DESCRIPTION:
Fourth movement of UK Composer Daniel Basford's Symphony No.1 for Concert Band, 'Prometheus'.

World Premiere Recording, made in 2014
Hertfordshire Wind Sinfonia, cond. Mark Eager
CD available on ASC Records

Programme Note
This symphony began as pure music; it did not tell a story, nor was that my original intention. A work I was planning to compose after the symphony - a tone poem for wind band on the subject of the well-known story of Prometheus - was making virtually no progress, until I realised that the symphony in fact had some parallels with the story. The symphony is therefore not an exact description of the entire story, but rather a commentary on certain parts of it. The main source of inspiration comes from two poems: Byron's 'Prometheus' and Shelley's epic drama 'Prometheus Unbound'.

From a musical and structural point of view the symphony owes much to English symphonists such as Walton and Elgar but also Bax, a composer whose developmental style I empathised with strongly.

The fourth movement is a combination of a loose description of not only a scene from Shelley's poem but also elements of the Greek playwright Aeschylus' sequel to his original play 'Prometheus Bound'. In Aeschylus' play, which only ever existed in a fragmentary state, Heracles kills the eagle that was sent to torture Prometheus and frees him. This leads to a reconciliation with Zeus before order is restored. The movement takes the form of a bright colourful march; music from the first movement then returns triumphantly at the end of the symphony.