopher Marlowe, wrote a tragical history of Doctor Faustus and thereby delivered English drama from a series of pageants and shows into a properly constructed design on a grand scale. Delving into the writings of the great Elizabethan, Andersen Tyrer was so impressed by the majesty of the writing and the. depth of. Marlowe’s tragedy that he decided to write a Symphonic Poem based on the play. Thus came the idea for "Doctor Faustus ""-a work for chorus, orchestra

and orator. Although more than 350 years separate the creation of play and music, it’ would be hard to find a more perfectly blended work. Marlowe's play is indeed on a grand scale. With a theme as old as Everyman and the miracle plays, the playwright clothed his tragical history of the man who sold his soul to the Power of Evil in richly sonorous language. There is in the music of Andersen Tyrer that same depth and beauty which so profoundly tragic a theme demands. Black Magic The story which Marlowe created from the chapbooks and immortalised, is almost a pattern story of diabolism. In the first part Faustus ventures into the realms of black magic, and being tempted by the Devil and his evil angels, barters his soul for power, glory and knowledge. The dark miracle is achieved, and the Doctor is intoxicated with his new-found magic. He conjures gold out’ of thin air, and miracue lously invoked a profusion of fruits and flowers, Yet there is one small doubt. He says: Be I a devil, yet God may. pity me; Ay, God will pity me, if I repent. Then comes the chorus of the Evil Angels in replys Ay, but Faustus never shall repent. Thus ends, on a note of premonition, the first part. The second phase of the tragedy is the remorse of Doctor Faustus when, having tasted all earthly joys and pleasures and found them without substance, he awaits the approaching hour of midnight when the Devil shall claim his due. The unhappy man has but one more hour..to live, and he cries, storms, beseeches, implores, lays bare his soul in an agony of appeal for mercy; but inexorably twelve o'clock draws near. And as the strokes ring out, Faustus is drawn away by the Evil One, leaving hanging in the air his last shriek of terror, Pll burn my books! Ah, Mephistopheles! The work is of absorbing interest because of the originality and individuality of expression. In the first part the cajolings of the evil angels, the counter-pleadings of the good angels, and Faustus’ own indecision and final acceptance of the Devil’s bargain are shown. Then the music rises to inspired heights as the dramatic climax approaches. It is, indeed, what might be called "Dantesque music," mirroring the torment of the man torn between Heaven and Hell. In this, the second part, the intwined voices of good and evil angels, the terrible, lamenting chorus, draw everyone into the agony which Faustus is enduring. Above the turbulent voices of chorus and orchestra, the orator speaks the lines of the despairing man, his pleas, his pitiful cries, the travail through which his damned soul passes. Beneath his desperate voice the music moans and laments, the sounds of peace and strident wailing mingle until, suddenly, all withers before the gong booming out the fatal hour; and Faustus delivers his tortured soul to the patient, waiting Lucifer. The Composer's Difficult Task For a composer, the task of matching such tragedy with music is difficult. Yet Andersen Tyrer’s work has a quality which miore than merits the praise of the critic who wrote, after its initial performance, " Andersen Tyrer’s music provided the perfect orchestral setting to a majestic piece of writing, and with an originality which showed genius." The choir_has to negotiate passages of unusual harmonies, As the melody ascends into lofty heights, and dies away in an atmosphere of austere grandeur, the voices create in turn an ethereal and tragic atmosphere. In the second part, right from the first crash of a huge gong, there is underlying menace in the music that foretells tragedy and horror to come.