By cf144154
05-May-2013

Wonderfully British music  

A rare recording of British composer Sir Arthur Bliss' wonderfully evocative score for Alexander Korda's 1936 masterpiece "Things to Come". The film, almost presciently for its time, starts with a devastating world war, though unlike our real history, this war lasts for decades and utterly obliterates social order, reducing humanity to feudalism. Eventually, mankind rebuilds civilisation through science and reason and is on the point of launching a manned projectile to the moon.

It begins with a foreboding, almost dark, maestoso "Prelude" and then the playful Ballet for Children where Christmas preparations are overshadowed by the looming spectre of ongoing war. The next four tracks "Attack", "March" (with overtones of Holst's "Mars"), "The World in Ruins" and "Pestilence" form a medley depicting the thirty year relentless destruction of the world. The next three tracks "Excavation", "Building of the New World" and "Machines" form another medley where, over the next seventy years, mankind uses science and technology to rebuild civilisation and construct a giant space gun to send a mission to the moon.

The fantastic "Attack on the Moon Gun", where there's a riot against this Space Gun as 'progress gone too far' stands up favourably to any Star Wars piece. We end with the triumphal and hopeful "Epilogue", as the Space Gun launches and we muse on humanity's unremitting quest for knowledge.

Also on this album is music composed for the 1966 TV series "The Royal Palaces of Britain" and the 1954 documentary "Welcome the Queen" amongst others.

All in all, this is a wonderful collection of quintessentially 'British' music, which echoes both the recent revival of classic film music and the increasing popularity of British classical music.
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