Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[eyeresist]

Interesting post, drogulus.

[scarpia]

The precedent can't come after the thing it precedes. 

There can be a precedent for an interpretation of V-W's method of composing.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I am glad RVW never used an anvil (like Bax in his Third). This thread would be hammered to death.

[sound67]

 

BTW, wind machine: For an overview over a number of concert works that employ a wind machine, look here...

http://www.squidoo.com/wind_machine

As to the use of voices in the 7th, Lionel Pike writes:

"The human voices ... do not depict the human element of the story but rather the frozen wastes and a general white, timeless, unfeeling natural desolation; the human element is in fact illustrated instead by the trumpet fanfares which in the film had indicated the setting out on a great endeavour"
(Vaughan Williams and the Symphony, 2003)

On the wind machine, as part of a 22-page analysis of the symphony, Pike merely writes that it "can mean one thing, and one thing only" - only to leave the issue dangling in midair and never to discuss it again. He does however point to the original use of the ORGAN in the "Landscape" movement - stripped of its ecclesiastical assocations, meant to signify the great natural barrier that man cannot overcome.

Thomas

[eyeresist]

I am glad RVW never used an anvil (like Bax in his Third). This thread would be hammered to death.

I am sure that, in every one of his works, the absence of the anvil is of Profound Significance.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I am sure that, in every one of his works, the absence of the anvil is of Profound Significance.

But you know what you're doing, don't you? Tempting Wilfred 'Niagara' Ottevanger! 

[sound67]

As I was reading the various Handley obits yesterday, this passage (from Times Online) made me chuckle:

"Handley recorded a great deal of conventional repertoire, notably a complete set of the Vaughan Williams symphonies, which remains a landmark. But the recording studio also offered the opportunity to explore some more recherché works"

So RVW is now considered core repertoire? I wish ... 

Thomas

[Dundonnell]

As I was reading the various Handley obits yesterday, this passage (from Times Online) made me chuckle:

"Handley recorded a great deal of conventional repertoire, notably a complete set of the Vaughan Williams symphonies, which remains a landmark. But the recording studio also offered the opportunity to explore some more recherché works"

So RVW is now considered core repertoire? I wish ... 

Thomas

I noticed that use of the phrase "conventional repertoire" too I doubt if RVW would have cared for the expression

[Dundonnell]

I am glad RVW never used an anvil (like Bax in his Third). This thread would be hammered to death.

[scarpia]

As I was reading the various Handley obits yesterday, this passage (from Times Online) made me chuckle:

"Handley recorded a great deal of conventional repertoire, notably a complete set of the Vaughan Williams symphonies, which remains a landmark. But the recording studio also offered the opportunity to explore some more recherché works"

So RVW is now considered core repertoire? I wish ... 

You should consider purchasing a dictionary.  That a piece of music is conventional does not imply that it is "core." 

[sound67]

You should consider purchasing a dictionary.  That a piece of music is conventional does not imply that it is "core." 

The writer was obviously trying to express RVW is no longer "fringe". Moeran, Finzi or Bowen are no more "un-conventional" than RVW. The writer simply chose a term that people might misinterpret.

Thomas

[Mark G. Simon]

The 4th symphony was the first RVW I ever heard, and my parents were dead set against it. "Turn off that crazy modern music!" The 8th symphony elicited a look of mere annoyance from them, accompanied by a "must you listen to that now?" This was in the late 1960s.

So sound67 could just as easily feel tickled that RVW is considered conventional repertory now.

[karlhenning]

My only regret is that I did not know of Vaughan Williams at an early enough age to make myself a nuisance to my family 

[sound67]

The 4th symphony was the first RVW I ever heard, and my parents were dead set against it. "Turn off that crazy modern music!" The 8th symphony elicited a look of mere annoyance from them, accompanied by a "must you listen to that now?" This was in the late 1960s.

Ironically, William Glock and his minions denied Vaughan Williams "airspace" in the 1960s because he was considered a reactionary at that time.

Tippett said he thought so when he was just beginning to make his own mark as a composer. He later admitted that he had made a mistake, and that RVW had had a tremendous influence on 20th century English music.

Thomas

[Christo]

So M and scarpia must be the same person.

Wow. I do think you're M now, too. Same anal fixations.

I am glad RVW never used an anvil (like Bax in his Third). This thread would be hammered to death.

 

for a change, I am not being sarcastic right now

That's what intelligent people generally do, if they don't understand something  ... 

Most of the people here you can't, you won't get much of interest back, but there are still quite a few, and that's why I am logging on here, too.

However, if you learn to be a little bit more self-critical and open, then you can learn a lot from a number of people here - exclusively for your own benefit and personal enrichment.

But that's not why he quit a German board shortly before he was about to be thrown off. It was because he pissed people off continually. 

Wow. Quite a lively thread indeed, especially with Scarpia Forever at his most selfsearching and intimately confessional, reminding me of another favourite, St. Augustine's Confessiones. In the meantime, I amuse myself with Berglund's interpretations of the Fourth and Sixth - both making a strong impression at first hearing:

                     

[Dundonnell]

From the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England-

"Give Peace in Our Time, Oh Lord"

[Christo]

From the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England-

"Give Peace in Our Time, Oh Lord"

This is the first time I realize that Neville Chamberlain, after his return from Munich, was actually echoing the Book of Common Prayer. To a cheering crowd in front of 10 Downing Street he reportedly said: "My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace in our time."

Which brings us back to Vaughan Williams, who foresaw a different possible future in his 1936 cantata Dona Nobis Pacem. It contains a setting of the prophetic words by Radical politician John Bright, opposing the Crimean War in 1855:

"The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings. There is no one as of old, to sprinkle with blood the lintel and the two side-posts of our doors, that he may spare and pass on."

[vandermolen]

The CMG Golden Rule:

"Please treat other members of this forum with courtesy and respect.  By all means, discuss and argue the topic at hand, but do not make personal attacks, belittle, make fun of, or insult another member."

[lukeottevanger]

But what can you expect when discussing so contentious a composer as Vaughan Williams?

[vandermolen]

But what can you expect when discussing so contentious a composer as Vaughan Williams?