Continued From Previous
Continuing with what I was writing reference Vaughan Williams and Howells, one of the former's most famous works appeared in 1934, but the _Fantasia_ _On_
_Greensleeves_ was not arranged by VW himself (though the last part of it, where that famous tune returns, is taken directly from the music between the
two scenes of Act IV of the composer's previously-mentioned opera, _Sir_ _John_ _In_ _Love_, and the first occurrence of this, at its beginning, sounds
to me virtually identical to the accompaniment it receives when Mistress Ford sings it in Act III of that opera, though without the flute introduction
heard in this fantasia, the flute introduction to the reprise however also being right out of the opera), but by one Mr. Ralph Greaves, he having added,
whether at VW's suggestion or on his own, another English folksong called "Lovely Joan." This song is also sung in the opera, by Mistress Quickly in Act
II, but the arrangement in the fantasia is somewhat different and more elaborate than that. VW must have at least approved of this fantasia since
he conducted its first performance, and listeners have been loving it ever since along with the earlier and previously mentioned _Tallis_ _Fantasia_ for
string quartet and string orchestra! In the late 1930's VW gave us two beautiful works, particularly the _Serenade_ _To_ _Music_, setting lines from Shakespeare's
_The_ _Merchant_ _Of_ _Venice_ for 16 solo voices and orchestra (an alternative version involving chorus), this having been written to salute Sir Henry
Wood, a prominent English conductor of the time, on the occasion of his Golden Jubilee Concert in 1938. This is one of the composer's most lyrical works in my, and presumably many others', opinions,
and I feel that musically it has much in common with the best lyrical passages in _The_ _Pilgrim's_ _Progress_! The following year VW gave the New York
World's Fair an homage to an English folksong which initially had a strong effect upon him in 1893, "Dives And Lazarus," this new work, for strings and
harp, being _Five_ _Variants_ _Of_ _Dives_ _And_ _Lazarus_. The big variant at its end is the version of the tune which VW himself collected during his
song collecting days previously mentioned, the others being reminiscences of other versions. Sir Adrian Boult conducted the first performance of this
very English work in Carnegie Hall! There was also a _Te_ _Deum_ based on traditional tunes written for King George Vi's coronation in 1937. VW, though now getting
further on in years, nonetheless contributed some non-combat service to the Second World War as well, but also continued writing music. He began to write
film music in the 1940's, most of it as yet unfamiliar to me personally. Yet one of his scores, for _Scott_ _Of_ _The_ _Antarctic_, would provide the
basis for his _Sinfonia_ _Antarctica_, his _Seventh_ _Symphony_, first played in 1953. His _Fifth_ and _Sixth_ _Symphonies_ also came out of the '40's.
He had been working on _The_ _Pilgrim's_ _Progress_ from time to time throughout the '20's and '30's, but had, in the late part of the latter, come to
think that this morality might never reach the stage, and thus he began writing his _Fifth_ _Symphony_, using some of his material for the opera in it.
At the beginning of its "Romanza," Third Movement, he originally wrote a quotation from the Bunyan book which concludes, "He hath given me rest by His
sorrow, and life by His death," and the English-horn solo after its opening chords presents the theme to which Pilgrim sings those words in the morality,
though it first occurs as an English-horn solo there as well. The second theme of its First Movement is heard, in various versions, during the opening
scene of the morality, it first appearing when Evangelist tells Pilgrim that, when he knocks at the gate, "it shall be told thee what thou shalt do."
