Four Welsh Dances Op.138

Malcolm Arnold started writing national dances at the request of his publisher, who was no doubt very happy to receive the two brilliantly colourful and highly entertaining sets of English Dances in 1950 and 1951 respectively. Having done much the same in the meantime for material associated with Scotland, Cornwall and Ireland, he finally turned his attention to Wales – where, however, he seems to have been impressed more by the seriousness of the national character than its natural exuberance. The first dance begins amiably enough but ends with the percussive insistence which also characterises much of the faintly sinister second dance. The lively third dance makes a timely, if not totally cheerful, intervention before portentous brass and percussion return to dominate the last.