TAM O'SHANTER OVERTURE - Parts & Score

Grade 5
Duration 8.09
 
Program Note
Tam o’Shanter (not to be confused here with the Scottish woolen cap) is the title and hero of a poem by the Scottish poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796). He is a drunken farmer who,
while riding home late from Ayr, in a stormy night, disturbed a witch’s party in the haunted church of Alloway. The hags pursued him to the keystone of the bridge over the
river Doon, but had to stop there as they could not cross running water. One witch, however, plucked the tail from his mare, Maggie.
 
The poem concludes with the following admonition:
“Now, wha’ this tale o’ truth shall read,
Ilk man and mother’s son, take heed:
Whene’er to drink you are inclin’d,
Or cutty-sarks run in your mind,
Think, ye may buy the joys o’er dear,
Remember Tam o’Shanter’s mare.”
 
The Composer
Born on October 21, 1921 at Northampton, England, Malcolm Arnold today enjoys the reputation in his native land as the most uninhibited of all of England’s living composers,
both for what he says and how he says it. He was educated at the Royal College of Music in London, where he majored in composition with Gordon Jacob. He performed professionally as a trumpet player in the BBC Symphony and the London Philharmonic, and since 1948 he has devoted his talents almost exclusively to conducting.
 
Donald Mitchell, writing in the London Musical Times in August, 1955 said:
The pure sound of Arnold’s music is, to a degree, an expression of his exceptional musical practicality — practicality, that is, raised to the very high level of virtuosity. . . There is no doubt that Arnold enjoys writing music. The pleasure he takes in his own skill, he communicates to his audiences with a complete lack of inhibition. His refreshing, immodest freedom of spirit — his high spirits — are well known. It is almost
impossible to write about his music without using such adjectives as ‘vital,’ ‘breezy,’ ‘humorous,’ ‘witty,’ and so on.”
 
Included in Malcolm Arnold’s compositions are symphonies, concertos, chamber music for ensemble and solo instruments, and a variety of film scores including “1984,” “The
Inn of the Sixth Happiness,” and “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”
 
John P. Paynter was born and raised in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, where he received his early training in music. He entered the School of Music at Northwestern University in 1946 and earned B.M. and M.M. degrees in theory and composition in 1950 and 1951. Since 1953, John P. Paynter has been Director of Bands at Northwestern University. He is conductor for the University’s musical productions. Under his direction the Northwestern University “Wildcat” Marching Band, Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Concert Band and
Symphonic Band all rank with the finest of their kind. Paynter was editor of the New Music column of the INSTRUMENTALIST music magazine. He is an active composer
and arranger as well, with some 400 works to his credit.