Holcombe Brook and District Recorded Music Society

A keen walker and ornithologist, Mr Goulding began with a most appropriate choice, the first movement of Beethovens Symphony No 6, The Pastoral, which is prefaced by the words Pleasant, cheerful feelings on arrival into the countryside.

The weather had an important part to play in ones experience of the countryside, and the audience was surprised to be told that the composer of the next piece, a breezy Allegro movement entitled An Impression on a Windy Day, was Sir Malcolm Sargent, a musician much better known as a conductor than as a composer.

The Lake District provides many favourite walking places, and it was a spiritual home to Manchester-born conductor and composer Maurice Johnstone, whose Tarn Hows (A Cumbrian Rhapsody) is an evocative pastoral idyll depicting the various moods of the beautiful tarn up in the hills above Hawkshead.

Mr Goulding ended the first part of his programme with The Coloured Counties by James Langley, a BBC music producer and music examiner. The work is inspired by the spectacular view of seven counties from the top of Bredon Hill, as described in A. E. Housemans poem A Shropshire Lad.

After the interval, the pastoral setting moved temporarily abroad for From Bohemias Woods and Fields, the fourth of Smetanas cycle of six symphonic poems known as M Vlast (My Country), composed between 1874 and 1879. The piece is very descriptive of the Bohemian countryside, with dance rhythms contributing to the overall effect.

Returning to these shores for his final three items, Mr Goulding described his enthusiasm for walking in a moorland landscape, a sentiment with which his audience could readily empathize. John Fox, born in Surrey in 1926, was a frequent broadcaster with the BBC Radio Orchestra in its heyday. He lives in a village in the country, is a nature lover and enjoys walking. The four movements of his A Countryside Suite (1975) for strings and harp are entitled Morning Air, Black Clouds over the Moors, My Village and Country Folk. The whole work is very much music of the open air.

Arthur Butterworth, born in 1923 and now resident in the Yorkshire Dales, began his professional life as an orchestral trumpet player, like his near contemporary, Malcolm Arnold. Butterworth played in the Hall under Sir John Barbirolli before deciding to devote himself to composition. The Path across the Moors (1958) is most enjoyable, its title perfectly describing its content, a walking experience.

Better known as the amanuensis of the blind and paralysed Frederick Delius, Eric Fenby was an accomplished composer in his own right. For example, he wrote the score for Alfred Hitchcocks film Jamaica Inn. Mr Goulding brought his programme to a rousing conclusion with Fenbys witty overture Rossini on Ilkla Moor, giving the audience an idea of what that famous tune might have sounded like if penned by the composer of The Barber of Seville.

Society vice-chairman, Mrs Sheila Kenneford warmly thanked Mr Goulding for an excellent evenings entertainment, imbued with the spirit of the countryside and including six unfamiliar British works (all played by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia under Gavin Sutherland) which it had been highly rewarding to hear.

The next meeting of the society will be on Thursday, January 20 when guest speaker Mr Derek Kinsey will present an evening entitled Nielsen: the Force of Life. Further details may be obtained from Mr Richard W Hall, telephone Ramsbottom 01706 823490.

RWH