Gallimaufry (gali maw’fri): A medley; any confused jumble of things; but strictly speaking, a hotch potch made up of all the scraps of the larder. cf Shakespeare: The Winter’s Tale: “a gallimaufry of gambols”
- I. Church and State
- II. Inn and Out
- III. Starts and Fits
- IV. Father and Son
- V. Advance and Retreat
- VI. Church and Status Quo
Gallimaufry was inspired by Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays, and derives from music I composed for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production which opened the Barbican Theatre in 1982. The score is dedicated to Trevor Nunn, then Artistic Director of the RSC, with grateful thanks for his suggestion that I should expand and mould the music from these productions into a form suitable for concert performance.
My thanks also to Timothy Reynish and the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles who, with funds provided by North West Arts, commissioned the work and helped to ensure its first performance on September 24th 1983 with the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra.
The work is continuous and the thematic material of each of the six sections closely related. The “establishment” – leadership, temporal and ecclesiastical power – are depicted in the stately march which opens the work. (Church and State)
The second section, Inn and Out, in an energetic hemiola rhythm, is concerned with the stews and low-life revels at the Boar’s Head Tavern. This is interrupted and finally integrated with the Tavern Brawl and Gadshill Ambush of Starts and Fits.The mood changes and the ambivalence of Prince Hal’s relationship with his father and surrogate father, Falstaff, is portrayed in a serene cor anglais solo. (Father and Son)
Advance and Retreat is a recruiting march, derived from the Tavern Tune and leads into the last movement, Church and Status Quo, which deals with the rejection of Falstaff and the crowning of Price Hal. Order is restored with a majestic affirmation of the opening material.
