I recently had an opportunity to listen to the Ninth Symphony of George
Lloyd (1913-1998), which he composed in 1969.  It is an immediately
accessible, mainly high-spirited and compact symphony, under 30 minutes
in duration.  With this symphony, it seems that the composer deliberately
shunned the somewhat self-conscious tradition of composing 'grand' ninths
followed by several composers since Beethoven, e.g.  Schubert, Bruckner,
Mahler and possibly Vaughan Williams.  Instead, perhaps equally
self-consciously, Lloyd here chose a path similar to that mapped by
Shostakovich for his ninth of 1945, a likewise compact and apparently
light symphony to celebrate Victory in Europe.

At any rate, Lloyd scribbled a note at the front of the score of his
symphony as follows:  "I will simply tell you that there are three
movements and that the first one is about a young girl, she dances and
is a little sentimental; the second is about an old woman who reminisces
grief-stricken; and the third is the merry-go-round that just keeps on
going round and round."

The strength of this symphony lies not with structure and logical symphonic
development, nor even the presented melodic content, which is a feature
that the composer himself rates highly in the musical scheme of things,
though he does not necessarily achieve a consistent level of inspiration
therein, but rather with the remarkable orchestration.  Indeed he makes
full and advantageous use of his large orchestra and he even takes pains
to keep the timpanist and four other percussion players sufficiently
occupied, so that they may properly earn their keep.  He achieves
considerable variety of tone colour and clarity with these forces rather
than just sheer volume.  One, of course, needs to be aware that Lloyd felt
nothing but disdain for the 12 tone system (a well known fact that rendered
him a musical outcast for many years in the post-war era).  Nevertheless
during the 1930s he had carefully studied Schoenberg's method and it is
quite possible that a process of musical osmosis is at work here and in
other orchestral pieces, for his orchestration does seem somewhat
influenced by Webern's Klangfarbenmelodie.

The three movements are as follows:

1. Allegro con delicatezza
2. Largo
3. Allegro con brio

In the recorded perfomance conducted by the composer with the BBC
Philharmonic, which provoked these few meandering reflections in the first
place, the first movement is given all the delicacy which he requires.
There are plenty of busy little melodic fragments, which reminds one of
Tippett, though the latter prefers to add more hot spices to his harmonic
recipes.

It doesn't take long for the bassoon to make it's presense felt in the
second movement.  Overall, the mood is subdued but not overwhelmingly
depressing.  Lloyd never really "gets down to it" in the way Sir Malcolm
Arnold does in several of his symphonies.  It is probably just as well the
latter does not conduct any Mahler.

I suppose one could repeat the rather trite saying "What goes round, comes
round" by the time we get to the finale.  Here indeed this predominantly
jovial composer demonstrates the rewards of "keeping one's pecker up".  The
percussion players seem particularly busy.  I suppose at times they might
even begin to think that they're simply going round in ever decreasing
circles.

A few more words about this composer might be in order, before closing.
George Lloyd's fortunes have certainly be quite variable.  His life
seems to be a story of overcoming obstacles, some slight, some quite
considerable.  He was born in Cornwall, wrote 3 early symphonies before he
was 20 and enjoyed some measure of success with an opera called 'Iernin'
(1934).  Another opera 'The Serf' was rather less successful.  The Second
World War marked the beginning of the composer's more significant
misfortunes.  In 1942 the escort cruiser on which he was serving with
the arctic convoy's was blown up and he barely escaped with his life.
During the next 20 years, with the aid of his Swiss wife, he gradually
recuperated, having suffered from swallowing plenty of oil during his
ordeal and severe shell shock.  He continued to compose during this time
including a fourth symphony and another opera 'John Socman'.  The first and
only performance that this work received during this time was a disaster.
Moreover, no interest was taken in the music of a man who was seen as a
conservative composer of anachronistic music.  For another 20 years, Lloyd
put composition on the back burner and turned instead to Market Gardening
- carnations and mushrooms.  In the late 1980s some renewed interest in his
music emerged and this encouraged the final flourish of 'Indian Summer'
compositions and recognition of Lloyd as one of the major figures in
English music.  As yet posthumous interest in his music remains steady.

Geoffrey S.W. Gaskell