Sarabande

1975

Fantasia
Sarabande
Aria
Gigue
Bourée
Pavane
Capriccio & Finale

Revised version by the composer, 2010

Duration c.48’ (3:40; 7:30, 4;00, 11:00, 8:00; 7:50; 6:00)
3 (III=picc).2.ca.2.Eb.bcl.2.cfg-4.3.3.1-T.5p cym (air/susp) BD, TT, water gong, SD, TD, Tub Bells, glock, Tamb, Xyl., WB, Tgl., S.bells, mar., SBlks, Crot., Finger cym) 2hp.str (min. 14, 12, 10, 8, 6)

Group: 2 kbds (pf/Hammond soli; with additional synth,) gtr (elec./ac.), bass gtr, drums/perc.

NB
Bourrée and Gigue can also be performed separately. (Bourrée has separate concert ending which is also included in the material.)

Original studio recording
Purple Records TPSA 7516 (October 1976).
CD version PUR 305 (1999)

Jon Lord (keyboards); Andy Summers (guitar); Paul Karass (bass); Mark Nauseef (perc.) Pete York (drums)
Philharmonia Hungarica; Eberhard Schoener, conductor.

World premiere of this version
Bela Bartok National Concert Hall, Palace of Arts, Budapest, Hungary
18 September 2010. (dress rehearsal footage – concert review)

Jon Lord (keyboards); Cry Free: Olivér Lee (guitar); Csaba Kecskeméti (bass); Attila Nagy (keyboards); Tamás Tatai (drums); Attila Scholtz (congas and percussion).
Gyor Philharmonic Orchestra; Marton Racz, conductor

World premiere, final revised edition of Fantasia, Sarabande, and Bourree
Celebrating Jon Lord, Royal Albert Hall, London, 4 April 2014

Wix Wickens and Nigel Hopkins (keyboards), Neil Murray (bass), Murray Gould (guitar), Jerry Brown (drums)
Orion Orchestra; Paul Mann, conductor

Full Score on sale

Parts on Hire

Paul Mann’s notes from the printed score:

Jon Lord’s Sarabande was composed during 1975 and released as a solo album the following year.

This new revised edition of the composer’s 2010 concert version represents the first appearance of the work in print in any form. Lord intended it for his own use in live performance, as a companion to his celebrated Concerto for Group and Orchestra. It is a brilliant showpiece for the combined forces of rock band and orchestra, taking as its inspiration the keyboard suites of J.S. Bach, many of which Lord had played as a young piano student.

It opens with a brief and brilliant orchestral flourish in the manner of a keyboard improvisation, with a contrasting lyrical central episode. The second movement, from which the work derives its overall title, takes the Sarabande model and transforms it into a kind of jazz-rock waltz. There is a nod to Bach in a short duet between the two keyboard players, but the real source of the music is one of Lord’s favourite orchestral works, Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, on which much of the movement’s material is based, including its syncopated Brubeck-like bass line, and its main melody. Most unexpectedly, the movement ends gently, with a more explicit quotation from the Vaughan Williams, for solo and tutti strings.

Jon Lord was always happy to wear his influences on his sleeve, but the subtlety and craftsmanship with which he exploits his model here is both sophisticated and delightfully tongue-in-cheek. The warm and romantic Aria also acknowledges a distant descendant, that of Bach’s famous Air on the G String, and is followed by the work’s centrepiece, the wild and brilliant Gigue in which, after the opening orchestral flourish with its fleeting references to another favourite work of the young Lord, Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the music features extended solos from both keyboardist and drummer.

Lord also makes his most direct reference to Bach, quoting the Gigue from the fourth English Suite. The ensuing Bourrée is perhaps the work’s most famous movement – it was released as a single at the time, and long formed a part of Lord’s live shows. The Baroque model is all but buried in a hybrid of rock and Eastern folk music – the melodic material is based on a Romanian folk tune. (This new edition also includes the more brilliant concert ending as an appendix.)

The gentle Pavane follows, recalling the lyrical central episode of the opening Fantasia, while the Capriccio & Finale, in a splendid coup de théâtre, brings together fragments from all the previous movements, heard “as if a radio is tuning in and out”, set against a competitive groove from the band. The work finally comes full circle with a reprise of the opening.

This new full score is edited by Jon Lord’s long-time musical collaborator, the conductor Paul Mann, making use of many previously unavailable sources, including the manuscript scores of the original version and a copy of the score corrected in consultation with the composer following the 2010 premiere. It can therefore be said to represent as closely as possible Jon Lord’s final thoughts on the work.

The editor wishes to thank the composer’s family, Vicky, Amy & Sara Lord, and his manager Tarquin Gotch, for their support and assistance in the preparation of these scores.

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