Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony Number Five :: essays research papers

Ralph Vaughan Williams unison Number FiveRalph Vaughan Williams, descended from the famous Wedgwood and Darwin families,was born at Down Ampney, Gloucestershire in 1872. In 1890 he entered the RoyalCollege of Music, and in 1892 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. one(a) of thegreatest of the British composers, a prolific writer of melody, folksongcollector, and lead of British cultural heritage, he died aged 85 in 1958.His ashes ar interred in Westminster Abbey alongside the nations greatestartists and poets. Symphony No. 5 in DIntroductionThe music contains a lot of significant from RVWs then unfinished opera, ThePilgrims Progress. When he began the Fifth Symphony, RVW thought he whitet detusk neverfinish the opera, and didnt want to waste any good ideas. The symphony does nothave a programme, it is absolute music. It is in four movements a "Preludio"first movement, a Scherzo, a "Romanza" slow movement, and a "Passacaglia" finale.First deed Prelu dioFrom the very beginning, RVW puts the key signature of this movement into doubt.The movement opens with a horn call in D, set against a firm base (or mysterious?) ofoctave Cs. Could it be that in the great traditions of British musicalamateurism, RVW got his shift wrong? Or is this a deliberate featureof the music, intended to defect the tonality? Musicologists prefer the latterexplanation. This is by no means an queer feature of his music, when he wasasked what the 4th symphony was about, RVW replied "It is about F-minor",alluding to his almosttimes blurred tonalities, often augmented by his use of modal,mainly pentatonic melodies, which, with no leading note, often help to fudgethe tonality. Apart from the horn call, the brass is rarely used, and thetexture is light and airy. The first violins then enter, high on the E string,doubled at the octave below by the seconds in an introduction, sooner their maintheme at (1), doubled by flutes. The triplets add metric variety, as well asproviding a distinctly folkie feel. During the course of the movement, the typical dotted rhythm of the horns hardly ever leaves us. There are somerather abrupt key changes. i.e. Eb to E at (5). We are interpreted into the Allegro bya sudden change in mood. The music darkens with a slightly sinister version ofthe horn call in the bassoons. We then enter the Allegro, with a scurrying inthe strings, whilst the wind begins a downward progression of notes, whichbuilds to a climax, with strings in semiquavers, until we reach the reliable