Posted on 10/12/2022 8:33:42 AM PDT by Borges
Today marks the 150th birthday of one of England's most revered composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams, who is also widely beloved beyond Britain. A folksong expert who logged long trips collecting traditional tunes all over the British Isles, Vaughan Williams famously produced gently modal folksong fantasies evoking England's "green and pleasant land." He also became a go-to composer for major occasions of church and state, called on to reflect and amplify national feeling.
This year, his sesquicentennial, celebrations of the English master have been surprisingly muted, even in his homeland – a boost in Vaughan Williams programming last summer at the BBC's Promenade concerts was the rare exception. Has his star dimmed in the six decades since his death? In our brash, ironic age, a composer who penned seemingly endless pages of pastoralia – well crafted, sincere in feeling, but perhaps meaningful mostly to confirmed Anglophiles – may seem pleasantly irrelevant and quaint. Especially in a year like this one.
For everyone, 2022 has been difficult. Uncertainties abound, and Britain has been hit especially hard. The cost of living has surged, while the value of the pound has plummeted. The COVID pandemic stubbornly persists; war in Europe seems uncomfortably near. Political life in the post-Brexit climate is polarized and unpleasant – and the one unifying figure tying British citizens to one another and to their shared past has gone to greater glory after 70 years on the throne. The death of Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8 seemed the last straw to many.
But such challenges provide precisely the occasion to revisit the quintessentially British Vaughan Williams. We tend to view him through a gentle haze of nostalgia, forgetting that he lived through profoundly turbulent times, responding with music of impressive range and complexity. He endured two world wars, an unprecedented royal abdication, the decline of the Empire and the rise of the Cold War. The music of Vaughan Williams can speak profoundly to the unrest of the present age, not only in Great Britain but well beyond its borders.
His sesquicentennial offers the perfect opportunity to get reacquainted with an underestimated master. Below, I offer some suggestions to begin a "revisiting Vaughan Williams" journey. (If your favorites aren't here, be assured that this list isn't exhaustive. And if you encounter some music you never knew before, so much the better!).
How’s he looking these days? :)
Seriously, some of my favorite music. His The Lark Ascending is absolutely transcendental.
:: How’s he looking these days? ::
Still hard at work, only now he is decomposing.
Ba-dum, shish!
Here all week.
Try the veal.
Thank you for that post! For all the Saints was my mother’s favorite hymn and it’s a great one.
My favorite is the Antarctica Symphony. The best version is the first Boult recording, the mono, with the narration.
Britain produced some great composers during the 20th century, Vaughan Williams included. His Tallis and Greensleeves fantasias are a pleasure to listen to.
I have the Bryden Thomson recording with the LSO. It’s my favorite of his symphonies.
The lyrics were written during the Civil War, which probably inspired lines such as "soldiers, faithful, true and bold," Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight" and "when the strife is fierce, the warfare long."
Vaughan Williams’ compositions have a particularly Old-World, rustic feel to them, and seem to be infused with natural beauty. I can’t explain it, but that’s the type of thing that good music contains.
Most people pronounce his name wrong.
I have a ten (+ or -) CD EMI compilation of all his symphonies and orchestral works. About twice a year when it isn’t an outside day, I put the whole thing on the CD changer and listen and read something solid for the whole day and evening sitting next to the fire. It actually makes you feel like you are in England for the day.
He loved coming to America...except for the pronunciation of his first name.
“The music of Vaughan Williams can speak profoundly to the unrest of the present age, not only in Great Britain but well beyond its borders.”
Especially the Sixth Symphony, with the post-Apocalyptic final movement.
Lark Ascending
I pronounce it like... Ralph
He pronounced it “Rafe.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.