To link this and another thread:

Joseph Horowitz: Metamorphoses on a Bedtime Theme.

(For those who don't know it, this appeared on the second Hoffnung
Festival LP, its thesis being:
   Mozart, Bach, Verdi (?)
   Why didn't they realise?
   Schoenberg, Stravinsky and others
   Why didn't they open their eyes?
   Whatever you sau about ITA      [The Independent Television Authority
- tv commercials were only a few years old]
   It pays to Advertise!         [Well-known advertising slogan]

interstingly the variations are not on a musical theme but a lyrical one,
viz.  "Sleep sweeter, Bournvita" this being the slogan of a chocalte-malt
type of bedtime drink.

There follow short pieces in the styles of Bach, Mozart, Verdi, Schoenberg
and Stravinsky.

The Schoenberg is a priceless piece of sprechgesang over Five orchestral
Pieces-style background:

   The end of day
   Is the beginning of night
   You can't see nothing
   Without a light

The Stravinsky is sort of Dumbarton Oak-neoclassical, although I noticed
with interest that the performance on the 1981 (i.e.  after Igor had popped
his clogs) concert CD has a coda which is a setting of the text to Les
Augurs printaniers from The Rite.  Works a treat too.

Deryk Barker
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