Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[Biffo]

I've never heard a recording where the superscriptions interrupt the music. The Naxos recording (Bournemouth/Bakels I think) has the spoken superscriptions, but on separate tracks at the end of the disc. I'm curious though...did the composer decide that they needed to be spoken at all?

RVW never intended them to be spoken; movements 3 & 4 are to be played without interruption (see earlier postings). I don't see the point of having them spoken at all, even at the end of the disc.

[vandermolen]

I've never heard a recording where the superscriptions interrupt the music. The Naxos recording (Bournemouth/Bakels I think) has the spoken superscriptions, but on separate tracks at the end of the disc. I'm curious though...did the composer decide that they needed to be spoken at all?

Boult's Decca recording includes them spoken by John Gielgud and I think Previn's RCA LP (possibly the CD) did with Ralph Richardson in a croaky voice. I think that the earliest recording with John Barbirolli conducting did not include any spoken superscriptions.

[aukhawk]

On the Leppard / Indianapolis SO recording the superscriptions don't so much interrupt the music as overlay it in some instances.

[vandermolen]

On the Leppard / Indianapolis SO recording the superscriptions don't so much interrupt the music as overlay it in some instances.

That was a very bizarre release featuring long extracts from Scott's diaries which were not even superscriptions in the score.

[PerfectWagnerite]

That was a very bizarre release featuring long extracts from Scott's diaries which were not even superscriptions in the score.

The words are pretty tedious (I am thinking of the Previn recording) and detracts from the music.

A bit off topic but reading about the Scott Expedition it was quite superhuman what they accomplished - walking to the pole and almost making it back, some 1200 miles roundtrip in some ungodly cold weather, where missing a deport meant life and death. Hard to believe it was only 100 or so years ago. I think even today no one can make it on foot repeating Scott's route with all the modern advances.

[cilgwyn]

Boult's Decca recording includes them spoken by John Gielgud and I think Previn's RCA LP (possibly the CD) did with Ralph Richardson in a croaky voice. I think that the earliest recording with John Barbirolli conducting did not include any spoken superscriptions.

I like the recordings with the spoken bits. The Boult,Gielgud recording is definitely my favourite,and I like the Previn recording,with Ralph Richardson. I think a croaky voice is rather appropriate considering the weather conditions at the South Pole!!

[Oates]

I think even today no one can make it on foot repeating Scott's route with all the modern advances.

No, they all say they're going to retrace Scott's footsteps to the Pole and then fly home when they reach 90 South after a lavish meal courtesy of the US scientific base. The return journey (without any resupply along the way) is (literally) the killer.

[Biffo]

No, they all say they're going to retrace Scott's footsteps to the Pole and then fly home when they reach 90 South after a lavish meal courtesy of the US scientific base. The return journey (without any resupply along the way) is (literally) the killer.

With modern equipment and resupply from the air it is not the gruelling feat it used to be but still not lightly undertaken on foot. Sir Ranulph Fiennes made a complete crossing of Antarctica on foot. Shackleton made it to within 90 miles of the Pole but sensibly turned back. Amundsen used dogs and got to the Pole first but he was better organised.

[vandermolen]

I like that Boult/Gielgud version as well. Boult's objective way with Vaughan Williams is well suited to the icy wastes of Antarctica as it was to the possible nuclear wastes at the end of Symphony 6 (I'm aware that the composer rejected this interpretation).

Personally, compared to the likes of  Shackleton, Amundsen and Scott I have little time for modern-day explorers who traverse Antartica in heated-snowmobiles with huge back-up teams, satellite communications, helicopters etc.

[cilgwyn]

Yes (yawning!). Even,I could nip up there,if I could get my a*** off this seat?!! Private Eye did a very funny spoof "diary" of Ranulph Fiennes,with him sawing off various bits of his frostbitten extremities. Those diaries (by Craig Brown) are very clever. Probably the best thing in P.E. these days,besides McLachlan's cartoons (my father get's it,not me!). My father keeps saying it's not as good as it used tobe;although,so far,he hasn't cancelled his subscription!!