Agitated passages in the middle of the symphony's "Romanza" are associated, in the morality, with Pilgrim's burden, and the theme of its Finale, a passacaglia
(that being variations on a continually-repeated theme, that theme often first appearing in the bass), is heard during the second scene of the morality's
First Act, the scene in the House Beautiful. The symphony was first played in 1943. The early '40's also brought a motet for unaccompanied chorus setting
Mr. Valiant for Truth's speech from Part II of the Bunyan allegory, and then the BBC asked this composer for incidental music for a dramatization of that
great book. This also contains music which would later appear in the morality, notably the Anglican hymn tune called "York," which I gather came from
Bunyan's time, and extensive use of the theme on which the _Tallis_ _Fantasia_ is based. This latter would, in the morality, be shortened to just a rising-and-falling
passage which would recur at several points associated with the Celestial City. The _Sixth_ _Symphony_, as already suggested, was _QUITE_ a different
matter! The _Fifth_ had largely returned to a more tranquil style often associated with this composer in the public's mind. And yet here came the _Sixth_,
returning to the brutality and harshness of the _Fourth_, though the two works are quite different from each other. There is a folklike theme in its opening
movement which returns quite simply near its end, only to be succeeded by a return of the violent opening of the symphony. Repeated groups of three B-flats
on brass and percussion menace the end of the Second Movement, and the middle of the Third presents a somewhat-jazzy saxophone solo. And then comes its
strange, often _ULTRA_-soft, Finale, with what the composer describes as "whiffs of theme," causing some to wonder if he was there depicting the world
as it might be after nuclear destruction. Yet, in a letter to Mr. Kennedy which is cited in both his musical biography of the composer referenced in the
first installment of this post and his notes for Sir Adrian Boult's EMI recording of this symphony, he says that a possible clue to the meaning of this
could be found in a passage from Prospero's farewell in Shakespeare's _The_ _Tempest_, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is
rounded with a sleep." Re-reading the notes for that recording just minutes ago, I was surprised to discover or re-discover that, while Mr. Kennedy has
no authority for this, he conjectures that this work could conceivably be a memorial to VW's closest musical friend, Gustav Holst, who had died in 1934,
ten years before the composition of this symphony was begun (I am now ashamed that I did not write a post about Holst around the time of his birthday,
21 September, so must try to make up for that some time in future). Sir Adrian first conducted this symphony in 1948. While the war was still going on,
VW wrote a work to be broadcast on the BBC once victory was declared in Europe. It was even pre-recorded. _Thanksgiving_ _For_ _Victory_, the title later
changed to _A_ _Song_ _Of_ _Thanksgiving_, is rather a favourite of mine, its text being from the _Bible_, Shakespeare and Kipling (the latter's "Land
Of Our Birth"). It is scored for a speaker, a soprano soloist (VW wanted a powerful, dramatic voice for this with no vibrato, but, so far as I know, has
yet to get the latter, not even on the original broadcast, though he suggests a small group of boys as an alternative), chorus, children's chorus (which
begin's "Land Of Our Birth" near the end of the work) and large orchestra including a prominent organ part. Another work for speaker, chorus and orchestra
from later in this Decade is more delicate, _An_ _Oxford_ _Elegy_, setting a combination of excerpts from two poems by the 19th-Century English poet Matthew
Arnold. I feel this is a particularly beautiful work. As for the previously-cited _Prayer_ _To_ _The_ _Father_ _Of_ _Heaven_, also written for Oxford,
I personally find the Skelton text which VW sets for this one of the finest pieces of Theology outside the _Bible_ itself, another such being Elgar's short
Christmas work, for unaccompanied chorus as this is, _I_ _Sing_ _The_ _Birth_, setting words attributed to Ben Johnson! The 1950 Gloucester Festival,
which, as already related, brought the premiere of Howells' _Hymnus_ _Paradisi_, also brought an unusual work from VW, his _Fantasia_ _On_ _The_ _Old_
_104th_ _Psalm_ _Tune_ for piano solo, chorus and orchestra. The tune is attributed to one Ravenscroft, the text being a rhymed paraphrase of the Psalm.
When the chorus and orchestra are silent, at least Sir Adrian Boult's EMI recording of this makes it hard to believe that they are there at all, their
three appearances thus coming as somewhat of a surprise. The second of these, where two verses of the Psalm are sung, brings the work's most advanced
harmonies. Thereafter VW embarked on the last nearly 8 years of his life, _MOST_ productive for one who then approached and surpassed 80! In addition
to the already-much-discussed _Pilgrim_, there would be music for the present Queen of England's coronation in 1953, including a short motet to be sung
while the Royal Couple was receiving Communion late in the Service, _O_ _Taste_ _And_ _See_, setting Psalm 34:8, and a _ROUSING_ setting of the "Old Hundredth,"
to the tune most familiar nowadays as the one to which the Doxology is usually sung, though here in its original meter instead of the uneven meter most
often sung. VW proposed to the then-Archbishop of Canterbury that the congregation should be allowed to sing during part of this, something which had
never happened in any coronation prior to that, and this indeed happened, the congregation joining the chorus, organ and orchestra as well as the trumpeters
from the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall! VW had made at least one other setting of this text, even including something like his setting
of the last verse here, when he set the entire Psalm, with the added final verse as in 1953, in 1930. The 1953 version again sets a versified paraphrase.
