Malcolm Arnold

Biography

Malcolm Arnold was born in Northampton in 1921 from a middle-class family. He started playing
trumpet at 12 after seeing a concert of Louis Armstrong. Young and talented he won a scolarship at
the Royal College of Music, and in 1941 he joined the London Philarmonic Orchestra, before as
second trumpet, and later (in 1943) as principal.
In 1941 he registered as conscintious objector, but in 1944, after his brother died in war, he
volunteered for military service. Later he shot himself in a foot to get back to civilian life.
After a season with the BBC Symphony Orchestra he returned to the London Philarmonic. In 1948
he left the orchestral activity to focus on composition.
After a career in composition, by 1961, year of his first divorce, he got famous for his unstable
behaviour, for his alcoholism. In 1978 his financial and his health were in a really low condition,
and he got some psychiatric treatment. After a long time of rest and medical treatment, he
completed his 9th Symphony, which gave back to him some notoriery.
He died in Norwick in 2006.

In his long career he was infuenced by a lot of different style: he was famous for his natural melodic
lines; furthermore he was really influenced since by jazz since his first experience with music;
finally he really went trought great composers like Hector Berlioz, Gustav Mahler, Béla Bàrtok.

Suite Bourgeoise

Written in June 1940, this suite is for oboe, flue and piano and divided in five moviments: Prelude
(moderato), Tango (Andante con moto), Dance (Allegro), Ballad (Andante con moto), Valse
(Allegro Vivace).

Fig. 1

In Fig. 1 we have a good exemple of how Arnold was trying to imitate the swing feel: the influence
that people like Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman is really clear in this fragment of the third
moviment (Dance). In Bars 24-29 and 32-35, we have a rhythmic pattern played by the Oboe (and
the flute) which really recalls the background of a swing band of late 20s, like Benny Goodman. At
the same time, those phrases in Bars 30-31 and 38-39 are a clear imitation of a swing solo line: he is
using syncopes and quarter-notes triplets.

Fig. 2

In Fig. 2 we have the opening of the moviment, were flute and oboe expose the main theme. Here
we have another (less excplicit) try to create a swing feel: triplets note and dotted eight-notes with
sixteen-notes.
In this case, also the notes of the melody are a bit helping: all the notes of Bars 4-9 are actually from
the Blues Scale. Finally, also the Ab,a "blues note" in bar 5 it is in position of the melody which is
typical of the blues phrasing.