Tide and Time | Flowers Band, Michael Fowles, Three Choirs Festival, Gloucester Cathedral | 29/07/23

Commissioned by Foden's Band and first performed at the RNCM Brass Band Festival, conductor Michael Fowles, 26 January 2018.

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Tide and Time is inspired and influenced by a five generation family timeline of professional and amateur artists, and in particular their work associated with water - sea, canal and river. The three continuous movements and a coda respectively represent the artistic work of my Great-Grandfather, Grandfather, parents and mother’s cousin, my cousins and their children. The ebb and flow of motto themes introduced early on become interlinked, entwined, developed and revisited throughout.

My Great-Grandfather, Horace Wooller, was a professional artist; the first movement reflects on three dates from his career and aligns these with influences and quotes from brass band test pieces of the same years. In particular, the opening features his seascape painting of 1926 and includes a background quote from Keighley’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Foden’s, British Open). In the 1930s he taught at Goldsmiths’ College and also published a book on fabric printing (recently republished); here the music features an octet taken from the full band in the key of Ab, referencing Bliss Kenilworth (Foden’s, National Championships of Great Britain, Crystal Palace), a composer whom I admire and had the honour of briefly meeting. My Great-Grandfather also followed Rosicrucianism, as did my Grandfather, who gave me one of his father’s ‘Rosicrucian’ paintings; this aspect is heard in a reflective and lyrical section which precedes the second movement.

My Grandfather, Gerard Horace Wooller, was a commercial artist who set up his own business creating advertisements for radio and TV companies, including the National Radio Show, Earls Court. He worked using the medium of poster paints sealed with amyl acetate spray. Deadlines often took him late into the night when he would relax by listening to the music of Rachmaninov; the second movement of Tide and Time is a tribute to him. The way in which themes are passed around, followed by a countermelody and the full band, are stylistically influenced by Bailey (arranged Wright) Diadem of Gold (Foden’s, National Championships of Great Britain, 1953).

My Grandfather introduced me to Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 and the third movement takes influences from the symphony’s final movement, such as the use of triplets, bell-like figurations towards the end (tubular bells), re-use of thematic material from the slow movement and richly orchestrated themes, and is broadly based on the structure. An exposed held soprano cornet note references a similar occurrence in both the Rachmaninov and also the end of the slow movement of Howells’ Pageantry (Foden’s, National Championships of Great Britain, 1937). The lively juxtaposition of new and revisited themes portray the third, fourth (and fifth) generations of family artists, including illustrations and miniature landscapes, and in particular the work of my father, Bernard Lane. The Coda again draws on the Rachmaninov style and structure, picking up the pace with an imaginary look into the future.

Research into Rosicrucianism revealed the importance of the number 3, and many of Tide and Time’s motifs can be found grouped in this way. Referenced throughout is one of the few surviving pieces of my Grandfather’s work, an illustration specially created for me of a Rosicrucian reflection on music by my Great-Grandfather.

Liz Lane, 2018
www.lizlane.co.uk