Bruce Broughton (b. 1945)
And on the Sixth Day (Oboe Concerto)
String Theory for string orchestra
Olivier Stankiewicz (oboe)
London Symphony Orchestra/Jonathan Bloxham
rec. 2022, Henry Wood Hall, London, UK
Naxos 8.559958 [51]
American composer, Bruce Broughton, born in Los Angeles in 1945 and raised in Hawaii, finished his musical studies with distinction at the University of Southern California in 1967. In a career stretching over fifty-four years, he is best known as a composer of approaching a hundred accomplished full orchestral scores and dramatic underscoring for feature films and television series (review).
Some of his better-known film scores were for the American Westerns: Lawrence Kasdan’s Silverado (1985) featuring an all-star cast led by Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner, Scott Glenn and Danny Glover – also a comically out of place John Cleese; George P Cosmatos’ Tombstone (1993) starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer (a brilliantly played ‘Doc’ Holliday), Sam Elliott with Bill Paxton. The score for Silverado was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1985, but lost out to John Barry’s soaring and beautiful music for Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa – no shame in that. His scores for Silverado and Tombstone are rightly considered to be the inheritors of the American Western’s mantle worn by Ennio Morricone’s score for Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
Some of his other film music includes scores for Barry Levinson’s mystery adventure Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) which won a Saturn Award in 1985 and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1987, losing again to John Barry’s Out of Africa score; William Dear’s fantasy comedy Harry and the Hendersons (1987) starring John Lithgow and David Suchet; Fred Dekker’s horror comedy Monster Squad (1987); Peter Hyams’ American crime film The Presidio (1988) starring Sean Connery, and his action thriller Narrow Margin (1990) starring Gene Hackman.
Broughton is a fine composer for television, too. He has had twenty-four nominations, and won a record ten Emmy Awards, for his music for Dallas (1979-85) – which had many of us of a certain age glued weekly to our TV sets for the next addictive episode, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1981), The First Olympics: Athens 1896 (1981), Tiny Toon Adventures (1990-92), O Pioneers! (1992) starring Jessica Lange, Glory & Honor (1998), Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime (2003), and Warm Springs (2005) starring Kenneth Branagh as Franklin D Roosevelt. He has also written scores for popular TV films and series like Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, Quincy M.E, How the West Was Won, The Blue and the Grey, The Master of Ballantrae (review), George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation, The Old Man and the Sea, JAG, Texas Rising and The Orville.
Apart from his composing work, Broughton is also involved in many aspects of the activities of his profession and the film and TV industry. He is a board member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). He is a former Governor of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Academy) and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (The Television Academy) and a Past President of the Society of Composers & Lyricists. He lectures in composition and orchestration at the University of California LA and the University of Southern California and is composer-in-residence at the University of North Texas. Furthermore, he also finds time to conduct his and other composers’ music in concert and in the recording studio. So, a committed professional through and through, nurturing new talent and advancing his art form.
Broughton has an oeuvre of almost sixty concert works comprising a variety of orchestral pieces, concertos, chamber works, brass band and wind orchestra works. He has said of his work: “Everything I ever learned to do in film, I could use as a composer. Everything I learned as a composer, I couldn’t always use in films. In concert music I get to do what I want.” He shows a particular penchant for composing and arranging works for symphonic brass and wind bands; in 2020, the National Brass Band Championship of Great Britain chose Broughton’s brass band work Heroes as its Championship test piece (interview). Heroes along with California Legend for brass band have been recorded by the Norwegian Grong Musikkproduksjon label.
Of his more substantial concert works, Concerto for Cello and Ten Instruments and Sonata for Cello and Piano have been recorded by Jacaranda Live Recordings and The Fingerprints of Childhood for flute, violin and viola (review) has been recorded by Centaur. Harmonia Mundi has recorded Fanfares, Marches, Hymns & Finale for brass band and Five Pieces for Piano, while Three Incongruities “Triptych” for violin and orchestra has been recorded by Cambria. Klavier has recorded Quaternity for wind orchestra, and Fancies for string quartet (played by the Lyris Quartet) has been recorded by ARS Produktion. This Naxos disc adds two more of his major orchestral works, which have not been recorded before, and is to be warmly welcomed.
On the evidence of the works on this disc, Broughton’s concert music is lyrical, melodic and predominantly tonal – neo-Romantic, postmodern and polystylistic in idiom – with enough harmonic dissonance and rhythmic variety to create plenty of spice and dramatic tension. His works are emotional, thoughtful, carefully put together, with skilful orchestration and, like his film music, have a keen sense of story-telling. His imaginative writing for winds, high brass and strings seem to be a hallmark of his compositional style.
