 | ||
The Storm Clouds Cantata (or Storm Cloud Cantata) is a chorale by the Australian composer Arthur Benjamin.
Contents
This chorale was written for the assassination scene in the Alfred Hitchcock 1934 film, The Man Who Knew Too Much, in the Royal Albert Hall. In the film version of 1934, the London Symphony Orchestra was directed by H. Wynn Reeves. In the 1956 version, however, the London Symphony Orchestra was conducted by the composer of new music for the remake of the film, Bernard Herrmann, and the chorus is the Covent Garden Opera Chorus with soloist Barbara Howitt.
The Cantata can be from eight to nine minutes long. It starts with a Lento in three-quarter time in C major. The first half of the chorale is Lento, at 108 beats per minute. Then begins the Allegro agitato, characterized by rhythmic strokes of the timpani. The conclusion is very fast both in the chorus and in the orchestra.
Orchestra
Text
D. B. Wyndham-Lewis, The Man who Knew Too Much
Soloist:
Chorus:
Original: ...flying creature of the windSoloist:
Chorus:
Addition for the 1956 remake
The singers perform in an alternation between male and female:
This last part is part of the poco crescendo played by the tympani to culminate in the Maestoso in the finale which ends with the cymbal crash in which the assassin shoots.