Three Bavarian Dances
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Three Bavarian Dances, Op 27 are an orchestral work by Edward Elgar.
They are arrangements of three of the six songs Elgar wrote under the collective title From the Bavarian Highlands. The original song lyrics were written by the composer’s wife, Alice, as a memento of a holiday the Elgars had enjoyed in Bavaria in 1894. As well as titles ('The Dance', 'False Love', 'Lullaby', 'Aspiration', 'On the Alm', and 'The Marksman') Alice Elgar gave the songs sub-titles in recollection of favourite places visited during the holiday. Elgar preserved both the titles and the sub-titles in his orchestral version of the three Dances.
The Dances in their purely orchestral form were first performed at the Crystal Palace on 23 October 1897. The Elgar expert Dr Percy Young states that the composer conducted; the website of the the Elgar Society states that the conductor was August Manns, the long-time resident conductor of the Crystal Palace concerts; The Times, Monday 25 October 1897, states that Elgar conducted ('in first rate style') the Dances, and Manns the rest of the programme.
The three Dances are:
- The Dance (Sonnenbichl) Allegretto giocoso
- Lullaby (In Hammersbach) Moderato
- The Marksman (Bei Murnau) Allegro vivace
All three Dances are characteristic of the composer. The first is bright and robust, the second Elgar in his gentle pastoral vein, and the third – the longest (about four and a half minutes) – is an Elgar finale in miniature, lively at first, then broadening and finally quickening to end in a blaze of orchestral colour.
[edit] References
- The Elgar Society website (consulted January 2007)[1]
- Percy Young: sleeve note to EMI recording ASD 2356 (1968)
