Gallimaufry Guy Woolfenden

Das alte englische Wort Gallimaufry (gali maw'fri) bedeutet übersetzt soviel wie "Durcheinander" oder "Gemisch", aber auch ein Eintopf aus den Resten der Vorratskammer. Es kommt mehrmals in den Stücken von Shakespeare vor und inspirierte Guy Woolfenden, den damaligen Hauskomponisten der Royal Shakespeare Company, zu dem Titel seines ersten Blasorchester Werkes. 1982 komponierte er die Musik zu Shakespeare's "Henry IV" und bildete daraus eine Suite. Woolfenden gelingt es, das 15. und 16. Jahrhundert musikalisch zu porträtieren, und den Zuschauer in die Welt Shakespeares zu entführen.

Inhalt:
1. Kirche und Staat (Church and State)
2. ´Rein und ´Raus / In die Wirtschaft und ´raus (Inn and Out)
3. Ruckweise (Starts and Fits)
4. Vater und Sohn (Father and Son)
5. Vormarsch und Rückzug (Advance and Retreat)
6. Kirche und Status Quo (Church and Status Quo)

Gallimaufry was inspired by Shakespeare's Henry IV plays, and derives from music I composed for the Royal Shakespeare Company's production which opened the Barbican Theatre in 1982. The score is dedicated to Trevor Nunn, then Artistic Director of the RSC, with grateful thanks for his suggestion that I should expand and mould the music from these productions into a form suitable for concert performance.

My thanks also to Timothy Reynish and the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles who, with funds provided by North West Arts, commissioned the work and helped to ensure its first performance on September 24th 1983 with the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra.

The work is continuous and the thematic material of each of the six sections closely related. The establishment leadership, temporal and ecclesiastical power are depicted in the stately march which opens the work. (Church and State)

The second section, Inn and Out, in an energetic hemiola rhythm, is concerned with the stews and low-life revels at the Boar's Head Tavern. This is interrupted and finally integrated with the Tavern Brawl and Gadshill Ambush of Starts and Fits. The mood changes and the ambivalence of Prince Hal's relationship with his father and surrogate father, Falstaff, is portrayed in a serene cor anglais solo. (Father and Son)

Advance and Retreat is a recruiting march, derived from the Tavern Tune and leads into the last movement, Church and Status Quo, which deals with the rejection of Falstaff and the crowning of Price Hal. Order is restored with a majestic affirmation of the opening material.