He may have whimsically regarded this as making "a mess-up of the "old Hundredth"," but what a _GLORIOUS_ "mess-up?" it is! Then, the following year,
he made one of two other homages to Christmas which would come from that Decade, _Hodie_ (This Day), a cantata for three soloists, boys chorus with
organ, large mixed chorus and orchestra, telling the Christmas Story from the traditional Biblical passages as well as a passage from the Latin Christmas
Vespers along with settings of English poetry, including one by a modern-day poet, Thomas Hardy. This also includes two unaccompanied chorales, the second
verse of the second of these, as well as the movement related to the Three Kings, offering poetry by the composer's second wife and now widow, Mrs. Ursula
Vaughan Williams. Once again, at least in my opinion, we have one of those great pieces of Theology in the form of the Scottish poet William Drummond's
"Bright Portals Of The Sky," set for the tenor soloist just before the section related to the Three Kings. There are also several lyrical movements, two
of these being the Hardy setting, "The Oxen," and a pastoral movement to a text by George Herbert, whose poetry VW had previously set in those beautiful
_Five_ _Mystical_ _Songs from 43 years earlier. Checking some details from Mr. Kennedy's article for Sir David Willcocks' recording of this cantata brought
relevant information, that it is dedicated to one Herbert Howells! Throughout his composing career, VW had been writing concertos, including one for violin,
one for piano (also in a version for two pianos), and another for oboe. Then, in the 1950's, he wrote two more concerted works for solo instruments with
orchestra. The first of these, a short _Romance_, was for, of all instruments, harmonica! There is a rather-amusing story connected with it related in,
among presumably other places, Mr. Kennedy's book. VW told the man for whom he wrote it, the American Larry Adler, that he would alter it if Mr. Adler
was not pleased with it, then do so again if he was still not pleased, and then, if he _STILL_ was displeased, he would re-write it for bass tuba! As
things turned out, Mr. Adler _WAS_ pleased, but VW went ahead and wrote his _Tuba_ _Concerto_ anyway, and that work has become at least somewhat popular.
It has wit as one might expect in a work for that instrument, but it also has a characteristically-lyrical slow movement. There were also more songs
throughout this composer's long life, and two final groups of these appeared in the Late '50's, most notably his _Ten_ _Blake_ _Songs_ for tenor and solo
oboe. These songs are quite attractive as far as I am concerned. He also, as Richard Strauss had done, wrote _Four_ _Last_ _Songs_, these being, if I
am not mistaken, to words by his wife, but I confess to not being certain as to how much, if at all, Strauss and VW had to do with their last songs being
so designated. He further wrote _Three_ _Shakespeare_ _Songs_ for unaccompanied chorus, the second of these setting the passage from _The_ _Tempest_ which
contained the words VW felt best described the meaning of his _Sixth_ _Symphony_'s Finale. There would also be two more symphonies, his _Eighth_ and _Ninth_.
Yet it should probably be here noted that his previously-cited _Seventh_, _Sinfonia_ _Antarctica_, also includes a soprano soloist, women's chorus and
a wind machine. Each of its five movements is prefaced in the score by a literary superscription related, in the composer's mind, to Captain Scott's expedition
and VW's reaction to it and the Antarctic landscape as he understood it. The _Eighth_ is probably the most jocular and shortest. One of its distinguishing
features is that its middle movements are entirely for separate groups of instruments, the Second for winds and brass only and the Third, another "Romanza"
if I am not mistaken, for strings only. The Finale includes all manner of percussion instruments, particularly bells and the like, these having increasingly
interested him later in his life, especially in the Finale of _Hodie_. Yet there are also bells near the end of _Dona_ _Nobis_ _Pacem_ from some years
earlier. The _Ninth_ is a rather-darker affair, and Mr. Kennedy, along with possibly others, see it as the beginning of a new direction in the composer's
output. I personally have yet to discern this, hearing in a repeated passage in its Finale a fond farewell, but am by _NO_ means closed to the idea that
this could be something new if someone will show it to me. Its Second Movement has a theme for solo flugel horn which closely resembles a passage early
in _A_ _Sea_ _Symphony_ at the words, "and on its limitless heaving breast," and its Scherzo (Third Movement) has a section for a quartet of saxophones.
