JAVS Fall 2022

Fig. 8: Arthur Gore Ouseley, A Treatise on Musical Form and General Composition.

His discussion makes clear that any educated listener observing the intrusion by the transition into the second theme would have understood that Walton was doing something unusual—and that there was probably a good reason why. A key piece of evidence for the intentionality of this deviation can be derived from an objection an observer especially familiar with the Walton Concerto will point out: it borrows heavily from Prokofiev’s first Violin Concerto, as described in an excellent study by Atar Arad. The most compelling points Arad raises have to do with motivic and textural similarities between the two works at analogous points within their formal structure. For example, the first themes of both pieces take the form of slow, lilting, lyrical melodies that ascend in pitch as their intensity builds. A fast, ascending scale dissipates into the secondary theme of both works, and the developments of both also begin with an episode of fast martellato passagework derived from the principal theme, before advancing to a disfigured variation in which it dances over discordant chords played by the soloists. 28 A simple explanation for this formal deviation at the end of the Walton, then, would be that Prokofiev simply did it first and Walton copied it. But he didn’t. In the recapitulation of the Prokofiev, the principal theme returns in the winds with

a filigree accompaniment by the soloist, as in the Walton; but the music then dissipates to a shimmering, ethereal end. 29 The angsty conclusion to the Walton Concerto is entirely original. Conclusion In 1977, when asked about the dedication of his Viola Concerto, William Walton cryptically replied, “it’s dedicated to Christabel Aberconway, so I suppose it’s about her.” Kennedy described Walton’s reply as “his usual evasive way.” 30 “Evasive” is precisely the word to describe hard evidence about any personal relevance this work might have had to Walton’s life. In the introduction to his volume of Walton’s letters, editor Malcolm F. Hayes notes that the one period in Walton’s life where correspondence from him is scarce is the early 1920s, when he first became associated with the Sitwells, and that regular, reliable records of his life from letters only exist from the completion of the Viola Concerto, when he and Hubert Foss arranged for the Oxford University Press to begin publishing his works. Even if such correspondence did exist, it is likely that it would not have been particularly illuminating: according to Hayes, his letters were “seldom the vehicle for his deepest musings.” 31 It is hard to imagine a more Walton-esque answer to that question.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 38, No. 2, Fall 2022