Four voices, strictly handled, and the site of the celebrated coffee ring. Whether the resulting pause is a fermata of unusual generosity or a moment in which the composer got up to answer the door remains the central controversy of Cilwa studies, and shows no sign of being settled.

Dr. Hyacinth Trevelyan-Boake's argument for the fermata reading rests on the mark's position—squarely over the second beat, where a pause would do the most good—and on the observation that a composer reaching for a cup would have set it down to his right. Cilwa is left-handed. The rival school replies that a man may put a cup wherever there is room, and that this is what the field has been reduced to.

The performance here adopts the fermata. It is, at minimum, the more interesting of the two mistakes.

Back to Xylophone Concerto #1.