The work on which VW was working when he died in 1958 was yet another Christmas one, _The_ _First_ _Nowel_, a pageant which musically was largely based
on carols, etc. "The First Nowel" itself was one of VW's personal favourites, and the work closes with it, though his assistant during his later years,
Mr. Roy Douglas, had to complete his arrangement of this along with having to complete, arrange, or even perhaps write, some movements in this work. The
concert version of this has just received its latest recording, on the Chandos Label, conducted by one of today's greatest VW champions, Mr. Richard Hickox,
whose recording of _The_ _Pilgrim's_ _Progress_ is mentioned in my 11-June post in this blog about that work. The disc also includes the world-premiere
recording of his 1920's masque, _On_ _Christmas_ _Night_, loosely based on Dickens' _A_ _Christmas_ _Carol_. Another VW work which received its first
recording this year was one which I feel is particularly affecting, the final version of his _Willow_ _Wood_, a setting from Rosetti's _The_ _House_ _Of_
_Life_, from which poems the composer had also fashioned a song cycle which includes one of his most famous songs, "Silent Noon." This version, for baritone
solo, chorus and orchestra, comes from around the time of _On_ _Wenlock_ _Edge_ and _A_ _Sea_ _Symphony_, etc., and I feel a passage in it looks straight
ahead to the _Serenade_ _To_ _Music_ of some 20 years later! In addition to editing the _English_ _Hymnal_, VW also figured in at least two other books
of hymns and the like during his life, _Songs_ _Of_ _Praise_ and the famous _Oxford_ _Book_ _Of_ _Carols_. He also arranged many folksongs for various
vocal and instrumental forces, etc.
_Greensleeves_ was not arranged by VW himself (though the last part of it, where that famous tune returns, is taken directly from the music between the
two scenes of Act IV of the composer's previously-mentioned opera, _Sir_ _John_ _In_ _Love_, and the first occurrence of this, at its beginning, sounds
to me virtually identical to the accompaniment it receives when Mistress Ford sings it in Act III of that opera, though without the flute introduction
heard in this fantasia, the flute introduction to the reprise however also being right out of the opera), but by one Mr. Ralph Greaves, he having added,
whether at VW's suggestion or on his own, another English folksong called "Lovely Joan." This song is also sung in the opera, by Mistress Quickly in Act
II, but the arrangement in the fantasia is somewhat different and more elaborate than that. VW must have at least approved of this fantasia since
he conducted its first performance, and listeners have been loving it ever since along with the earlier and previously mentioned _Tallis_ _Fantasia_ for
string quartet and string orchestra! In the late 1930's VW gave us two beautiful works, particularly the _Serenade_ _To_ _Music_, setting lines from Shakespeare's
_The_ _Merchant_ _Of_ _Venice_ for 16 solo voices and orchestra (an alternative version involving chorus), this having been written to salute Sir Henry
Wood, a prominent English conductor of the time, on the occasion of his Golden Jubilee Concert in 1938. This is one of the composer's most lyrical works in my, and presumably many others', opinions,
and I feel that musically it has much in common with the best lyrical passages in _The_ _Pilgrim's_ _Progress_! The following year VW gave the New York
World's Fair an homage to an English folksong which initially had a strong effect upon him in 1893, "Dives And Lazarus," this new work, for strings and
harp, being _Five_ _Variants_ _Of_ _Dives_ _And_ _Lazarus_. The big variant at its end is the version of the tune which VW himself collected during his
song collecting days previously mentioned, the others being reminiscences of other versions. Sir Adrian Boult conducted the first performance of this
very English work in Carnegie Hall! There was also a _Te_ _Deum_ based on traditional tunes written for King George Vi's coronation in 1937. VW, though now getting
further on in years, nonetheless contributed some non-combat service to the Second World War as well, but also continued writing music. He began to write
film music in the 1940's, most of it as yet unfamiliar to me personally. Yet one of his scores, for _Scott_ _Of_ _The_ _Antarctic_, would provide the
basis for his _Sinfonia_ _Antarctica_, his _Seventh_ _Symphony_, first played in 1953. His _Fifth_ and _Sixth_ _Symphonies_ also came out of the '40's.
He had been working on _The_ _Pilgrim's_ _Progress_ from time to time throughout the '20's and '30's, but had, in the late part of the latter, come to
think that this morality might never reach the stage, and thus he began writing his _Fifth_ _Symphony_, using some of his material for the opera in it.
At the beginning of its "Romanza," Third Movement, he originally wrote a quotation from the Bunyan book which concludes, "He hath given me rest by His
sorrow, and life by His death," and the English-horn solo after its opening chords presents the theme to which Pilgrim sings those words in the morality,
though it first occurs as an English-horn solo there as well. The second theme of its First Movement is heard, in various versions, during the opening
scene of the morality, it first appearing when Evangelist tells Pilgrim that, when he knocks at the gate, "it shall be told thee what thou shalt do."
