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http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Apr07/Arnold_3821462.htm Posted by Eric Schissel on August 6, 2008, 5:01 pm 69.202.95.238 In this review you give the date of composition of Malcolm Arnold's "Peterloo" Overture as 1967 - as do a number of other sources - not too controversial I guess- but Arnold's own website gives 1968 (http://www.malcolmarnold.co.uk/compositions/op97.php ). I'm only using this for database-sorting reasons and that sort of thing, and it may well be a question of differing revisions too - but I'm now curious... - Eric S.  Post a Response

Re: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Apr07/Arnold_3821462.htm Posted by Len Mullenger on August 6, 2008, 6:06 pm, in reply to "http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Apr07/Arnold_3821462.htm" 217.155.206.169 Interesting: every reference on MusicWeb gives 1967 including our own Arnold sub-site with data submitted by The Arnold Society. However the RED catalogue gives 1968 as does the Gramophone Classical Catalogue as far back as 1979. Paul Jackson also lists 1968 in The Brilliant and the Dark. This does need investigating.  Post a Response

Re: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Apr07/Arnold_3821462.htm Posted by Eric Schissel on August 6, 2008, 6:18 pm, in reply to "Re: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Apr07/Arnold_3821462.htm" 69.202.95.238 Craggs' 1998 Malcolm Arnold: A Bio-bibliography, page 28 also gives 1968 (found at Google books) but I don't know where the date was obtained. (Arnold's recollections? Probably not letters mentioning he was composing the work, for instance - as sometimes used in similar contexts - or a dated manuscript - since the composer was still alive at the time.)  Post a Response

Re: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Apr07/Arnold_3821462.htm Posted by Paul Serotsky on August 8, 2008, 10:01 am, in reply to "Re: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Apr07/Arnold_3821462.htm" 222.154.38.191 The overture was commissioned by the TUC to mark the entenary of its foundation in June 1868. Certainly, Arnold was working on it during the previous year, as witness his response, dated 5 September 1967, to a letter of encouragement from Donald Mitchell (cited in the Meredith/Harris biography, p274). It seems that Arnold had, uncharacteristically, been struggling. In appreciating Mitchell's remarks, Arnold wrote, "I shall approach the work . . . with new heart." If this was indeed the case, then it's unlikely that the job would have taken him all of four months, and that is what would have been required for him to sign it off in 1968. So, my money's on "first performed in 1968, but composed the year before".  Post a Response

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