Vaughan Williams' piano....

[ardcarp]

Right at the end of The Today Programme, Sally Groves (daughter of conductor Charles) was talking about VW's piano, which is apparently being put on show for the first time...presumably at Leith Hill Place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071vl2j#play

.....in the closing minutes.

[BBMmk2]

Ah brilliant. Me and MrsBBM, hope to go there this summer!

I met Sally back in 1975, helping her beloved father, when I was conducted by Sir Charles at Lancaster University

[EdgeleyRob]

Right at the end of The Today Programme, Sally Groves (daughter of conductor Charles) was talking about VW's piano, which is apparently being put on show for the first time...presumably at Leith Hill Place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071vl2j#play

.....in the closing minutes.

Yes it is

From the RVW Society newsletter

Vaughan Williams's piano on display at Leith Hill Place
Leith Hill Place re-opens for the season on Friday 4th March.

One of the new acquisitions on display will be Vaughan Williams's study piano which he owned from 1905 at his Cheyne Walk address. It is a small Broadwood upright and was in daily use when he was composing, later moving to the White Gates and then to Hanover Square. After he died, Vaughan Williams's widow gave it to one of his students and later to her niece, who has now gifted it to Leith Hill Place.

[Mary Chambers]

It was shown on the BBC1 lunchtime news, with David Owen Norris playing it and talking a little. The implication of the news item (probably not DON's fault) was that this was the piano where RVW 'composed all his music'. Did he? Is that how he composed, by sitting down at a piano and trying things out? I wouldn't have thought so, but RVW experts here might know.

[Serial_Apologist]

It was shown on the BBC1 lunchtime news, with David Owen Norris playing it and talking a little. The implication of the news item (probably not DON's fault) was that this was the piano where RVW 'composed all his music'. Did he? Is that how he composed, by sitting down at a piano and trying things out? I wouldn't have thought so, but RVW experts here might know.

On Toady this morning, what was suggested by Ms Groves was that VW did not sit down and play the piano and then make that the basis for his music, rather he turned to the instrument to check chords etc.

[mercia]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35716644

https://ntpressoffice.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/ralph-vaughan-williams-piano-on-display-for-the-first-time-at-his-childhood-home-leith-hill-place-in-surrey/

[EdgeleyRob]

It was shown on the BBC1 lunchtime news, with David Owen Norris playing it and talking a little. The implication of the news item (probably not DON's fault) was that this was the piano where RVW 'composed all his music'. Did he? Is that how he composed, by sitting down at a piano and trying things out? I wouldn't have thought so, but RVW experts here might know.

Didn't RVW jokingly say he tried everything out on the dog ?

There are certainly references to him trying things out on the piano and making sketches,in the various books on the composer.

For example Roy Douglas (in working with Vaughan Williams) was asked to write out the score for the Tuba Concerto in 12 days to meet a deadline, but without the opportunity of checking with RVW's piano sketches

Slightly OT,quite often new works were arranged for one or two pianos for a run through before the first performance.
Interesting article re the 6th symphony,with soundclips,here http://www.rvwsociety.com/albionreco...ny6_notes.html

[makropulos]

Didn't RVW jokingly say he tried everything out on the dog ?

There are certainly references to him trying things out on the piano and making sketches,in the various books on the composer.

For example Roy Douglas (in working with Vaughan Williams) was asked to write out the score for the Tuba Concerto in 12 days to meet a deadline, but without the opportunity of checking with RVW's piano sketches

I think all that means is VW's short score sketch on two staves - so nothing specifically to do with the piano, let alone that piano. But from what Sally Groves was saying on Radio 4, this does seem to have been the instrument on which RVW tried a lot of things out for himself. I'm delighted it's been restored and found such a suitable home.

[EdgeleyRob]

I think all that means is VW's short score sketch on two staves - so nothing specifically to do with the piano, let alone that piano. But from what Sally Groves was saying on Radio 4, this does seem to have been the instrument on which RVW tried a lot of things out for himself. I'm delighted it's been restored and found such a suitable home.

Ah thanks for that,I agree with your last sentence.

[Flosshilde]

I find the idea of relics of this sort fascinating. A piano which belonged to RVW (so his fingers presumably touched it), which he only possibly used as an aid in composing his music, is now located in a house where it hadn't been before & where he definitely didn't compose his music.

Not really very different from a church having the bones of a person to attract pilgrims/tourists, and money.

[ahinton]

On Toady this morning, what was suggested by Ms Groves was that VW did not sit down and play the piano and then make that the basis for his music, rather he turned to the instrument to check chords etc.

Indeed - and he wasn't really much of a pianist in any case; I suspect that the piano was, for him, little more than an "instrument of convenience" (as Florent Schmitt once described it).

[ahinton]

I find the idea of relics of this sort fascinating. A piano which belonged to RVW (so his fingers presumably touched it), which he only possibly used as an aid in composing his music, is now located in a house where it hadn't been before & where he definitely didn't compose his music.

Not really very different from a church having the bones of a person to attract pilgrims/tourists, and money.

There is a difference, I think. I believe tht there's no doubt that he used it as a composing aid, even though he didn't actually "compose at the piano" per se; the fact that it has been moved to another place is hardly the point because it could only really have stayed put were its original venue now an RVW museum or something of the kind (somewhere akin, say, to the Elgar birthplace).

[Richard Barrett]

Not really very different from a church having the bones of a person to attract pilgrims/tourists, and money.

That's what I was thinking, it's a bit mediaeval - I mean the only difference between this and thousands of other pianos is that a famous composer played it, which supposedly in some mystical and intangible way makes it unique.

[Daniel]

I must say I can imagine feeling a certain something playing Chopin or Beethoven's piano, playing the same keys (particularly in the same music) that they had a couple of centuries earlier.
I was once allowed to play John Lennon's piano when it was in transit to New York (not the white one) and it still had all his fag burns, tea rings etc on it which seemed quite intimate somehow, and even though JL has nothing like the significance for me of Fred and Ludwig, it still prompted a small feeling of connection (... and yes, cliched soul that I am, I did play Imagine )

Such things are just about wanting to connect with somebody I guess, allowing the imagination to make the leap.

[ahinton]

That's what I was thinking, it's a bit mediaeval - I mean the only difference between this and thousands of other pianos is that a famous composer played it, which supposedly in some mystical and intangible way makes it unique.

Well, in RVW's case, it's not as though it had belonged to one of the great pianist/composers of his time, such as Rachmaninoff or Godowsky; yes, the only difference, as you write, but it is some kind of difference, insofar as it might be thought to go. The phrase "sentimental value" comes to mind...