And on the Sixth Day is a twenty-three-minute oboe concerto with full orchestra, in three linked movements. The date of composition is not provided; generally, Broughton is altogether opaque about composition dates. The work is a musical narration of the Creation story from the first chapter of Genesis, but is not in any way a religious work and approaches the subject humanistically. The first movement, ‘Prologue: In the Beginning’, is inspired by the words of Genesis: “the earth was without form, and void”. The oboe immediately fills the role of narrator and appears after the first ‘God chord’ on the strings; angular motifs and unstructured form reflect the chaos in the Beginning.
The second movement, ‘Evening’, transports us to the sixth day of creation of “every thing that creepeth upon the earth” – lushly orchestrated music, more structured than the opening movement and richly melodic, it begins quietly and builds to a climax reflecting the beauty of the new creation. This is the most cinematic part of the work, which reminded me of a film score searching for a vast filmic Utah landscape to hook onto – no bad thing at all; it is a very beautiful movement which ends quietly.
‘Morning’, the final movement, begins with tripping and joyful, tarantella-like music depicting the end of the Sixth Day when “God created man in his own image”. This is high-spirited music portraying curious, expectant and fallible mankind. The movement ends, prior to the day of rest, reflecting quietly on the words “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”.
I enjoyed And on the Sixth Day immensely – the music put me in mind of the Gerald Finzi of Eclogue, Five Bagatelles and the Clarinet Concerto; certainly, the ‘vernacular’ Aaron Copland of Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid and Rodeo is an influence too. The dynamic solo part contains some vertiginous angular melodic writing which the soloist, Olivier Stankiewicz, takes in his stride. Stankiewicz is principal oboe of the London Symphony Orchestra. He has performed concertos with François-Xavier Roth, Paavo Järvi and Tugan Sokhiev and has partnered Michael Collins, Steven Hough and Huw Watkins as a chamber musician. He takes a particular interest in premiering newly written pieces.
Quoting Bruce Broughton in his brief booklet notes: “String Theory [for string orchestra] is a theme preceded by a prelude, followed by 17 variations [and a Finale]. Each variation, including the theme itself, represents either a technique of string performance or a specific combination of string instruments. For example, the theme is performed by all of the violins in unison; the first variation features the violins in octaves; the second variation features the violas, and the next variation has violins and the violas playing in unison. Other variations include the techniques of pizzicato, sul tasto, sul ponticello, harmonics, ricochet, detaché, and so forth. The finale combines many of these techniques into a brilliant conclusion”. The piece is again in three linked movements, ‘Prelude, Theme and Variations I–VII’, ‘Variations VIII–XIII’ and ‘Variations XIV–XVII, Finale’. I wasn’t able to discern the exact logic in the grouping of the Variations into the three movements, but I particularly enjoyed the middle movement, ‘Variations VIII–XIII’, which contains mostly slower music. I also found this movement to be the most original, using pizzicato, staccato, spiccato and ricochet bowing techniques to create distinctive dynamic effects, while playing harmonics, sul ponticello and sul tasto added mystery and eeriness too.
While String Theory undoubtedly has didactic value, it is, in parts, beautiful and skilful string writing. Again, I sense a certain ‘Englishness’ in its style, redolent of pastoral Vaughan Williams and influences from the English Pastoral School, including Finzi, Gustav Holst, E. J. Moeran and Peter Warlock. I think, too, that populist Copland can be heard. Lasting twenty-eight minutes, it is quite long, perhaps too long for its material. It is pretty and sometimes stirring music, enjoyable and most beautifully played, but I found it a little derivative in parts with a slight sense of sameness. Let me not put you off – many people will love this music and my remarks reflect only my personal taste. Again, no composition date is provided.
The playing of the LSO strings under Jonathan Bloxham is luscious and makes the most of the writing in String Theory – they show off the piece to its best advantage. The twenty parts of the piece each has its own form, texture and sound quality; this is well realised by the LSO strings and Bloxham. Broughton is fortunate to have the services of this exceptional orchestra and a very competent conductor at his service for the debut recordings of these two works. Bloxham, a concert cellist by training, is music director of the Luzerner Theater and resident conductor and artistic advisor of the London Mozart Players. His interpretation of these works is sympathetic.
These are very well-played performances of two works making their recording debut. I am glad to have heard them both and will eagerly return to And on the Sixth Day, especially its sweeping second movement. I could also grow to enjoy String Theory more with further listening, notwithstanding my initial, and personal, hesitation. Given its duration of only fifty-one minutes, one could wish that a further Broughton work had been accommodated on the disc.
Broughton is a skilful composer of accessible contemporary concert music as well as of very fine film scores. This disc is well worth acquiring – it will reward repeated listening.
Terry McSweeney
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