Ralph vaughan williams
Toward the unknown regionDIVE IN!
Ralph Vaughan Williams - 1872-1958 was an English composer, born 150 years ago in Gloucestershire and died in London the night before his 9th symphony was scheduled to be recorded. Although his composition career didn’t really begin until he was in his thirties, Mr. Vaughan Williams is credited with helping establish an English sound completely separate from German traditions that had previously dominated classical music. He composed hundreds of works for large and small ensemble, operas, ballets, and incidental music, and was a dedicated collector and champion of English folk music.
RESOURCES:"O taste and see" by Ralph Vaughan Williams, commissioned for the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II - here performed live at her State Funeral"Toward the Unknown Region" - a recording of London Philharmonic Choir and OrchestraHIGHLIGHTS:
Ralph Vaughan Williams was related to naturalist Charles Darwin (great uncle) and potter Josiah Wedgwood (great great grandfather).
Ralph Vaughan Williams was so influential a composer in England that he was commissioned to provide a new piece of music for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. “O taste and see” was also performed at Her Majesty’s state funeral.
Ralph Vaughan Williams dedicated his life to democratic and egalitarian ideals. He viewed music as being part of everyone’s everyday life, rather than being the reserved for a separate elite class.
Vaughan Williams composed Towards the Unknown Region in 1907 when he was 35 years old. It is considered an early work and one of his first critical successes.
Toward the Unknown Region is a setting of poet Walt Whitman’s “Darest now thou, O Soul” for chorus and orchestra. It is a wonderful example of text and music relationship, and a testament to the power of gathering for communal song that is such a part of English life.
Reviews after the premiere performance were solidly positive. Notable English music critic Michael Kennedy wrote it is a “remarkable evocation of the liberal fervor of the new age of the early twentieth century … of a wider sense of humanity’s destiny and interrelationship.”
Toward the Unknown Region lasts for about 12 minutes.Consider and Discuss!
Walt Whitman’s poetry was highly influential at the end of the 19th century and into the beginning of the 20th century. Have a look at “Darest now thou, O Soul” and contemplate why Vaughan Williams might have been drawn to setting it to music. Can you think of a poem you might want to amplify or color with music? If so, how would you do it?
Darest thou now O soul,
Walk out with me toward the unknown region,
Where neither ground is for the feet nor any path to follow?
No map there, nor guide,
Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand,
Nor face with blooming flesh, nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land.
I know it not O soul,
Nor dost thou, all is a blank before us,
All waits undream'd of in that region, that inaccessible land.
Till when the ties loosen,
All but the ties eternal, Time and Space,
Nor darkness, gravitation, sense, nor any bounds bounding us.
Then we burst forth, we float,
In Time and Space O soul, prepared for them,
Equal, equipt at last, (O joy! O fruit of all!) them to fulfil O
soul.
Listen Critically!
Listen to the Colorado Symphony performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Toward the Unknown Region and again via multiple different recordings if possible. Take note of what you observe and how it affects your idea of text and music relationships. How do you think Vaughan Williams uses music to elevate the text or highlight it in interesting or surprising ways?
edward elgar
cello concertoDIVE IN!
Edward Elgar 1857-1934 was an English composer who paved the path for Ralph Vaughan Williams and other English composers to make a sort of reawakening of English composition and style. He was largely self taught and a late starter. He enjoyed a fair amount of success during his lifetime but his music did wane in popular opinion and only found a revived sense of value in the mid 1900s. In addition to the Cello Concerto, his most famously popular works include Pomp and Circumstance, and the Enigma Variations.RESOURCES:A historic recording of the Cello Concerto performed by Jacqueline du Pré.A performance at BBC Proms by Sheku Kanneh-MasonHIGHLIGHTS:
Edward Elgar composed the Cello Concerto just after World War 1 and when his music had mostly fallen from public fashion.
The Cello Concerto was premiered in 1919 and received a tepid response. One reviewer, after the American premiere in 1922, wrote “there was no dissenting opinion. It is a long work, and it ambles on and on and on, utterly without distinction, utterly without inspiration”.
Elgar was very disturbed by the war and had developed health problems along with financial struggles. Around the time he was composing the concerto he wrote “I am more alone and the prey of circumstances than ever before. Everything good and nice and clean and fresh and sweet is far away, never to return.” From this we can begin to understand how the Cello Concerto might have an internal struggle to it that flummoxed listeners and reviewers expecting something more generally heroic or flashy.
The Cello Concerto gained wide popularity only after English cellist Jacquline du Pre made a best selling recording of it in the 1960s. If it weren't for this, the concerto may have fallen from memory altogether. Now it is consistently rated among the most popular and beloved works of the entire 20th century.