[Karl Henning]

Personally, compared to the likes of  Shackleton, Amundsen and Scott I have little time for modern-day explorers who traverse Antartica in heated-snowmobiles with huge back-up teams, satellite communications, helicopters etc.

Do you so despise safety measures, Sir? 

[vandermolen]

Yes (yawning!). Even,I could nip up there,if I could get my a*** off this seat?!! Private Eye did a very funny spoof "diary" of Ranulph Fiennes,with him sawing off various bits of his frostbitten extremities. Those diaries (by Craig Brown) are very clever. Probably the best thing in P.E. these days,besides McLachlan's cartoons (my father get's it,not me!). My father keeps saying it's not as good as it used tobe;although,so far,he hasn't cancelled his subscription!!

Your father is right although it has its moments still.

[vandermolen]

Do you so despise safety measures, Sir? 

No, of course not Karl although I  think that some of these expeditions are more ego-trip than voyages of discovery.

[Karl Henning]

No, of course not Karl although I  think that some of these expeditions are more ego-trip than voyages of discovery.

I was not serious, to be sure.  And you certainly have a point.

[Biffo]

No, of course not Karl although I  think that some of these expeditions are more ego-trip than voyages of discovery.

I am sure there is a great deal of scientific work to be done in Antarctica but that is carried out by permanent bases. Most of these 'crossings' - first to do it on roller-skates, first walking backwards etc are just pointless. Having said that, you would have to cross several frozen continents to find a bigger pair of clashing egos than Scott and Amundsen.

[vandermolen]

I was not serious, to be sure.  And you certainly have a point.

[vandermolen]

I am sure there is a great deal of scientific work to be done in Antarctica but that is carried out by permanent bases. Most of these 'crossings' - first to do it on roller-skates, first walking backwards etc are just pointless. Having said that, you would have to cross several frozen continents to find a bigger pair of clashing egos than Scott and Amundsen.

Your roller-skates comment made me laugh and your quite right about Scott and Amundsen. My favourite polar explorer is Shackleton who had his own run-ins with Scott.

[Biffo]

Your roller-skates comment made me laugh and your quite right about Scott and Amundsen. My favourite polar explorer is Shackleton who had his own run-ins with Scott.

I've just been reading about Lawrence Oates; he had numerous clashes with Scott but it seems it was only when they got to Antarctica that he realised Scott was totally inept. Quite why Scott chose a man with one leg shorter than the other (Oates) for the final party is beyond me; why Oates agreed to go is also mystifying.

[aukhawk]

I thoroughly commend Ranulph Fiennes' book describing his solo crossing - Mind Over Matter (out of print but well worth seeking out) - a celebration of extreme, insane, self-sufficiency.  When Fiennes reached the Pole, after many weeks of solo man-hauling a sledge that initially was too heavy to move until he jettisoned some 'essentials' - faced with the sight of warmth, shelter, food, conversation, he was so deeply appalled by the prospect that he just kept trudging on, without even checking in.

[Biffo]

I thoroughly commend Ranulph Fiennes' book describing his solo crossing - Mind Over Matter (out of print but well worth seeking out) - a celebration of extreme, insane, self-sufficiency.  When Fiennes reached the Pole, after many weeks of solo man-hauling a sledge that initially was too heavy to move until he jettisoned some 'essentials' - faced with the sight of warmth, shelter, food, conversation, he was so deeply appalled by the prospect that he just kept trudging on, without even checking in.

There are several used copies available from Amazon UK from as little as 1p; I am half-tempted but I have a huge backlog of reading (Beethoven, Mahler, Delius and lots of non-musical stuff). RF seems to have written a lot more in the same vein as well as a biography of Scott. As I understand it the latter is an attempt to restore Scott's reputation after Roland Huntford's hatchet job. A bit of a lost cause I think.

Returning to the subject of the thread, RVW read everything he could on the expedition - journals, diaries etc - and was appalled by the incompetence and shambolic nature of it all. The desolate music he used in the final movement of the Sinfonia was originally intended for the film's final credits but the director insisted on the heroic march; the myth of heroic failure had to be maintained.