Thom Ritter George

SUITE FOR STRING ORCHESTRA ("On Old English Songs"), CN 319 (1984)

PROGRAM NOTES

Thom Ritter George composed his SUITE FOR STRING ORCHESTRA ("On Old English Songs") in 1984.  The work was conceived so that all members of the string orchestra have interesting parts to play.  This SUITE is not a work in which the first violin section always performs the melody and the other sections play accompaniment patterns.  Rather, melodic ideas are shared among all the sections of the string orchestra.  The composer was also interested in creating a score of high musical quality while keeping technical demands modest.  Consequently, the SUITE FOR STRING ORCHESTRA has been successfully performed by string ensembles from the Junior High School to the professional level.

The music is based on themes found in William Chappell's POPULAR MUSIC OF THE OLDEN TIME (1859).  Chappell's classic study is a large compilation of English ballads, music printed on broadsides, and popular entertainments of the 1600s and 1700s.  Chappell presents these pieces with texts and very simple accompaniments harmonized in the manner of his era, the middle 1800s.  In writing SUITE FOR STRING ORCHESTRA, Thom Ritter George selected musically promising themes and expanded on each in terms of harmony, form, instrumentation, and character.

The theme of the first movement ("UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE"), first appeared in "The Dancing Master" of 1686.  Chappell noted that "the popularity of the tune may be inferred from the great number of ballad-operas in which it was introduced."  Many texts seem to have been used with the music, but Chappell singles out one which is an ode to the pleasures of Summer:

    In Summertime, when flow'rs do spring,
    And birds sit on each tree,
    Let Lords and Knights say what they will,
    There's none so merry as we.

The second movement ("THERE WAS A PRETTY LASS") is to be played entirely pizzicato, plucking the strings.  In selecting this scoring, Thom Ritter George uses the string orchestra to suggest the strumming of a giant lute or guitar.  The theme itself was printed on broadsides with music in the early 1700s.  Like the theme of the first movement, it was extremely popular and worked its way into many ballad-operas of the period.

The theme of the tender slow movement ("MAYFAIR") was first published in a collection entitled "Pills to purge Melancholy" (1719).  Over the next few years, it appeared in other popular music collections including some editions of "The Dancing Master."  Thom Ritter George scored the music using muted strings to complement the mood of the cradle song cited by Chappell:

    Golden slumbers kiss your eyes,
    Smiles awake you when you rise,
    Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
    And I will sing you a lullaby.

The final movement ("GOOD QUEEN BESS") is based on a theme which made its first appearance in the collection "Love in a riddle" (1729).  Chappell notes that Collins' text "The golden days of good Queen Bess" was probably composed for one of the birthday celebrations honoring Queen Elizabeth I.  The rousing song begins with the lines:

    To my muse give attention, and deem it not a mystery,
    If we jumble together music, poetry, and history;
    The times to display in the days of Queen Bess, Sir,
    Whose name and whose memory posterity may bless, Sir.
        O the golden days of good Queen Bess,
        Merry be the memory of good Queen Bess.

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(TRGcm:1998.12.05)