Agitated passages in the middle of the symphony's "Romanza" are associated, in the morality, with Pilgrim's burden, and the theme of its Finale, a passacaglia
(that being variations on a continually-repeated theme, that theme often first appearing in the bass), is heard during the second scene of the morality's
First Act, the scene in the House Beautiful. The symphony was first played in 1943. The early '40's also brought a motet for unaccompanied chorus setting
Mr. Valiant for Truth's speech from Part II of the Bunyan allegory, and then the BBC asked this composer for incidental music for a dramatization of that
great book. This also contains music which would later appear in the morality, notably the Anglican hymn tune called "York," which I gather came from
Bunyan's time, and extensive use of the theme on which the _Tallis_ _Fantasia_ is based. This latter would, in the morality, be shortened to just a rising-and-falling
passage which would recur at several points associated with the Celestial City. The _Sixth_ _Symphony_, as already suggested, was _QUITE_ a different
matter! The _Fifth_ had largely returned to a more tranquil style often associated with this composer in the public's mind. And yet here came the _Sixth_,
returning to the brutality and harshness of the _Fourth_, though the two works are quite different from each other. There is a folklike theme in its opening
movement which returns quite simply near its end, only to be succeeded by a return of the violent opening of the symphony. Repeated groups of three B-flats
on brass and percussion menace the end of the Second Movement, and the middle of the Third presents a somewhat-jazzy saxophone solo. And then comes its
strange, often _ULTRA_-soft, Finale, with what the composer describes as "whiffs of theme," causing some to wonder if he was there depicting the world
as it might be after nuclear destruction. Yet, in a letter to Mr. Kennedy which is cited in both his musical biography of the composer referenced in the
first installment of this post and his notes for Sir Adrian Boult's EMI recording of this symphony, he says that a possible clue to the meaning of this
could be found in a passage from Prospero's farewell in Shakespeare's _The_ _Tempest_, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is
rounded with a sleep." Re-reading the notes for that recording just minutes ago, I was surprised to discover or re-discover that, while Mr. Kennedy has
no authority for this, he conjectures that this work could conceivably be a memorial to VW's closest musical friend, Gustav Holst, who had died in 1934,
ten years before the composition of this symphony was begun (I am now ashamed that I did not write a post about Holst around the time of his birthday,
21 September, so must try to make up for that some time in future). Sir Adrian first conducted this symphony in 1948. While the war was still going on,
VW wrote a work to be broadcast on the BBC once victory was declared in Europe. It was even pre-recorded. _Thanksgiving_ _For_ _Victory_, the title later
changed to _A_ _Song_ _Of_ _Thanksgiving_, is rather a favourite of mine, its text being from the _Bible_, Shakespeare and Kipling (the latter's "Land
Of Our Birth"). It is scored for a speaker, a soprano soloist (VW wanted a powerful, dramatic voice for this with no vibrato, but, so far as I know, has
yet to get the latter, not even on the original broadcast, though he suggests a small group of boys as an alternative), chorus, children's chorus (which
begin's "Land Of Our Birth" near the end of the work) and large orchestra including a prominent organ part. Another work for speaker, chorus and orchestra
from later in this Decade is more delicate, _An_ _Oxford_ _Elegy_, setting a combination of excerpts from two poems by the 19th-Century English poet Matthew
Arnold. I feel this is a particularly beautiful work. As for the previously-cited _Prayer_ _To_ _The_ _Father_ _Of_ _Heaven_, also written for Oxford,
I personally find the Skelton text which VW sets for this one of the finest pieces of Theology outside the _Bible_ itself, another such being Elgar's short
Christmas work, for unaccompanied chorus as this is, _I_ _Sing_ _The_ _Birth_, setting words attributed to Ben Johnson! The 1950 Gloucester Festival,
which, as already related, brought the premiere of Howells' _Hymnus_ _Paradisi_, also brought an unusual work from VW, his _Fantasia_ _On_ _The_ _Old_
_104th_ _Psalm_ _Tune_ for piano solo, chorus and orchestra. The tune is attributed to one Ravenscroft, the text being a rhymed paraphrase of the Psalm.
When the chorus and orchestra are silent, at least Sir Adrian Boult's EMI recording of this makes it hard to believe that they are there at all, their
three appearances thus coming as somewhat of a surprise. The second of these, where two verses of the Psalm are sung, brings the work's most advanced
harmonies. Thereafter VW embarked on the last nearly 8 years of his life, _MOST_ productive for one who then approached and surpassed 80! In addition
to the already-much-discussed _Pilgrim_, there would be music for the present Queen of England's coronation in 1953, including a short motet to be sung
while the Royal Couple was receiving Communion late in the Service, _O_ _Taste_ _And_ _See_, setting Psalm 34:8, and a _ROUSING_ setting of the "Old Hundredth,"
to the tune most familiar nowadays as the one to which the Doxology is usually sung, though here in its original meter instead of the uneven meter most
often sung. VW proposed to the then-Archbishop of Canterbury that the congregation should be allowed to sing during part of this, something which had
never happened in any coronation prior to that, and this indeed happened, the congregation joining the chorus, organ and orchestra as well as the trumpeters
from the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall! VW had made at least one other setting of this text, even including something like his setting
of the last verse here, when he set the entire Psalm, with the added final verse as in 1953, in 1930. The 1953 version again sets a versified paraphrase.
