Leighton :Dance Suite No. 2, Op. 59

Dance Suite No. 2, Op. 59

Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)

Kenneth Leighton’s early musical training took place as a choirboy at Wakefield Cathedral, followed by studies at Oxford University. He attracted early notice from a number of important composers, including Vaughan Williams, Britten and Gerald Finzi. Composer of symphonies, concertos and chamber music, Leighton is perhaps best-known for his choral works. A prolific composer, his style, with its clarity, lyrical expressiveness and classic form, places him among the more conservative British composers of his time, although elements of the 12-tone technique were to have an influence upon his work as well.

One of a set of three Dance Suites commissioned in the early 1970s to be played by school orchestras, the Second Suite is a vivid example of Leighton’s style, in which technical mastery goes along with a flair for exhibiting an appealing “popular” tone.

The suite opens with a brightly-colored “Intrada,” a march-like introductory movement steps forth with energy and a confident swagger. A secondary, more lyrical theme follows, with the opening material returning to conclude the movement with brilliant flourishes.

The Ragtime Jig is quite removed from the edgy stride of Scott Joplin’s classical ragtime style, here rather stressing the “jig” element, giving a decidedly English cast to the music. Beginning quietly, the music builds to a climax, and then fades away softly in a low flute solo.

The closing “Introduction and March,” is the most imposing part of the suite, opening with

a broad, sustained melody in the strings, soon joined by the winds, moving ahead with a majestic stride and rising to a powerful fullness of sonority. Quite abruptly the music shifts to a springy, almost hectic quick march tempo, with a principal theme filled with rhythmic touches which gives the music a distinct contemporary flavour. A more sustained contrasting melody appears which, upon the return of the opening material soars overhead in the winds, the two thematic elements combined to bring the work to an exultant conclusion.

GPYO concert