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Thread: Vaughan Williams

  1. #1
    chalkpie
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    Vaughan Williams

    It's been a bit of a while, but its good to be back, bitches!

    Haven't listened to much prog, except Canterbury Binge 3 is approaching fast and I have already started to cheat a bit.

    Latest musical discovery is Ralph Vaughan Williams. There are a few more, but I'll save those for a new thread. Simply put, Ralphie has cracked my cranium wide open and made me fall in love with his incredible diverse and incredible music. Just when you think you have "mastered" England in terms of prog, punk, RIO, famous composers that date as far back as Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, and WAY before that with even Richard the Lionheart in the mid to late 1100's. There is no way to hear every note that came out of this country, but I can't think of another country that produced a "body of work" that exceeds every expectation.

    Watch this, it's mindblowing. Composer is William Byrd, considered one of England's greatest composer ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBGUN5fENrQ

  2. #2
    Member bill g's Avatar
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    Wow. Love the British composers. Vaughan-Williams and Delius especially. And, recently, Banks as well. I hadnt heard this piece before.

  3. #3
    Boo! walt's Avatar
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    I dig the William Byrd clip.I don't own any Byrd vocal works but i have a wonderful cd of William Byrd-Complete Consort Music ,by the group Phantasm.I include a clip of one of Byrd's works for consort(not by Phantasm.Enjoy.
    "please do not understand me too quickly"-andre gide

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by chalkpie View Post
    Latest musical discovery is Ralph Vaughan Williams.
    Congratulations on finding RVW and welcome to the club, RVW has been my favourite composer for as long as I can remember.

  5. #5
    Man of repute progmatist's Avatar
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    I too love RVW, along with another British composer, Edward Elgar.
    "Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama

  6. #6
    Member Jondon4's Avatar
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    Discovered RVW at 12 - favorite classical piece of all time is Thomas Tallis Fantasia. Check out Hodie his Xmas cantata. Not sure if Angel recording is still avail but it rivals Messiah as Xmas fave.

  7. #7
    My favourite classical composer. The Tallis Fantasia was my amazing introduction to him, then so many beautiful works. The symphonies 2 - 9 are an astounding journey. If you're one of the weird ones like me whose atoms are tuned into the kind of chords and harmonic voicings that twist seemingly against key yet make so much sense and beauty, there's no better fix than RVW.

  8. #8
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    What pieces of RVW would you recommend besides Hodie and Thomas Tallis Fantasia ?
    How would you describe the difference between RVW and Benjamin Britten?

  9. #9
    Traversing The Dream 100423's Avatar
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    The Lark Ascending and the Tallis Fantasia are the only two pieces I'm even passingly familiar with by him, love both of them though.

  10. #10
    Member bill g's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zeuhlmate View Post
    What pieces of RVW would you recommend besides Hodie and Thomas Tallis Fantasia ?
    How would you describe the difference between RVW and Benjamin Britten?
    RVW is much more typically pastoral, esp. a piece like 'The Lark Ascending', which is highly recommended.

  11. #11
    Zeuhlmate's rec request...

    Very difficult but I've always thought the 7th Symphony might be a good start for a prog fan ... great, brooding chords, 'bass pedal' orchestra & organ stylee, occassional wordless female vocals. Here's the first movement conducted by Vernon Handley who I like.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcHDtutZ4UQ

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Karda Estra View Post
    If you're one of the weird ones like me .
    Fully paid up member of club weird right here.
    RVW really does magical things with chord progressions

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by bill g View Post
    RVW is much more typically pastoral, esp. a piece like 'The Lark Ascending', which is highly recommended.
    If you want some atypical RVW, try his 4th Symphony. It was written in 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland. Definitely not the pastoral stuff he is usually associated with. A menacing, mind-blowing piece.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDReMrefqXc

  14. #14
    Member Bill0604's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chalkpie View Post
    It's been a bit of a while, but its good to be back, bitches!

    Haven't listened to much prog, except Canterbury Binge 3 is approaching fast and I have already started to cheat a bit.

    Latest musical discovery is Ralph Vaughan Williams. There are a few more, but I'll save those for a new thread. Simply put, Ralphie has cracked my cranium wide open and made me fall in love with his incredible diverse and incredible music. Just when you think you have "mastered" England in terms of prog, punk, RIO, famous composers that date as far back as Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, and WAY before that with even Richard the Lionheart in the mid to late 1100's. There is no way to hear every note that came out of this country, but I can't think of another country that produced a "body of work" that exceeds every expectation.

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    Since you brought it up I now have the opportunity to say something I have thought about for many years.