The Cello Concerto remains one of Edward Elgar's most notable works and is a major concerto in the cello repertoire.NERD ASSIGNMENTS!
Start with a Conversation:
A concerto is a type of musical form that creates dialogue and drama between a single instrument or small group of instruments, and a much larger group of instruments. What exactly is dialogue? How is dialogue made? Think about constructing a brief dialogue between two people. What can you do to alter this dialogue so that one participant becomes a whole group of people? What are some examples of this type of dialogue you can think of in your every day life? [call and response in pep rallies, a religious service, etc.] Now imagine what it might be like if each person in the large group had an individual response in this dialogue. Would we be able to understand all the responses simultaneously? In music, many different sounds (often called ‘voices’) can be processed simultaneously by the human ear. Because of this it’s possible to have a two part musical dialogue with many individual voices!
Try an Activity!
Go ahead and dive down that internet rabbit hole! Listen to at least three different recordings of Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto for comparison and contrast. How do you find the interpretation of different soloists and orchestras affect the overall piece of music? What specific things do you notice? Do you have any favorite interpretations or moments? What draws you toward some and/or turns you away from others?
Listening for dialogue and interpretation in Elgar's Cello Concerto
Listen to the performance of Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto live and again via recording if possible. Try to listen carefully for musical dialogue and dramatic interpretive elements in this composition. How did the conversation and comparison/contrast activities help you to better engage as a listener?
Ludwig van beethoven
symphony #3, "Eroica"DIVE IN!
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras who lived from 1770 to 1827. His compositional career is generally divided into early, middle, and late periods. The early period lasted until about 1802 just before he composed his 3rd Symphony and 3rd Piano Concerto, both of which are considered gateway pieces to the Romantic era.RESOURCES:A performance recording of the full symphony.A 3 minute video survey of just the opening 2 chords as recorded by multiple orchestras from 1924-2011
HIGHLIGHTS:
Ludwig van Beethoven composed Symphony #3, "Eroica" in 1803-1804 when he was just 34 years old.
The premiere performance of Symphony #3 had mixed reviews. One reviewer wrote "this new work of B. has great and daring ideas, and ... great power in the way it is worked out; but the symphony would improve immeasurably if B. could bring himself to shorten it, and to bring more light, clarity, and unity to the whole." Another reviewer wrote it was "for the most part so shrill and complicated that only those who worship the failings and merits of this composer with equal fire, which at times borders on the ridiculous, could find pleasure in it". However barely two years later that same reviewer described it as "the greatest, most original, most artistic and, at the same time, most interesting of all symphonies".
In spite of its early critical reviews, Symphony #3 is now one of the most frequently performed symphonies of the entire symphonic repertoire and in the top 3 most performed symphonies of Beethoven along with the iconic 5th and the beloved 9th.
Symphony #3, "Eroica" positively smashed conventional compositional standards in symphonic form, length, harmony, and emotional and cultural content.
Beethoven originally dedicated the symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte due to his and Bonaparte's shared democratic and anti-monarchic ideals. Later, when Beethoven learned that Bonaparte had declared himself Emperor of France he became enraged, saying "So he is no more than a common mortal! Now, too, he will tread under foot all the rights of Man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant!" Then he tore the title-page in half and threw it on the floor. That page was recopied and the title changed to "Eroica" indicating it was about heroicism rather than a single heroic individual.
Symphony #3, "Eroica" lasts for 45-55 minutes and is in four movements: Allegro con brio; Marche funebre: Adagio assai; Scherzo: Allegro vivace; and Finale: Allegro molto. In decoded non-musician language that means there are 4 big sections of music, like chapters, that are somewhat characterized by their general speed of Fast; Slow; Peppy; and Very Fast.NERD ASSIGNMENT!
Listen to the 3 minute video of just the opening chords, embedded above. First listen for general observations: tempo, sharpness of attack, length of each sounding, apparent upgrades in recording technology, anything really! Then listen again, a few times if possible, paying attention to each different approach and making detailed observations: do the two chords sound exactly the same and if not what are the differences, how do the chords seem balanced - more toward high pitches or low pitches for example, are they all the same approximate volume, etc. What else do you notice? Now that you've compiled all these observations, imagine the reason/s a Music Director might decide to treat those chords one way or another. Why do you think might it be important (or not!) to take these kinds of things into consideration?
READY TO ENGAGE!
Please share your experience with me – [email protected]!
I’d love to hear about it or see any of your activities, journaling, or creations!
I’d love to hear about it or see any of your activities, journaling, or creations!