Autumn Legend for
English Horn (Cor Anglais) and String Orchestra
(William Alwyn)
This piece was composed in 1954 and lasts
approximately 12 minutes.Alwyn took the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti's 17th
century poem The Blessed Damozel as his influence with a quotation
from it heading the score.Alwyn stated that it is "a free improvisation of his chosen text",
but there has been a suggestion of a similarity between this and Sibelius' Swan
of Tuonela.Described as
"mood music", the piece was written for cor anglais, or English horn, and
Alwyn described it by writing that "The instrument reflects the mood, and
the mood determines the instrument".
