POLKA

Madeleine Dring won a scholarship to the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music in London at the age of ten where she was as much involved with drama as she was with music. Later, she studied composition with Herbert Howells and Vaughan Williams and this probably accounts for the 'Englishness' of many of her sixty or so compositions which, in contrast, also show the influence of the vibrant rhythms and tonality of Frances Poulenc's music. Dring didn't venture into large scale composition but concentrated on cameo pieces, many of them for piano, a number of songs and some pieces for wind, with or without piano. She did however write for the stage, incidental music for television and West End revues during the 1950's. She was married to the longstanding principal oboe of the London Symphony Orchestra, Roger Lord and so accompanied oboe pieces feature strongly amongst her output of wind music.

'Polka' for flute or oboe and piano was published in 1962 as a piece of fifty-four bars in 4/4 time, which is unusual for a polka. It is in A-B-A form and the three sections are more or less of equal length. The quaver rhythm and staccato in 'A' give this section an outwardly jaunty feel but there is something wistful in it as well. The marking "suave" in the piano part at the start of 'B' introduces more sophistication in both parts for a few bars before the staccato quavers return to lead towards a repeat of 'A' and a questioning end. "Short but oh so sweet!"

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