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Programme note

The National Theatre’s immensely successful production of Michael Morpurgo’s book, War Horse, proved to be a turning-point in Adrian’s theatre music career. His work would now be heard by over 8 million people in 11 countries. Audiences are still clamouring for more performances.

It is a classic tale of love lost and found. At the beginning of World War One, young men are being enlisted and farm-horses sequestered to the Cavalry. Joey is one such horse and is taken from his farm in Devon, where he is much loved by young Albert. Joey is soon caught up in enemy fire and ends up serving on both sides. Albert cannot forget him and, though still not old enough to enlist, embarks on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home.

The brief for the play’s music was to combine an English folk idiom with more symphonic material that could underpin the larger set pieces, such as the charges on the Front. John Tams provided adaptations of folk songs, whose themes Adrian then wove into the orchestral score. In order to widen the scope and reflect both sides in conflict, he also incorporated sounds and ideas from German symphonic repertoire.

For the 2016 War Horse: The Story in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, Adrian created this suite out of the main orchestral cues: War Horse Orchestral Suite. The scenes are taken slightly out of the order they originally appear in the play, but they follow its general narrative arc.

1. Devon at peace

This accompanies the opening scene to the play. Joey’s theme is played on a trumpet, with its immediate connotation of military gallantry. There is a hint of darkness in the dissonant intervals, a sense of the strife to come. The strings soon settle the mood, soothing and shimmering, and members of the woodwind quote the folksong ‘Only Remembered’, which would become an anthem for the play.

2. First gallop

Young Albert braves his first gallop on Joey, coursing through the fields around the farm. With bows bouncing off the string and the wind section pulsing, the music is alive with both the trepidation and excitement of the young boy, as well as depicting Joey at majestic full stretch. Had he wings he would be airborne within seconds. Notice how skilfully Adrian brings Joey back to a canter at the end.

3. Crossing the channel

War has been declared, villagers from all over the country have been drafted and horses sequestered. As the new recruits cross the English Channel, the horror of what awaits begins to dawn.

The strings and woodwind rumble in a dark, low register to emphasise the dread and foreboding. Trombones echo a folksong, ’The Scarlet and The Blue’. Before, this had been sung in high spirits as people naively welcomed the adventure of war and the promise of derring-do. Here, as the Normandy cliffs loom on the horizon, it sounds hollow, even funereal.

4. Emilie’s theme

Emilie is a young French girl who ends up caring for Joey behind French lines. Flutes and high violins immediately set a tender, at times exotic tone, with the harp casting its light over the scene. The strings remind us of Joey’s past in Devon, now with unsettled harmonies as he paces his new surroundings.

Adrian channels here the writing of Swiss composer Arthur Honegger, whose symphonies he had always admired. It helps lend a different European accent to the scene. Joey might have found a new home but Devon feels far away.

5. The charge

Galloping music returns, this time laden with sinister brass and the snap of the snare drum as the cavalry charge the barbed wire of No man’s land. This is one of the iconic moments from the play, realising the thrill and drama of the charge while also conveying its cost. There would be devastating casualties.

Joey’s theme is referenced on shrill trumpets, underlaid by rhythms from ‘The Scarlet and The Blue’. All mayhem breaks loose and a final, fatal charge is launched.

6. Joey and Albert reunited

After their harrowing adventures, Albert finally finds Joey and takes him back home. The music takes us full circle to the beginning of the suite, with the soft strings welcoming Joey back to the farm and a quiet clarinet playing the folksong from before. Touchingly simple, it conveys both the quiet wonderment of a homecoming with the knowledge that nothing can ever be the same.

Words by Jon James

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(extract perf. BBC Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Michael Seal)