In 2002 my choir, FifteenB, gave the premiere of my cantata The Barbarian at the Gate at the Chelsea Festival. The concert was given jointly with Philharmonia Brass and the cantata was written for choir and trumpets. It sets 3 of Helen Waddell's translations from Medieval Latin poems, dealing with the fall of Troy, Attila the Hun's sack of Aquileia and the Viking attacks on Lindisfarne. I also wrote a fanfare for Philharmonia Brass based on themes from the cantata. Whilst rehearsing the piece, one of the singers complained that the subject matter was rather gloomy and that I ought to write something lighter.
Whilst re-reading Waddell's poems I came across To Catullus, that he cannot write him an Epithalamium a satirical poem written by Sidonius Apollinaris in which he complains that he can't write poetry whilst living amongst the German tribes. I started work on a setting for choir and instrumental ensemble. The setting included a substantial prelude that described the chaos of the barbarian camp. This work went through a number of different versions but I was never completely satisfied with it, then finally I dropped the choral parts entirely and re-worked the piece for full orchestra and finished with a revised version of the fanfare originally written for the 2002 concert. This orchestral version itself went through a number of different orchestrations, partly because I considered submitting it to a couple of competitions; finally I ended up with the current orchestral line-up which has just the right sort of feel for the piece. It omits flutes entirely and uses only one oboe but the orchestra also includes a bass clarinet.
The piece opens with the depiction of the barbarian camp, the orchestra play a variety of tunes simultaneously. A march, a drinking song (of the chorus and refrain type) and hunting calls are variously combined. All are based on the same material and super-impose different rhythms to intentionally chaotic effect.
Quiet string chords indicated the entrance of the poet. From here on, the piece follows Waddell's poem pretty closely. Sometimes the noise of the camp recedes entirely and other times it intrudes on the poet's meditations. When he thinks about his civilised life back home in Rome, we hear a brief snatch from Mozart's 'Don Giovanni' - partly because Mozart's operas seem to be the epitome of civilisation and partly because I was reviewing a recording of 'Don Giovanni' at the time of writing.
Finally, brass fanfares start to interrupt and the entire camp erupts into military activity; the barbarians march off in a blaze of brass leaving the strings to articulate poet's puzzlement.
Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 423-480) was a native of Lyons. Well connected, he was Prefect of Rome and son-in-law of the Roman Emperor. He is regarded as the last of the classical Gallo-Romans. Helen Waddell says of him that "In the face of the Visigoth attack, he kept his good manners and sense of humour, his charity was such that in time of bitter famine he maintained over 4,000 'displaced' Burgundians at his own expense."
Robert Hugill