    In concert halls throughout the United States very little British music is played. Oh yeah the occasional RVW or Elgar but there are so many great British composers
    very often neglected. Here is a short list of some you should check out.

    Of course RVW, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd all of whom you mention.
    William Walton
    Gerald Finzi
    Benjamin Britten
    Gustav Holst
    Sir Michael Tippett
    Edward Elgar
    John Tavener

    Gerald Finzi's very beautiful music is often overlooked but he wrote incredibly subtle yet gorgeous music.
    Here is Finzi's Eclogue for Piano and Strings Op. 10.

    To appreciate its subtlety for the 11 minutes you must give it your undivided attention particularly the last few bars.


  15. #15
    Member saatuk's Avatar
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    I've somehow missed the Vaughn Williams symphonies. As an impatient teenager I disliked playing his music since the parts I got were so boring - of course the whole is quite good. In any case, I'm still missing the symphonies since both of the links above are blocked in Canada by EMI. ??? I guess that means I should buy some.
    There's nowt so queer as folk

  16. #16
    Progstreaming-webmaster Sunhillow's Avatar
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    I own the EMI Haitink box with al the symphonies. My favorite is no. 5 but they're all great. And each one is very different. The 4th and 6th are not at all pastoral, like said previously.
    No. 1 is a choir-symphony. No. 7 is inspired by a documentery about Antarctica. No. 9 is composded when VW was 86.

  17. #17
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    My favourite is the 1st "Allegro" movement of the 6th "Pastoral" symphony. For me it doesn't get any more pastoral and English than that,

  18. #18
    Member Arkangel3's Avatar
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    The Second Symphony (London) was something I discovered right after I heard "The Lark Ascending" as performed by Isao Tomita no less...and saw it performed live in NYC Battery Park in 1985 amidst lasers shooting in the night sky off the Statue of Liberty and the Cathedral Of St John The Devine Choir perched on a side of the Staten Island Ferry doing their performance on a boat the ferried them in and out as soon as their pieces were done. The "stage" was Upper NY Bay; what an amazing show; one of those one joint/share a bottle of wine with a lady date nights. Anyway, I digress...

    I was 24 when I heard both these pieces, and immediately sought out original orchestration/orchestral performances of London/The Lark and found them on on the Telarc label; LSO by Andre Previn conducting. Those two pieces ignited my interest in Vaughn Williams (please, not "Ralphie boy" LOL) and I began to pick up all his symphonies in a "complete box" that also contained "Lark" and "Fantasia On Greensleeves" as well. When I heard the Lark Ascending, I was completely moved to tears...it takes an incredible song to do that do me (I am NOT the John Boehner of the music appreciation). The violin on "Lark" is wondrous, and truly seems to liberate the instrument from its previous perches in orchestration. It flows inside and outside the music; and flies with the orchestra. I always wondered what our own Violin Cyndee would do with the piece

    RVW created in me a desire and interest to further explore English music of any nature (I started ;istening to English Folk around this time as well and began my since love affair with the music of John Martyn and Steeleye Span that continues. Elgar's work began to appear to me as did Britten's); but RVW's music is simply put...positively beautiful.
    "So...you seek understanding. Then listen to the music and not the song..." - Kosh

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by bill g View Post
    Vaughan-Williams and Delius especially. .
    I concur. Elgar the third one for me.

  20. #20
    Of RVW, I love Flos Campi, Norfolk Rhapsody, Symphonies 3, 4 especially, and Lark Ascending.

  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Zeuhlmate View Post
    What pieces of RVW would you recommend besides Hodie and Thomas Tallis Fantasia ?
    How would you describe the difference between RVW and Benjamin Britten?
    Britten's style is the most "German-oriented" of well-known British composers. RWV, on the contrary, is typically English - pastoral, hidden dramatic, introversive.
    Of RWV works, I would recommend Flos Campi first of all - stunningly beautiful piece for orchestra and choir.

  22. #22
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    Thanks everyone.

  23. #23
    British music is probably my most neglected region in classical listening. I did hear Vaughan Williams no. 5 on the radio a little while back, and there are some beautiful passages I remember.

  24. #24
    Boo! walt's Avatar
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    I need to check out some Vaughan Williams.
    "please do not understand me too quickly"-andre gide

  25. #25
    We had some of great composers between Byrd and Elgar!
    I can't believe nobody's mention Purcell! For me, the greatest native English composer.
    And Handel was a naturalized British citizen, and wrote most of his greatest masterpieces after that - plenty of them in English, too. So he counts.
    Also, Dowland wasn't bad either.

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