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Dr. Ralph Vaughan Williams was perhaps the most important English composer of the 20th Century. His influence on the development of 20th Century music was immense. Benjamin Britten and numerous film composers (Jerry Goldsmith, etc.) owe a lot to him.
The art of music above all other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation.
The Lark Ascending is a 122 line poem by the English poet George Meredith about the song of the skylark. The poem inspired Ralph Vaughan Williams to write a musical work of the same name, which is now more widely known than the poem.
He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.
For singing till his heaven fills,
'Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
to lift us with him as he goes.
Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.
He originally composed it in 1914 for violin and piano. It premiered in 1920 in Shirehampton, Bristol, the same year the composer re-scored it for solo violin and orchestra. This version, now the more often performed of the two, premiered in 1921. The piece is one of the most popular in the Classical repertoire among British listeners.
The duty of the words is to say just as much as the music has left unsaid and no more.
He created a truly contemporary idiom whose roots reached back to Tudor times and folk music. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years.
It never seems to occur to people that a man might just want to write a piece of music.
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