Through the Looking Glass was originally written in 1917-19 for strings, wind and piano, and performed by the New York Chamber Music Society. In 1921-22 Taylor rescored the suite for full orchestra, and it is now a regular feature of the repertoire of our leading orchestras. It is principally through this work that he first achieved his fame as a composer.
In reviewing the suite for the “New York Tribune,” Lawrence Gilman wrote:
“He is wit enough to know that the peculiar distinction of Carroll’s delicious masterpiece is the mood of half tender, half mocking detachment in which it is conceived; and he preserves this balance in his music with extraordinary skill and felicity. He neither burlesques nor sentimentalizes his subject. He touches it affectionately, even caressingly, as in the poetic and sensitive Dedication; but in his eye is a twinkle that is imperfectly suppressed. Incidentally, he has composed an admirable piece of music—distinguished in invention, ingenious in facture, and expertly scored.”
The suite is, of course, based on Lewis Carroll’s immortal nonsense tale Through the Looking Glass, and its four movements are selected from portions and episodes of the book.
The first movement is divided into two parts. It opens with the Dedication, and the score quotes the dedicatory verse of the author:
“Child of the pure, unclouded brow
And dreaming eyes of wonder!
Though time be fleet, and I and thou
Are half a life asunder,
Thy loving smile will surely hail