Set of musical variations for orchestra or two pianos
The Fantasia on Auld Lang Syne is a piece for orchestra composed by the British light music composer
Ernest Tomlinson in 1976. The original version was written for 16 saxophones. It was orchestrated in 1977 and there were later arrangements made for concert band and for "two pianos and two turnovers".[1]
The first version was commissioned by instrument maker
Buffet Crampon as the finale for the 5th
World Saxophone Congress, held at the
Royal College of Music in July 1976. Tomlinson scored it for
16 saxophones: the (classical) London Saxophone Quartet, the (jazz) Peter Hughes Saxophone Quintet, and a third group including one each of the complete members of the
saxophone family, from sopranino to Contrabass. The first orchestral performance was in March 1977 at the
Palace Theatre in Manchester.[2] It was first broadcast by
BBC Radio on 4 January 1982 with the
BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by
Ashley Lawrence.[3]
The piece, lasting around 20 minutes, is a set of variations on Auld Lang Syne in the form of a
quodlibet - a musical composition that combines several different melodies, usually popular tunes, in
counterpoint, often in a light-hearted, humorous manner. The composer conceived it as an answer to
Elgar's Enigma Variations, in which the original theme is never stated. Here Tomlinson introduces at least 129 well-known tunes,[4] often overlapping, taken from classical and folk sources. Auld Lang Syne is always present as a counter melody.[5]
According to Tomlinson "it is a well known fact" that
Elgar used Auld Lang Syne as the basis for the hidden theme of the Enigma Variations.[6] "What is not generally known", continues Tomlinson "is that all other sets of important variations were also based on this song. Indeed, all the greatest tunes in musical history are based on Auld Lang Syne".[2]
Morag Grant has pointed out that, as well as extremely famous melodies such as the Toreador theme from
Bizet's Carmen,
Beethoven's Ode to Joy and the carol Good King Wenceslas, the piece also includes a 12-tone variation "in distinctly
Webernian style".[5] Elgar's theme appears at rehearsal number 8 in the full score, set against Auld Lang Syne in the minor key.[2] The conductor
Gavin Sutherland has called it "a work of contrapuntal genius".[7]
^This solution was first proposed by Richard Powell (husband of
Dorabella) in Music & Letters, Vol. XV, July 1934, pp 203-208, but Elgar had already denied it in a postcard responding to a query from critic
Dyneley Hussey in 1920. He replied, “No. Auld Lang Syne won’t do.” Turner, Patrick. Elgar's ‘Enigma’ Variations - a Centenary Celebration. Thames Publishing, 1999, p. 107