WEIRD ORCHESTRATION
INDUSTRIES SET TO MUSIC SHEFFIELD. Sept, 28. Sheffield’s clanging steam hammers and roaring furnaces have been set to music by Dr. Desmond MacMahon, a local composer, in an overture giving n. musical impression of this great industrial city and its surroundngs. The overture commences with several weird chords, intoned first oil horns, thpn on trombones. These chords are similarly repeated for several bars to represent steam hammers. Cymbals rolled with a soft drumstick throughout the introduction suggest escaping steam; (lutes, playing sharp upward phrases, represent flames. Then comes the main motil, symbolising the city’s heavy industries. Throughout the weird steam hammer chords strike their way until a climax is attained. This is followed bv a sudden change as the Derbyshire countryside is introduced. The cuckoo is heard ancl. a pastorale is played on an oboe and a clarinet, with Sheffield’s steam hammers, now played on strings, drumming a distant. obbligato. The third and final pint of the overture introduces the Firth Park Secondary School, where Dr. MacMahon is music master, followed by a theme from “The Messiah” and concluding with a crescendo of fire and steam hammer motifs.
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Bibliographic details
Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18236, 3 November 1933, Page 11
Word Count
190WEIRD ORCHESTRATION Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18236, 3 November 1933, Page 11
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