Malcolm Arnold - a composer of real music

Arnold’s extremely demanding oeuvre, in which he combines orchestral brilliance with his sense of syntactic compositional unity, easily overcomes the prejudicial barriers of serious and light music. Perhaps Arnold’s life is portrayed in his works like no other British composer’s. Arnold’s music is full of energy, but can turn lightness into the deepest melancholy; its musical intensity makes it almost impossible not to be touched by it. His compositions underline the charisma of his personality. Author Raphael Thöne has analysed in depth the symphonic music of Sir Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006), drawing conclusions from available, as well as newly accessible, sources and created a new wider image of this great British composer. He reveals Arnold’s composition aesthetics and identifies possible influences (such as Mahler and Sibelius) by providing clear music-theory-orientated evidence. For the first time, Arnold’s oeuvre is here scientifically categorised within the British contemporary classical music-movement of the 20th and 21st centuries.