Vaughan WilliamsUnlike the fathers of the nineteenth-century English musical renaissance, who slavishly paid homage to the German masters, composers Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) and his friend Gustav Holst threw off the shackles of the Teutonic school and drew their inspiration from the neglected tradition of folk-song. The result was the creation of a distinctly English musical voice that evoked the cultural heritage of a nation. In particular, the sheer beauty, vitality, and aesthetic force of Vaughan Williams' works, which include The Lark Ascending, Greensleeves, the Tallis Fantasia, and nine symphonies, connected listeners to a timeless past and gave them a common national spirit, especially during turbulent, war-torn times. Here, Simon Heffer charts the course of Williams' remarkable life and career. Heffer traces Williams' privileged upbringing, his years of painstaking studies with Hubert Parry, Max Bruch, and Maurice Ravel, his promotion of folk-song and editorship of the English Hymnal, his close association with Holst and George Butterworth, and his emergence as the leader of English musical life. Williams was a genius of musical invention who is still beloved and admired in Britain and around the world. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Two Real Music | 22 |
THREE A Search for a Style | 46 |
FOUR Mature Mysticism | 59 |
FIVE Ultimately National | 72 |
SIX The Importance of War | 97 |
SEVEN To Be a Pilgrim | 120 |
EIGHT Finale | 135 |
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Adrian Boult audience autumn beauty become career choral music composer's composition conducted contemporary creativity critics cultural death despite Dona Nobis Pacem Dorking earlier early Elgar emotional England English composer English folk-song experience F Minor F Minor Symphony Festival film Five Tudor Portraits Flos Campi genius George Butterworth Gerald Finzi heard Holst Hugh the Drover influence inspiration invention jazz John in Love later lectures liams listener Malcolm Sargent Michael Kennedy Minor Symphony Müller-Hartmann musicians mysticism national music never opera oratorio orchestra Parry Pastoral Symphony performance Piano Concerto Pilgrim's Progress play play-through poser programme pupil radical Ralph Ralph Vaughan Williams Ravel realised recording rehearsals Sancta Civitas scherzo score Sea Symphony seemed SIMON HEFFER Sixth Symphony songs sound style summer Tallis Fantasia theme Three Choirs tion told tone took tunes Ursula Wood Vaughan Wil Vaughan Williams's music Walton wife write music written wrote younger