James MacMillan: A Scotch Bestiary (2003-04)

BBC Philharmonic conducted by / dirigida por James MacMillan. Organ/órgano: Wayne Marshall
I. The Menagerie, caged / Los animales, enjaulados (0:00)
II. The Menagerie, uncaged / Los animales, en libertad (21:09)
James MacMillan is one of Britain’s foremost contemporary composers, creating eclectic music along avant-garde, minimalist and neoromantic lines of musical thought. His Scotch Bestiary was composed to celebrate the opening of the brand new Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and as the great cartoonist of the 20th Century, MacMillan decided to portray men as animals using Scottish models. For such a goal he received triple inspiration from Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of Animals as an ideas frame and from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Elgar’s Enigma Variations as development and structure. The work is divided in two parts: the first one is an expressive theme and variations on several Scottish picturesque human portraits; the second one is an unleashed image of human and animal nature dominated by chaos, unbalance and disproportion.
James MacMillan es uno de los compositores más prominentes de la época contemporánea en Gran Bretaña, creando un estilo ecléctico bajo líneas musicales vanguardistas, minimalistas y neorrománticas. Su Bestiario Escocés responde a la inauguración del nuevo Walt Disney Concert Hall de Los Ángeles y tal como el gran caricaturista, MacMillan decidió retratar a los humanos como animales tomando a los escoceses por modelo. Para tal efecto, recibió triple inspiración por un lado viniendo del Carnaval de los Animales de Saint-Saëns como marco de ideas y de los Cuadros de una Exposición de Mussorgsky y de las Variaciones Enigma de Elgar como marco de desarrollo y estructura. La obra se divide en dos partes: la primera es un expresivo tema y variaciones sobre varios retratos humanos de escoceses pintorescos; la segunda es una imagen desatada de las naturalezas humanas y animales dominadas por el caos, el desbalance y la falta de proporción.
Image/imagen: Scottish flag over “Loch Ness Monster” / Bandera escocesa sobre “Monstruo del Lago Ness” attr. Robert Kenneth Wilson. 1934-2015.

[@zacharydetrick7428]

II. THE MENAGERIE, UNCAGED
This is a freewheeling, through-composed fantasy on all the major ideas from the first movement. All the animals are now unleashed and rampage in chaotic, violent abandon. New animals appear - elephants, horses, cows, dogs, lions and more birds, with some added grunting and rooting. The materials are all predominantly fast and frenetic, rushing to a virtuosic finale for soloist and orchestra.
(The work is dedicated to my good friend, Gillian Moore MBE).
James MacMillan

[@galas062]

very cool...thx u!! nice picture too!

[@zacharydetrick7428]

I. THE MENAGERIE, CAGED
The book is opened. Moussorgsky’s ‘Promenade’ from Pictures at an Exhibition provides the model here for this recurring refrain.
Ode to a cro-magnon hyena. Duetting melodic lines on organ, violas and cellos are accompanied by laughing trumpets, lolloping trombones, howling clarinets, and little ticking rhythmic figures on percussion and horns.
A page is turned. The refrain material is now presented on the woodwinds.
Reptiles and Big Fish (in a small pond). Large, slithering and lumbering melodies are presented on the organ pedals, tuba and double basses, which lead to an ungainly waltz, doused in watery textures.
Her Serene and Ubiquitous Majesty, Queen Bee. A buzzing organ solo emerges from the depths, interrupted by violent and shrill interjections, before a grotesque Scottish reel winds its way through various fluttering textures. The section ends regally and serenely.
Another page is turned. The refrain material is now carried by the strings.
The red-handed, no-surrender, howler monkey. A military strain is overlaid by a jabbering organ, tootling flutes and cackling trumpets and clarinets. Horns blare out an obsessive two note motif.
Uncle Tom Cat and his chickens. Sleek, surreptitious, prowling clarinets and nervous strings and woodwind predominate in this section.
Yet another page is turned. This time the refrain is presented on percussion, harp and electric piano.
Scottish Patriots. A discarded fanfare for the opening of the new Scottish Parliament receives appropriate transformations on trombones, accompanied by bagpipe-like drones and snuffling on the organ. Later it is accompanied by a vamping piano and jazz-like pizzicato bass.
The Reverend Cuckoo and his Parroting Chorus. A high clarinet represents the obsessive cuckoo and the other woodwind instruments parrot their eager responses. The organ accompanies this with a hymn.
Jackass Hackass. This is a moto perpetuo movement, where the organ rushes and flies virtuosically, accompanied by a bodhran (a celtic drum) and braying hee-haws on strings and brass. A couple of noisy typewriters improvise a fast jig over a vamping piano and bass.
The book is closed. A coda for the solo organ, and a tentative dreamy final chord.

[@harryandruschak2843]

A better picture, in place of the Loch Ness Monster, would have been a herd of wild haggises. But for REAL terror...midges.
And I know there is a program to this work, so you might want to consider uploading that.