Celebrating Ralph Vaughan Williams’s 150th Anniversary- Today!

Ralph Vaughan Williams, born on 12 October 1872, is one of several composers who led the English Music Revival during the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. Other names would include Charles Villiers Stanford, Charles Hubert Hastings Parry and Edward Elgar. Many more would follow as the 20th century unfolded. 

It has always been difficult to give an accurate stylistic definition of RVW’s music. It is easy to say “pastoral,” (cow and gate music) however that would seem to deny credence to such powerful, dissonant works such as the Symphony No.4.

To be sure, RVW did enthuse about English folksong, which even more than a century ago was rapidly disappearing from rural communities. Along with Cecil Sharp, Maud Karpeles, Gustav Holst and others, Vaughan Williams spent much time “in the field” collecting original folksong before it was finally lost. And he had a great interest in Tudor composers such as Tallis and William Byrd. This is exemplified in his wonderful Mass in G minor.

A good aesthetic hermeneutic was described by Hubert Foss who once suggested that “[RVW’s] musical language is an instrument which he forges anew on the anvil of each major work.” There is no better way of seeing this development than in the nine symphonies, worked on between 1903 and 1957.

RVW was a late developer. Although his catalogue includes much music written in the years leading up to the Great War, it was his Sea Symphony (1903-09) first heard on 12 October 1910 during that year’s Leeds Festival that caused a sensation. Leaning on the achievement of Elgar, Parry and Stanford it functioned as major steppingstone in the “new era of symphonic and choral music in the first half of the 20^th century.” This mixture of “symphony, oratorio and cantata,” successfully combines choir, soloist and orchestra. The text is taken from the works of American poet Walt Whitman.

The composer’s further development can be charted through the eight symphonies that followed. The London Symphony, finished in 1913 and revised several times, is boisterous, sometimes harsh and musically picturesque of the Capital. Each of the four movements has a “programme” devised by the composer. It was his favourite of his own symphonies.

The Pastoral Symphony (1921) is a little bit of a misnomer. In fact, Vaughan Williams had prepared the ground for music critics to derive a false understanding of this work within the parameters of ‘English Pastoral.’ Pre-war compositions had included the Norfolk Rhapsodies and In the Fen Country. Earlier tone-poems musically evoking the English countryside and coast had delivered Harnam Down, Boldre Wood and The Solent. And finally there was that arch-typical example of the pastoral genre, the ever popular The Lark Ascending which had gestated during the war years. The composer never explicitly defined what inspired his Pastoral Symphony. The nearest he came to explaining it was in a letter to his future wife Ursula Wood: - ‘It’s not really lambkins frisking at all, as most people take for granted… It’s really wartime music – a great deal of it incubated when I used to go up night after night with the ambulance wagon at Écoivres and we went up a steep hill and there was a wonderful Corot-like landscape in the sunset.’ The resulting Pastoral Symphony is a huge ‘tragedy’ modified by a great hope for the future. It epitomises a subtle balance of melancholy with and active remembrance of the rural aspects of England that the composer recalled whilst on active service.

The Symphony No.4 in F minor, completed in 1934, is dissonant, often aggressive, strident, technically complex, and sometimes downright pessimistic. Bearing in mind that this work was written at a time of great upheaval in Europe (and elsewhere), the composer denied any obvious programme to this music. That said, it would be naïve to suggest that the world situation did not influence this unsettling work.

After the war, RVW finalized his Symphony No.5 in D major (1943) which has been described as a “monument to philosophic resignation.” This serene work does little to challenge the listener. Neville Cardus, critic and cricketeer, suggested that "[it] contains the most benedictory and consoling music of our time." Some of the material was borrowed from the opera The Pilgrim’s Progress. The composer was aged over 70 at the time of composition. Many commentators felt that it would be his last symphony. How wrong! There would be another four before his death in 1958.

A return to turbulent, troubled music characterised the Symphony No.6 in E minor (1947). It has also been described as an “eloquent” work. It is noted for the strange finale, which is played very quietly from end to end. One critic dubbed it “the quietest piece of music imaginable.” Many felt that this symphony, with its powerful and “demonic” scherzo, the violent orchestral clashes in the opening movement, and the enigmatic ending, was the composer’s attempt to describe a nuclear winter. RVW denied this charge.

The Symphony No.7 is subtitled Sinfonia Antartica (1952). In many ways this is not actually a formal symphony, but an adaptation of RVW’s film score for Scott of the Antarctic. This movie, starring John Mills, James Robertson Justice and just about every famous actor of the day, was a box office success. Sadly, despite the symphony being a “realistic picture” of the polar landscape, even down to simulated weather conditions made by a wind machine, an out of this world soprano solo, wordless women’s chorus and vibraphone echoing the vast wastes, it is not a momentous success. Perhaps it fails by being neither a symphony nor a tone poem? It is more a “free form” fantasia or perhaps it could be defined as a stitching together of sections of the incidental music – a Suite of film music. Yet it was well received and is many listeners favourite of RVW’s symphonies.

Four years later, the Symphony No. 8 in D minor (1953-55) was premiered in Manchester. The work is shorter than the previous seven. Its mood is light-hearted and always lyrical. The opening movement is unusual in being a set of variations in search of a theme. The Scherzo alla marcia is scored for wind instruments only. A return to more pastoral music is heard in the Cavatina, scored for strings only. Finally, the last movement, headed Toccata, is a tour de force. The composer has called for a vast percussion section, “all the ‘phones and ‘speils known to the composer.” This is a dynamic conclusion full of rhythmic vitality. It exudes “youthful enthusiasm” for a man 84 year’s young.

In the year before his death, RVW completed his ninth and last symphony. It was premiered during April 1958. It has been stated that this was written “as a summation of his artistic faith and principles.” Grove’s Dictionary has described the work as "at once heroic and contemplative, defiant and wistfully absorbed.”  The mood of the work is one of “frustration and despair.” Even the finale is not triumphant. This is a stoical acceptance of old age and is in no way optimistic. After the concluding bar, Vaughan Williams wrote the word “Niente” – nothing. In my opinion, it is one of his greatest achievements: there is nothing negative about a studied acceptance of the meaning of life.

It would be amiss to fail to mention the mystical side of RVW’s accomplishment. Known to be an agnostic, he nevertheless had a great love of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, Shakespeare and English Poetry. Major works expressing this interest included the Mass in G minor, Flos Campi and the Five Mystical Songs. Operas interested the composer too. From the ballad opera Hugh the Drover to the late The Pilgrim’s Progress, by way of Sir John in Love, various literary subjects challenged his mind.

Listeners often forget the essays that RVW composed in the eighteenth century concerto form such as those for violin and for oboe. Interesting developments of this genre included examples for harmonica and tuba.

The massive choral works such as the Five Tudor Portraits, Dona Nobis Pacem and Hodie proclaim his interest in poetry and liturgical texts.

Ralph Vaughan Williams died on 26 August 1958. He was aged 85 years. There is little doubt that he has taken a place in the history of the nation alongside such illustrious figures as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Blake and Hardy.