A Sea Symphony (Symphony No.1)
Ralph Vaughan Williams
1910 | Full Orchestra (with Soprano, Baritone, & Chorus)
1910 | Full Orchestra (with Soprano, Baritone, & Chorus)
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II. On the Beach at Night, Alone
6 mm. before reh. F - reh. F |
Skills & Techniques: Soft Playing
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Horn 1 (F)
Horn 4 (F)
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London Symphony Orchestra (2007)
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Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (2002)
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Composer & Composition Information
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
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He was born on 12 October 1872 in the Cotswold village of Down Ampney, where his father was vicar. Antecedents included the interconnected families of Wedgwood and Darwin. Following his father’s death in 1875 he was brought up at Leith Hill Place in Surrey and educated at Charterhouse School, the Royal College of Music and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a pupil of Charles Stanford and Hubert Parry, later studying with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris.
At the turn of the century he was among the very first to travel into the countryside to collect folk songs and carols from singers, notating them for future generations to enjoy. As musical editor of The English Hymnal he composed several hymn tunes that remain popular (including Sine Nomine, “For all the Saints” and Down Ampney, “Come down O love Divine”). A long and deep friendship with Gustav Holst was a constructive relationship which was crucial to the development of both composers. Vaughan Williams took three years off his age in order to volunteer for the army during the 1914-1918 war; after a long period of training and waiting he was sent to France in 1916, serving as a wagon orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Later, he was given a commission in the Royal Garrison Artillery and found himself in charge of both guns and horses. The carnage and the loss of close friends such as the composer George Butterworth deeply affected him and influenced his music after the war. The text & image are reprinted from The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society where more information about the composer can be found. |
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A Sea Symphony (Symphony No.1)
At 20 years old, Ralph Vaughan Williams felt the shock of revelation. Sitting in his Cambridge University dorm room, the buttoned-up Englishman first read the uninhibited words of the American poet Walt Whitman.
Vaughan Williams was a tall, gentle aristocrat. A sensitive soul, a middling pianist and violinist, he found the craft of musical composition a challenge. As a young man, he withdrew as many works as he completed.
Whitman would move Vaughan Williams forward. In Victorian England, Whitman's cosmic energy, his mystical tone, his celebration of the everyday, his embrace of many belief systems lit a fire. A decade later, Whitman's words would inspire Vaughan Williams' first major work.
A Sea Symphony would take Vaughan Williams six years to complete. It would match Whitman for boldness, as the longest British symphony yet written. A true choral symphony, it combined a four-movement symphonic structure with virtuoso, stamina-testing writing for the chorus.
The text is written by & reprinted from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra where more information about the composition can be found.
Vaughan Williams was a tall, gentle aristocrat. A sensitive soul, a middling pianist and violinist, he found the craft of musical composition a challenge. As a young man, he withdrew as many works as he completed.
Whitman would move Vaughan Williams forward. In Victorian England, Whitman's cosmic energy, his mystical tone, his celebration of the everyday, his embrace of many belief systems lit a fire. A decade later, Whitman's words would inspire Vaughan Williams' first major work.
A Sea Symphony would take Vaughan Williams six years to complete. It would match Whitman for boldness, as the longest British symphony yet written. A true choral symphony, it combined a four-movement symphonic structure with virtuoso, stamina-testing writing for the chorus.
The text is written by & reprinted from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra where more information about the composition can be found.
Notable Performances/Recordings:
BBC Symphony Orchestra & BBC Symphony Chorus (2018)
London Philharmonic Orchestra (2013)
London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (2007)
BBC Symphony Orchestra & BBC Symphony Chorus (2018)
London Philharmonic Orchestra (2013)
London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (2007)