manx celtic music and dance

The Magic Isle

03 Aug 2013

by Maurice Powell
On Friday July 12th 2013, the Isle of Man Symphony Orchestra performed a Fantasy-Overture by John Edward Quayle (1869 -1957), a little-known Manx composer, that was last performed on July 8th 1946 by the BBC Northern Orchestra under Charles Groves, and broadcast from the YMCA, Manchester. I came across J E Quayle’s name when researching for my recent book ENCORE! The Story of the Isle of Man Symphony Orchestra. Violinist and orchestra leader, pianist, organist and the conductor of the Douglas Amateur Orchestral Society from 1917 until 1926, his career was in the Rolls Office where in 1925, he ultimately achieved the position of Chief Clerk. I subsequently learned from his grandsons Ewan and Hugh Davidson, that, astonishingly, the autograph scores of four important orchestral works had survived and were virtually unknown today.

Two lovely miniatures are skilful arrangements for small orchestra of the Manx folk tunes ‘O, what if the Fowler my Blackbird has taken’, also known as ‘Graih Foalsey’ or ‘False Love’ (1932), and ‘Ny Kirree fo niaghtey’. Both works have survived with orchestral parts in the composer’s hand. ‘The Magic Isle’ is a far more ambitious piece of approximately 8 minutes duration, the autograph of which consists of sixty-two pages of 18 and 20 stave manuscript paper with extra staves added as necessary, with very few crossings out or alterations.

The work opens with an atmospheric Andante quasi lento evoking perhaps the Island shrouded in the Cloak of Manannan. The main Allegro poco vivace is based on the jaunty tune ‘She answered me quite modestly’ and recalls Vaughan Williams in the his ‘Folk Song Suite’ vein. The central, broad, lyrical theme of the work, which returns maestoso to usher in the final chorale-like peroration, is once again the folksong ‘O, what if Fowler my Blackbird has taken’. Another, more agitated, war-like theme appears twice, perhaps evoking that turbulent period in Manx history when Orry was King and Viking longships menaced the Irish Sea. The earlier piece was probably the inspiration for the much more substantial work, which until more evidence is available, I tentatively date to the 1940s. ‘The Magic Isle’ is a well-crafted and deftly scored companion-piece to Haydn Wood’s Manx-inspired overture and tone poems.

A new conductor’s score and performing parts were produced for the Villa Marina 100th Anniversary Celebration Concert in July, with generous financial support from the Manx Heritage Foundation. Furthermore, as I write, the autograph score of a second larger-scale orchestral work has come to light – ‘On Maughold Head’, dating from the 1950s – which I hope to examine in a few weeks’ time.

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