Robert Simpson's Ninth Symphony

Abstract

Throughout his life Robert Simpson has been fascinated by two aspects of the music of the great Viennese classical composers: their handling of large-scale tonality, and their handling of rhythm. It has been his abiding ambition to recapture the sense of energy that Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven produced, and which has been largely lost since then. He has wanted, for example, to discover what makes a Beethoven Adagio or Scherzo, or a Haydn Finale, so utterly characteristic rhythmically. As a means of exploring this he has set himself various tasks. He wrote his First Symphony, for example, with a basic pulse throughout, upon which contrasting tempi are achieved by varying the pace of thought. This method is found in subsequent works, for example the Second, Seventh and Eleventh String Quartets, the second movement of the Third Symphony, and most of the Sixth. In these works tonality, as it is generally understood, is a potent force.