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Welcome to the RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
COMPOSITION NOTES Page of
aMUSIClassical Directory
Our Classical Music website
for good music lovers.
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Brief synopsis' of the most popular classical music by
Ralph Vaughan Williams
English, Down Ampney, Gloucestershire 12 OCT 1872 ~ London, 26 AUG 1958
Operas, Ballets, Incidental Music
Orchestral and Chamber Works
9 Symphonies
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, Ralph (RAfe) An Oxford Elegy
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS A Sea Symphony See Sym No 1.
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on Greensleeves
Arranged from the classic English folksong in 1939. A skillful blending of
melody and harmony in this orchestral fantasia.
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia
on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis was a 16th century English composer. This fantasia is
based on one of his works. It was orchestrated for performance at the
Gloucester Cathedral Festival of 1910. The work was revised in 1913
and 1919, then published in 1921. It was scored for double string
orchestra. The theme is based on one of nine tunes which Tallis
originated in 1567. RVW found the score in a hymnal he was editing in
1906. Thomas Tallis had contributed material to Archbishop Matthew
Parker in 1567 and it is one of these themes that became the basis for
this fantasia. It was FP in 1913 and conducted by RVW.
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
He began collecting folk songs in 1903. He discovered 'Dives and Lazarus'
in a copy of English Country Songs...46 years later he composed five variants
of Dives and Lazarus for the NY Worlds Fair of 1939, where it was conducted
by Sir Adrian Boult. The song exists in many variations back to the
16th century. It is based on the familiar story set in St. Luke,
chapter 16 of the rich man who drives the starving beggar away from
his door...and later burns in hell beging for water. The work is
scored for harp and string orchestra.
As to why RVW was
never knighted. He apparently didn't want
it. Someone quoted him as saying the only title he wanted was "DR." the
title he earned. He did accept the OBE, saying it honored British
music more than himself. The OBE is granted on merit, not politics or
class distinction.
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Folk Song Suite
First perf was in 1923 by the Band of the Royal Military School of Music.
It incorporates the Folk Tunes, Seventeen come Sunday, My Bonnie Boy and
Folks Songs from Somerset.
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Lark
Ascending
A romance for violin and orchestra written in 1914, but put aside at the
outbreak of WWI, it was revised in 1920. The lark is
represented by the violin. The lark rises from the
earth...singing sofly it gradually
soars...and sails out of sight. The work is based on a poem by George
Meredith.
The Symphonies of VAUGHAN WILLIAMS by J. Collins
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony no.1 "A Sea Symphony" ~ see J. Collins guide (1903 - 9)
The first symphony or Sea Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams was started
in 1903 at the age of 31. It was completed in 1910. It combines his music
with the poems of Walt Whitman. It is a choral work of "Songs of the Sea".
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony no.2 "A London Symphony" (1912 - 3)
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony no.3 "A Pastoral Symphony" (1918 - 21)
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony no.4 in F minor ~ see J. Collins guide (1931 - 4)
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony no.5 in D ~ see J. Collins guide Much of the material of RVW's 5th Symphony is taken from his opera based on Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress that work was completed in 1951 for Covent Garden. The music was composed from 1938 to mid '43. The first movement of the symphony was performed by a military band in July of 1938 at a pagent in Surrey England. The complete symphony was performed for the first time in London on June 14th, 1943, with the composer conducting.
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony no.6 in E minor (1944 - 7)
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony no.7 "Sinfonia Antartica" (1949 - 52)
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony no.8 in D minor (1953 - 5)
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony no.9 in E minor (1956 - 7)
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Wasps
Overture
The work was scored for a Cambridge Greek play production of Aristophanes,
'The Wasps' in 1909. The best parts of the entire score were preserved in
an orchestral Suite and the Overture is one of RVW most popular works. The
wasps are actually athenian miser/businessmen, depicted as buzzing and
stinging insects.
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