Symphony No. 2 (Idyll, Chorale & Dance)

An unassuming short 'rest day' composition, but…

Despite being a less substantial work than the other symphonies, this piece still has quite a searching character. The mostly lean textures give it perhaps more the feel of a chamber work. It's in one movement, the idyll, chorale and dance of the title not being so much consecutive sections as discrete thematic elements that are alternated a good deal but also often worked together. Out of this working together something new and beautiful emerges.

Although the symphony keeps jumping between the main ideas, a fair amount of organic development occurs throughout its length. The starting point of the whole work is a transformed version of an idea at the end of the 3rd movement of my Symphony 1. In the opening Idyll section the dance ostinato theme is already present in places as a counter-melody, though not at that stage as an ostinato. On the other hand the only intimation of the approaching serious and impassioned chorale is a certain growing restlessness of the Idyll music and a shift of tonal centre.

Please note that the Dance idea isn't what one might expect, but is a problematical influence, because most of the time it's stuck, dancing on the spot, and trying to get the whole symphony stuck there with it! But somehow things break through and move on in spite of that silly little obstructiveness!

The chorale is intended to be played at the marked slow tempo, not at the much faster speed nowadays commonly used for Bach chorales. Soon after the reappearance of the idyll theme, the little arched part of it in parallel fifths becomes a theme in itself, with the upper line played in a sort of 'delayed staccato' that tips each note of the lower line with light; this is precisely notated in the score. The effect is pleasantly comical, especially at certain moments when this motif suddenly reappears later on, suggesting a waddling penguin when slow or perhaps the flapping of a bat when played faster — though a comic effect wasn't my original intent.

The climactic part of the chorale periodically reappears, but soon it comes transformed into a more assertive, less sighing version. For the odd moment the forthcoming dance ostinato stealthily appears in the form of a harmonization of the chorale.

A reappearance of the idyll theme leads us into a mysterious polytonal no-man's land — a wandering procession which quietly introduces in its bass line the nostalgic arched motif that is eventually to take over the final section. There is a feeling of searching for a way forward, the procession drawing to a halt and wondering where it's going, the timpani emphasizing a certain nervous anticipation.

Then suddenly the eerie questions are resolved by the entry of the dance motif, now out of hiding and actually dancing. Eventually it draws in the chorale, showing that even the most solemn and mysterious part can dance — but the chorale's climax section is repeatedly intransigent and stands aloof from the very thought of dancing. At certain times during the dance the nostalgic arched motif already mentioned reappears, always rising in waves from the bass.

The final appearance of the chorale's climax section is in the assertive form, now more ponderously harmonized, surging forward more forcefully than hitherto to the loudest climax of the work, then plunging down into a very slow harmonized version of the dance ostinato. Against this emerges the nostalgic arched motif, which is now developed in a hypnotic canon, which eventually brings back a single statement of the idyll theme to close the work.