He may have whimsically regarded this as making "a mess-up of the "old Hundredth"," but what a _GLORIOUS_ "mess-up?" it is! Then, the following year,
he made one of two other homages to Christmas which would come from that Decade, _Hodie_ (This Day), a cantata for three soloists, boys chorus with
organ, large mixed chorus and orchestra, telling the Christmas Story from the traditional Biblical passages as well as a passage from the Latin Christmas
Vespers along with settings of English poetry, including one by a modern-day poet, Thomas Hardy. This also includes two unaccompanied chorales, the second
verse of the second of these, as well as the movement related to the Three Kings, offering poetry by the composer's second wife and now widow, Mrs. Ursula
Vaughan Williams. Once again, at least in my opinion, we have one of those great pieces of Theology in the form of the Scottish poet William Drummond's
"Bright Portals Of The Sky," set for the tenor soloist just before the section related to the Three Kings. There are also several lyrical movements, two
of these being the Hardy setting, "The Oxen," and a pastoral movement to a text by George Herbert, whose poetry VW had previously set in those beautiful
_Five_ _Mystical_ _Songs from 43 years earlier. Checking some details from Mr. Kennedy's article for Sir David Willcocks' recording of this cantata brought
relevant information, that it is dedicated to one Herbert Howells! Throughout his composing career, VW had been writing concertos, including one for violin,
one for piano (also in a version for two pianos), and another for oboe. Then, in the 1950's, he wrote two more concerted works for solo instruments with
orchestra. The first of these, a short _Romance_, was for, of all instruments, harmonica! There is a rather-amusing story connected with it related in,
among presumably other places, Mr. Kennedy's book. VW told the man for whom he wrote it, the American Larry Adler, that he would alter it if Mr. Adler
was not pleased with it, then do so again if he was still not pleased, and then, if he _STILL_ was displeased, he would re-write it for bass tuba! As
things turned out, Mr. Adler _WAS_ pleased, but VW went ahead and wrote his _Tuba_ _Concerto_ anyway, and that work has become at least somewhat popular.
It has wit as one might expect in a work for that instrument, but it also has a characteristically-lyrical slow movement. There were also more songs
throughout this composer's long life, and two final groups of these appeared in the Late '50's, most notably his _Ten_ _Blake_ _Songs_ for tenor and solo
oboe. These songs are quite attractive as far as I am concerned. He also, as Richard Strauss had done, wrote _Four_ _Last_ _Songs_, these being, if I
am not mistaken, to words by his wife, but I confess to not being certain as to how much, if at all, Strauss and VW had to do with their last songs being
so designated. He further wrote _Three_ _Shakespeare_ _Songs_ for unaccompanied chorus, the second of these setting the passage from _The_ _Tempest_ which
contained the words VW felt best described the meaning of his _Sixth_ _Symphony_'s Finale. There would also be two more symphonies, his _Eighth_ and _Ninth_.
Yet it should probably be here noted that his previously-cited _Seventh_, _Sinfonia_ _Antarctica_, also includes a soprano soloist, women's chorus and
a wind machine. Each of its five movements is prefaced in the score by a literary superscription related, in the composer's mind, to Captain Scott's expedition
and VW's reaction to it and the Antarctic landscape as he understood it. The _Eighth_ is probably the most jocular and shortest. One of its distinguishing
features is that its middle movements are entirely for separate groups of instruments, the Second for winds and brass only and the Third, another "Romanza"
if I am not mistaken, for strings only. The Finale includes all manner of percussion instruments, particularly bells and the like, these having increasingly
interested him later in his life, especially in the Finale of _Hodie_. Yet there are also bells near the end of _Dona_ _Nobis_ _Pacem_ from some years
earlier. The _Ninth_ is a rather-darker affair, and Mr. Kennedy, along with possibly others, see it as the beginning of a new direction in the composer's
output. I personally have yet to discern this, hearing in a repeated passage in its Finale a fond farewell, but am by _NO_ means closed to the idea that
this could be something new if someone will show it to me. Its Second Movement has a theme for solo flugel horn which closely resembles a passage early
in _A_ _Sea_ _Symphony_ at the words, "and on its limitless heaving breast," and its Scherzo (Third Movement) has a section for a quartet of saxophones.
