Located in the UK
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- Geoffrey Burgon
Brideshead Variations (1981)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Originally scored: 1(pic)1(ca)01/1100/hp/str. So please NOTE that the FIRST flute doubles piccolo and the FIRST oboe doubles cor anglais.
- 2(I=pic).2(I=ca).0.2/2200/hp/str
- 18 min
- 1st January 2025, St Albans Abbey, St Albans, United Kingdom
Programme Note
Brideshead Variations is a sequence of six movements taken from the music for Brideshead Revisited, the television serial made by Granada Television from Evelyn Waugh’s famous novel. Much of the music for the series is in strict variation form, based on the sixteen-bar theme heard at the opening the theme, there is a bright six-eight movement, the music of which is associated with Julia’s blossoming romance with Rex Mottram. The third movement is also associated with Julia but this time with the breakdown of her marriage to Rex. The fourth movement is taken from the music which accompanies the hunt at Brideshead and the fifth, which is fugue, takes the bass line of the theme as its melodic idea. The last movement begins quietly with a melody for bassoon and violas and gradually builds to a restatement of the opening theme, expressing the gleam of hope which Charles at last glimpses on his return to Brideshead.