The opening part is an apparently light composition, but one that also structurally displays a more romantic seriousness that remembers, and indeed makes honour to, the name of Edward Elgar - whilst at the same time one can see present the musical elegance of David Johnstone. It has a precise pulsation of tempo, but also inviting in many moments a liberal ‘rubato’, and the writing generally portrays an ambience or sonority of an orchestral character without entirely losing the feel of chamber music.
The central section, or slow movement, is full of advanced romantic English harmonies with occasional hints at late-Wagner too, and this part is based upon the hymn tune ‘Lord thy Word Abideth’ of Ravenshaw. The purpose has not been to specifically provide a religious section but to further underline the English and British heritage so famed in bearing such ‘cantabile’ slow tunes - Johnstone accentuates this by interweaving the string principals as soloists with the full strings.
When the last section gains momentum it immediately seems as if we are recapitulating on the opening movement, and indeed we are (!), but there are many fine details which also show further playfulness, developing the earlier material further (sometimes quite unexpectedly). This becomes stronger all the while, and a final gallop brings the work to a glorious close.
The composer offers this music to the listening public purely and simply for enjoying and relaxing (that is to say, without claiming any profound musical statements), and for the performers something of real interest and fun to play. For these reasons one can clearly see that it falls within the tradition of the best classical and romantic serenades from the line of Mozart, Beethoven, Volkmann, Dvorak, Reinecke, Tchaikovsky or Elgar, just to mention a few, whilst also humbly trying to capture some of the ‘essential’ qualities of English music. The duration of the complete work is of some 11 minutes.
Dedicated to the memory of Albert Barkus, F.R.C.O., for many years during the twentieth-century the dedicated Town Hall Organist for the English town of Reading and an excellently crafted musician and composer.