You know, quite honestly, for the life of me think of a time, apart from many moons ago, when RVW's music wasnt part of my life. For a start, there is that very first piece of RVW's muisc that I first nheard. If my memory serves me, may have been at prep school.
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Don’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750 -
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The 4th, actually! Well, perhaps he said it about everything he wroteOriginally posted by Op. XXXIX View Post
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VW on Pilgrim's Progress: "They won’t like it, they don’t want an opera with no heroine and no love duets—and I don’t care, it’s what I meant, and there it is."Originally posted by Op. XXXIX View Post
VW on his 4th symphony: " I don't know if I like it but it's what I meant".Comment
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I hesitate to write this but he is long gone......RVW bought his 44 stave special Mss paper from my place of work. My not deeply musical boss would greet the great man in a wavery voice with "Hello Mr.Vaughan Williams,written any nice music lately?"[or something similar] We all squirmed with embarrassment but RVW wisely took no notice of our boss. He was very deaf by then anyway.
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With regards to RVW's 4th Symphony, is there sime great argument going on as to what they great work is about? Wether it be autobiographical or a more public statement?Don’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750Comment
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Ah, I knew it was 4 or 6!Originally posted by Uncle Monty View PostThe 4th, actually! Well, perhaps he said it about everything he wrote
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Well, you're never quite sure with RVW in that regard. He always made out that there was nothing programmatic about his symphonies, probably after a bit of embarrassment over the London. The programme notes for the first performance (written by the conductor Albert Coates iirc, or his wife, or somebody) went into huge detail about just what sights, sounds and smells were being portrayed in the symphony, at which RVW took fright and retreated into the evasion of saying it was "a symphony by a Londoner". Well, so it may have been, but the onomatopoeic references are undoubtedly there. However, to try and point them all up in a painting-by-numbers sort of way was something of an affront to a great artist, who will always try to absorb and process the raw material in a way that transcends it. And it was getting silly.Originally posted by Brassbandmaestro View Post
After that, RVW tried to say as little as possible. But all sorts of old rubbish gets sucked in to fill up a vacuum, and his few public utterances on the next symphony, the Pastoral (and the subsequent ones, especially the 6th), were confusing and somewhat evasive rather than enlightening. Whatever their sources and meanings for him, he clearly felt it advisable to keep quiet about them.
It was ten years before the Fourth Symphony was composed, about 1933-35. Was it railing against the political situation, or prophesying the horrors to come, or was it just coincidence that that was when it was written? Did its anger stem from something more personal? RVW wasn't saying. All that could be got out of him was that, as has been said, he didn't know if he liked it, but it was what he meant at the time, and, in answer to the blunt question "What's it about?", the reply "It's about F minor"!
Lots of 62-year-old men are boiling cauldrons of rage. And I should know And even they themselves don't always know why. Perhaps RVW didn't.
I'm as interested in RVW's biography as anyone else, but I find I'm less and less concerned with attributing meanings to his works. They just are. And probably the search for "meanings" of this sort are the pursuit of an ever-receding goal anyway. The "answers" are so partial as to be badly misleading.Comment
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MarioOriginally posted by Auferstehen2 View Post
I have a message for you that a performance of VW's Symphony No 1 (A Sea Symphony) is being performed in Oxford Town Hall on 7 May. I think you're not based in the UK (is that right?) which would be a pity: message says: "If he has reason to be in the UK at that time and would like to visit Oxford, I would gladly buy him a ticket to launch him on his voyage through the works of RVW!! What treasures he has in store."
I will PM you with the details.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Originally posted by french frank View Post
I have asked frenchfrank for permission to make this message public.
I am truly touched by the generosity of some individuals. This gentleman and I, of course, are complete strangers. I would have been absolutely delighted to have taken him up on such a kind and considerate offer. I have emailed him directly to thank him.
Astonishingly, I am indeed in the UK on the 7th May, the day of the performance in Oxford, except that I shall be in Manchester watching United beat Chelsea! Although kickoff time has not yet been confirmed, even if it were to be an early noon kickoff, I cannot quite see me calmly stepping on a train after the match to pop down to Oxford.
I have asked frenchfrank for advice on how I can delicately inform this gentleman, that sadly, this time, RVW must take second place to Manchester United. I admit defeat. I considered making up some lame excuse, but thought no, that's not British.
I lived in London for some 35 years before moving on to Asia. This afternoon, my wife and I have just spent a very pleasant couple of hours in the company of JoeG, a fellow messageboarder currently holidaying here in Malta (message 20), together with his better half. We shall be seeing each other again before their holiday ends and they head back to Blighty.
What a setting Oxford would have been to get to know the Sea Symphony (not a single note of which of course I know)! And the concert includes Beethoven as well!
My VERY best wishes to all,
MarioComment
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I always think it a shame when people look critics' writings and be influenced by them. I never do that these days. I just trust my judgement on them, usually right IMS!Don’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750Comment
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I expect most people start with no.2 as did I. ( only like the tune in mvt 1! and bits of others)
My order is 2, 6, 3, 4, 8, 5, 1, 9, 7.
No.4 and 6 are very good.
No.7 is quite good.
No.9 is half good.
No.2 and 8 are disappointing
No.3 and 5 are a bit boring
No.1 . I'll leave that to the specialists!
3VSComment
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Mario,
There's one work of RVW that hasn't yet been recommended, and that's Job, A Masque for Dancing. It's based on William Blake's Illustrations for the Book of Job, and contains some of his most memorable music. Do hear it if you can, there are fine performances by Boult and Vernon Handley, and another excellent one on Naxos conducted by David Lloyd-Jones. I've loved this piece for more than sixty years!
Bws.
FerretComment
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Broadly in agreement with much that has been written about RVW's music. It is in good hands.
But most of us have come to love the symphonies and other works over a lifetime of listening having maybe only read about them initially when records were few and expensive in the 1950s, and concerts a bit thin on the BBC.
So please don't try to assimilate the whole lot in a short space of time; set some aside for later on, much later on. Let the music mature in the mind.
I echo the 'Wish I was starting out all over again.' How fortunate you are!Comment
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