The work on which VW was working when he died in 1958 was yet another Christmas one, _The_ _First_ _Nowel_, a pageant which musically was largely based
on carols, etc. "The First Nowel" itself was one of VW's personal favourites, and the work closes with it, though his assistant during his later years,
Mr. Roy Douglas, had to complete his arrangement of this along with having to complete, arrange, or even perhaps write, some movements in this work. The
concert version of this has just received its latest recording, on the Chandos Label, conducted by one of today's greatest VW champions, Mr. Richard Hickox,
whose recording of _The_ _Pilgrim's_ _Progress_ is mentioned in my 11-June post in this blog about that work. The disc also includes the world-premiere
recording of his 1920's masque, _On_ _Christmas_ _Night_, loosely based on Dickens' _A_ _Christmas_ _Carol_. Another VW work which received its first
recording this year was one which I feel is particularly affecting, the final version of his _Willow_ _Wood_, a setting from Rosetti's _The_ _House_ _Of_
_Life_, from which poems the composer had also fashioned a song cycle which includes one of his most famous songs, "Silent Noon." This version, for baritone
solo, chorus and orchestra, comes from around the time of _On_ _Wenlock_ _Edge_ and _A_ _Sea_ _Symphony_, etc., and I feel a passage in it looks straight
ahead to the _Serenade_ _To_ _Music_ of some 20 years later! In addition to editing the _English_ _Hymnal_, VW also figured in at least two other books
of hymns and the like during his life, _Songs_ _Of_ _Praise_ and the famous _Oxford_ _Book_ _Of_ _Carols_. He also arranged many folksongs for various
vocal and instrumental forces, etc.
I admit to not knowing as much about Howells as I have sought to do about VW, but I gather that his early career mainly focused on instrumental music whereas
his later at least largely centered on vocal/choral music. Among other works, he wrote settings of the Anglican Morning and Evening Canticles and Communion
Service, of which settings the ones he made for King's College, Cambridge, called _Collegium_ _Regale_, are presumably the best known. Some of these are
in Howells' more advanced harmonic language while others are more "traditional" in that area. One setting where both of these could possibly be said to
come into play is in the Communion Service from the _Collegium_ _Regale_, the "Kyrie" ("Lord have mercy upon us, etc." in English). This is among the
_MOST_-beautiful and moving half-minutes-or-so of music of which I am currently aware, Howells, in my opinion, perfectly capturing the meaning of this
penetential text, with anguished harmonies penetrating into the beauty, especially at "Christ have mercy upon us." Other movements from this Service,
such as the "Gloria," are more straightforward, notably at their openings. One of Howells' best-known works is a little Christmas gem called _A_ _Spotless_
_Rose_, often sung at services such as the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols held each Christmas Eve at King's College. In addition to the _Hymnus_
_Paradisi_ previously mentioned, there are two other major choral works which an article I read on the Chandos Records Website (
www.chandos.net)
suggests make, with it, a "Holy Trinity" of works. The _Missa_ _Sabrinensis_ (Mass of the Severn), from what I read, was apparently considered unperformable
for some years after having been premiered at the same Worcester Three Choirs Festival in 1954 at which VW's _Hodie_ was premiered (thus making the latter's
dedication of his Christmas Cantata to Howells even more significant it would seem). Yet a recording of it was made on that Chandos Label, and has received
favourable reviews on amazon.com, though one reviewer cautioned that at least some of Howells' detailed dynamic markings are ignored in that performance.
