Royal Parks / George Lloyd

by John Foster Black Dyke Mills Band, 1986 Conductor : Major Peter Parkes --------------------- This work commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation as part of its contribution to European Music Year. For the last ten years or so it has been the fashion to write test pieces in one continuous movement. When I was invited to write something for the competition at Copenhagen I immediately knew that I would return to the ways of Elgar and John Ireland, principally because I had a good reason for wanting to have a complete show movement in the centre. I live very close to Regent's Park - as the crow flies only a few hundred yards from the bandstand. In 1982 terrorists blew up the bandstand, killing seven musicians. Nowadays we forget these sort of events so quickly that often, when walking in the park, I thought I would like to write something as a modest memorial to the men who lost their lives playing for other poeple's entertainment. From that grew the idea of 'Royal Parks'. In the early morning geese come flying over my flat making their wild sounds. I needed something brilliant with plenty of quick notes so the first movement became 'Dawn Flight'. The second is an 'In Memoriam'. And to finish the work? After the sadness of the middle movement it had to be something cheerful and as our London parks are great places for enjoyment I called it simply 'Holidays'.