Symphony No. 5 - The Carnival

About

Hill's Symphony No. 5 in A Minor - The Carnival, was derived, in 1955, from the 1912 String Quartet in A Minor. At the time of the original composition he had joined Cyril Monk's Austral Quartet as second violin, but the transformation of the Carnival Quartet is complete. The work opens with a lively first movement, proceeding to an equally energetic Scherzo. The slow movement opens with a gently drawn-out melody, as always in the style inculcated in Leipzig in the 1890s and none the worse for that. The tradition survived with Hill in part because of his own conservatism but was also a result of his relative isolation from the mainstream of Western music and the new course it was taking, even in 1912, and most certainly by 1955. The Adagio is a fine example of music of an earlier age and is followed by an Allegro risoluto, a dance movement of varied textures, including an episode for solo violin and solemn chorale, framed by the emphatic Spanish-style dance that provides the main thematic element in the movement.

by Keith Anderson
from Alfred Hill - Symphonies Nos. 5 and 10, Marco Polo