The "March" is a miniature work and is probably one of the earliest surviving compositions by Lennox Berkeley. He composed it in the Spring of 1924, while in his second year at Oxford and was dedicated to his friend and fellow Oxford undergraduate, Vere Pilkington.
Despite the fact that the "March" is one of his earliest works, it contains all the aspects that would in later years typify all that is best about Berkeley. Also, at about the same time during the late 1920's he composed other works which also don't have Opus numbers and these only came to light in 1979 upon the death of his mentor and friend Nadia Boulanger, to whom Berkeley had given them whilst studying with her in Paris in the early 1930's.

To mark the composer's 85th birthday in may of 1988, friend,writer and composer, Peter Dickinson devised a four part series of programmes for B.B.C. Radio 3, and these early works were given their first public airing as part of this series. Other early scores of Berkeley's dating from this period have unfortunately been lost completely, among them, "Two Dances" for piano duets-Oxford 1925. "Four Pieces" for organ-Oxford 1925. "Two songs" by W.H. Auden-Oxford 1926. "Concertino for Chamber Orchestra"-Oxford 1927. "Sonatina" for violin-Oxford 1927.

One "lost score" which was actually peformed at this time was, "Introduction of Dance for Chamber Orchestra" in April 1926, by the London Chamber Orchestra under the conductor Anthony Bernard. Between 1926 and 1950, Bernard gave first performances of some seven pieces by Berkeley. Later on, in 1943 the "Divertimento", op.18 in B-flat(1943), became the composer's first recorded work on Decca (K 1882-3), Again under the baton of his friend and collaborator Anthony Bernard.

The "March" has something of a"Folk tune"-like quality about it, it is in 4/4 and in E-minor. The piece starts "non legato" and soon develops into "forte", then into B-major and in "dolce", giving it contrasting textual colours and then building up to the climax with a demonstrative "glissando" and soon fading away to it's conclusion in pianissimo. Berkeley's use of "intervals of 5/5's" on the left hand is a major aspect in this piece, and the"folkish" overtones are reminniscent of Vaughan Williams's "Vagabond" from the"Songs of the Traveller"(1904).


MP3→ March

Kumiko Ida / Brian O'Hara-text Spring-2006.