He further set the famous Medieval poem about the Virgin Mary's reaction to her Son's Crucifixion, the _Stabat_ _Mater_, in 1965, and that article on
the Chandos Site tells us that his setting was influenced by world events of the time, including a 1961 Soviet nuclear test, the harrowing Cuban missile
crisis of 1962, President Kennedy's assassination in 1963 (in response to which he wrote an unaccompanied motet for chorus on an early-Medieval text, part
of which, in the original Latin, heads the score of the _Hymnus_, though the motet sets an English translation of this beginning "Take him, earth, for
cherishing") and Sir Winston Churchill's death and funeral in 1965. I gather that all three of these works are quite emotional, and this is _DEFINITELY_
true of the _Hymnus_, the only one of the three I really know to any degree! Howells obviously _FELT_ the loss of his son, though he brought much technical
skill to his work as well, thus, as it were, offering a fine Bunyanesque combination of head and heart! It seems plausible that the opening of its Prelude, for violas
and clarinets if I am hearing correctly, is an homage to Elgar's _The_ _Dream_ _Of_ _Gerontius_ which, as related in the first section of this post, Howells had come to hear at
Gloucester in 1910 where he first met the _Tallis_ _Fantasia_ and VW. Not long thereafter, there is a climax for strings, but then, after an oboe solo
on a theme which is later associated with the 23rd Psalm, there is an even bigger one where the brass, including some stratispheric horn writing, is followed
by sweeping harp arpeggios (broken up-and-down chords). At the end of this Prelude, a C on trumpet leads into the chorus's first entry with the opening
words of the Latin Requiem, "Requiem eternam dona eis" (I for one wonder why he omits the word "Domine" which usually appears in this passage since he
does refer to the Lord and to Christ later in the work). The text for the _Hymnus_ is actually a mixture of Latin and English, a combination which Benjamin
Britten would use even more fully in his _War_ _Requiem_ in the early 1960's. After these Latin words are treated extensively by both chorus and eventually
the entering soprano soloist, an orchestral interlude leads into a setting of the 23rd Psalm as it appears in the Anglican _Book _ _Of_ _Common_ _Prayer_,
the translation there beginning, "The Lord is my Shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing." The soprano begins this beautifully and tranquilly, but, as
the text suggests, a sinister element enters at "Yea, though I walk through the valley, etc.," though the promise of a full cup restores the tranquil mood,
leading to a return to the soprano's opening music at "But Thy lovingkindness and mercy, etc." The chorus's repetition of this text leads to a climax
on "and I will dwell, etc.," and then comes a magical chromatic chord on "forever," the first of at least two instances in this work where Howells treats
that word in a particularly-magical way. The next movement combines the "Sanctus" from the Latin Mass ("Holy, Holy, Holy, etc.") with the 121st Psalm,
"I will lift up mine eyes, etc." This is a particularly powerful, impassioned movement, the choral womens' repeated Sanctuses being answered by the soprano
and tenor soloists beginning the Psalm. Then, after the "Sanctus" has gained sway, the key of C major is reached, and, with a heavy orchestral thud as
of a foot being planted firmly down, the chorus then informs us that "He will not sufffer thy foot to be moved, etc.," and then, after several more verses
of the Psalm, the "Sanctus" returns at a big climax on E major, including some _WONDERFUL_ high B's and C-sharps from the first violins. This gradually
subsides into E minor and then, with an English-horn solo with orchestra as interlude, an unaccompanied semi-chorus of boys voices reiterates the opening
of the "Sanctus" after which the womens' "Dominus, Deus Sabaoth" returns us to the opening music of the movement where the two soloists bring the Psalm
to a close, the words "for evermore" bringing yet another magical treatment from Howells. The text for the next movement comes from the _Book_ _Of_ _The_
_Revelation_ and the Anglican Burial Office, beginning "I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, from henceforth blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord, etc.," and Howells has the tenor soloist begin this with viola accompaniment, after which, with two clarinets magically entering, the semi-chorus
gives us that part of the text which St. John was bidden to write. This is calm of a sort before the final movement, the text for which, beginning "Holy
is the true light," comes from the _Salisbury_ _Diurnal_ with Alleluias added by Howells. The composer tells us, in notes reproduced in the booklet accompanying
Sir David Willcocks's _SPLENDID_, at least in my opinion, EMI recording of this work, that light is an important aspect of it, and this is obviously found
particularly in this last movement where that light lends "radiance to them that endured in the heat of the conflict." As the music approaches its final
climax in E-flat major, where both chorus and orchestra reach for the heights, including more _WONDERFUL_ stratispheric, Elgar-like writing for the violins,
we are told of that home of unfading splendour which the redeemed inherit "wherein they rejoice with gladness evermore." Yet it would seem obvious that
this passion, besides depicting the light, shows that this composer is _FEELING_ his loss and thus expressing it. After the music and the soloists' Alleluias
subside, the opening text of the work returns to bring it to a peaceful, restful conclusion.
Both VW and Howells could write congenial, accessible music, but, as already related, they both could also write music of complexity and, yes, harshness
at times. A reasonable amount of the music in _Hymnus_ _Paradisi_ could not exactly be called pleasant by conventional standards, and yet, if one can
let it, it indeed can move, as can a harsh, yet apt to its situation, opera such as VW's _Riders_ _To_ _The_ _Sea_. Perhaps I have, as Skelton says he
did regarding Eleanor Rumming in the first of the _Five_ _Tudor_ _Portraits_, written too much over this two-part post, but hopefully my visitors can realize
from this that the subject means _MUCH_ to me, and thus, if necessary, can forgive the verbosity. I can only hope that what has been written here can
somehow win new friends for these two composers and confirm the love of those already initiated!
Hoping this finds my visitors well and ready for some good music,
J. V.
posted by JVaughan at Tuesday, October 31, 2006
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