The work
This Op.27 Quintet is the only work which CBR wrote for string quintet and dates from 1908. The work is in four movements:
• I Allegretto (♩. = 52)
• II Intermezzo, scherzando (
= 66)
• III Adagio e largamente (♩ = circa 54)
• IV Allegretto e leggiero (♩ = 100)
Alistair Jones, who typeset this quintet from the original manuscript, offers the following views about the work:
"Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio cumque nihil impedit quo minus id quod maxime placeat facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus.
Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae."
Dedication
This Op.27 Quintet was dedicated "To F. St.John Bullen": we can do no better than display his obituary as published in 1917, nine years after the quintet was written and dedicated to him. By a cruel irony, Rootham himself also suffered "progressive muscular atrophy" twenty years later.
Obituary of F St John Bullen (1917)
