What is Vaughan Williams best known for?
Best known for The Lark Ascending, Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote nine symphonies, operas, film scores and was an avid collector of English folk songs.
What were Vaughan Williams influences?
Influenced by folk-songs, hymn tunes, the philosophy and music of Sir Hubert Parry and the glories of Tudor and Elizabethan choral music, the mature Vaughan Williams was about to emerge from his long apprenticeship. The poetry of Walt Whitman was another catalyst.
Why is Ralph Vaughan Williams important?
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) is one of the most important composers of the 20th century. Drawing on the influences of English folk song and Tudor polyphony, Ralph succeeded at reviving British music during a career that spanned over six decades.
What style is Ralph Vaughan Williams?
Although he did not follow the newer trends and musical fashions of his day, Vaughan Williams created a thoroughly original style based on English folk music, 16th-and 17th-century polyphony, and informal music of his own times, including jazz.
Is Vaughan Williams a classical composer?
Ralph Vaughan Williams, (born October 12, 1872, Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England—died August 26, 1958, London, England), English composer in the first half of the 20th century, founder of the nationalist movement in English music. And did the Jefferson Airplane start out as a classical music group?
Was Ralph Vaughan married?
Ursula Vaughan Williamsm. 1953–1958
Adeline Fisher Vaughan Williamsm. 1897–1951
Ralph Vaughan Williams/Spouse
What did Vaughan Williams play?
Vaughan Williams wrote four concertos: for violin (1925), piano (1926), oboe (1944) and tuba (1954); another concertante piece is his Romance for harmonica, strings and piano (1951).
Who did Ralph Vaughan Williams influence?
Youthful atheism eventually settled down into cheerful agnosticism. He was widely read, and heavily influenced by poets and writers including Shakespeare, Bunyan, Blake and Walt Whitman. Vaughan Williams was married twice: in 1897 to Adeline Fisher, and in 1953 to the poet Ursula Wood.
Are Vaughan Williams and John Williams related?
John Williams had three sons and three daughters (one of whom, Mary, married the sixth Earl of Buckingham), with Edward Vaughan Williams, RVW’s grandfather (the addition of the name ‘Vaughan’ came from Edward’s mother), born in Bayswater in 1797.
How many symphonies does Vaughan Williams have?
nine symphonies
Vaughan Williams wrote nine symphonies, no two of which are similar. Each displays its own unique mood. His first was A Sea Symphony written between 1903 and 1909 in which he explores the ‘deep waters’ of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”.
Is Ralph Vaughan Williams related to John Williams?
All of that is distilled into RVW’s music. And as the name Wedgwood suggests Ralph Vaughan Williams came from good patrician stock. On his father’s side the family was of Welsh extraction, with John Williams, Ralph’s great-grandfather, born in Job’s Well, Carmarthenshire, in 1757.
Who taught Vaughan?
In 1878, at the age of five, Vaughan Williams began receiving piano lessons from his aunt, Sophy Wedgwood.
What is Serenade to music by Vaughan Williams about?
Serenade to Music. Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music for 16 vocal soloists and orchestra was composed in 1938. The text is adapted from a discussion about music and the music of the spheres in Act V of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, pictured.
What is the meaning of Serenade to music?
Serenade to Music is a work by Ralph Vaughan Williams for 16 vocal soloists and orchestra, composed in 1938. The text is an adaptation of the discussion about music and the music of the spheres in Act V, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Vaughan Williams later arranged the piece into versions…
How did Vaughan Williams arrange Shakespeare’s plays?
In arranging Shakespeare’s text, Vaughan Williams followed the word order, but cut words, phrases, and whole lines, and repeated at the end eleven words from the third and fourth lines, producing the following text. The initials mark the singers’ solo passages; ensemble passages are shown in italics:
Did Henry Wood write Serenade to music?
For Henry Wood that was very much the case as he embarked on a special gala concert to mark his five decades on the podium. It was for that ‘jubilee’ concert, on 5 October 1938 at the Royal Albert Hall, that Vaughan Williams penned his rather unusual Serenade to Music.