The premiere and subsequent performances of The Marshes of Glynn

Cantata for tenor solo, SATB choir and symphony orchestra

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The Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham, February 20th, 1986 

More info on this work
Read the letters of congratulations Andrew received following the premiere

An account by his wife and publisher, Cynthia Downes, posted on February 1st, 2018

This work will always be one of my all time favourites.  It was composed for the Royal Opening of the Adrian Boult Hall and to mark the Centenary of the Birmingham School of Music (now Royal Birmingham Conservatoire). 

The School of Music asked for a 4 minute work, but Andrew was determined to make his mark on the Centenary more than that, especially as the College was also commissioning a much longer work from composer Derek Bourgeois, to be performed in Birmingham Town Hall!

Andrew's first task was to find a text.  He turned to my Dad, who loved poetry, for suggestions.  My Dad introduced him to the works of Sidney Lanier and Andrew was immediately moved by the lyricism of this poet.

From the first line of The Marshes of Glynn, Andrew was inspired, and I in my turn was bowled over by the beautiful music he was creating.

Each day Andrew played me the next section he had written.  By the end I knew the work extremely well.

When Andrew's parents came over, I was determined that they should get as good an idea of the piece as possible, so, as Andrew played the work to them on the piano and sang salient lines, I sang the soprano line.  His Dad, Frank Downes, then Head of Orchestral Studies at the School of Music, was, to my amazement, impressed by my singing, and recommended that I should sing in the first performance with the Birmingham School of Music Chorus!

I loved going along to the rehearsals, directed by Damian Cranmer.  The choir were extremely taken with the work.  There was a real buzz as we approached the premiere.  Everyone knew that this was going to be something special.

John Mitchinson, tenor soloist, the choir and the orchestra gave a flawless first performance.  The audience reaction was rapturous.  Andrew had to keep coming up to the stage to take bows.  This performance was so perfect that it was made into an LP record, which sold like hot cakes.

By popular request a second performance was given in the Adrian Boult Hall by the same musicians and also one in Birmingham Cathedral by the Birmingham Festival Choral Society, directed by Jeremy Patterson, at which Andrew had people queuing up for his autograph on their LPs!

Over the years the recording has been made into several editions of CDs, which have continued to sell.  We put the recording on YouTube too.

The night of the premiere of The Marshes of Glynn was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  

I used to be a migraine sufferer.  I would lie in a darkened room and ask Andrew to play the LP of The Marshes of Glynn.  It totally soothed my pain.

Andrew's ankylosing spondylitis caused him suffering all his life.  I realised that his uplifting composing was a way of alleviating his own illness.

Andrew's former colleague and best friend, the late David Brock, kept the work alive throughout his own life with his jokes about the Marshes of Glynn, which he called 'The Bogs of Bognor'!  On Christmas cards and postcards sent from his travels examining and recruiting for Birmingham Conservatoire, David Brock always linked the cards with The Marshes of Glynn.  A post card which he sent from Australia had a picture of Aborigines pulling faces. David wrote, "This was the reaction when I announced that I was going to play the CD of The Marshes."  On the front of a Christmas card with robins on a branch looking in all directions, he wrote, "The audience at the outdoor premiere of The Marshes of Glynn was somewhat inattentive."

Souvenirs of the event:

Programme for the premiere:

The performers:

Reviews:

Programme for the second performance:

Memorabilia for the Birmingham Festival Choral Society performance:

Andrew received many letters of congratulation following this event. Click to read them.

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