As someone born and raised in the Lincolnshire Fens, this music is perfectly evocative of an area possessed of a unique beauty born of nature and man`s attempts at drainage and farming. Yet it still has something unearthly and untouched about it. The pictures are well chosen, with all those straight rivers and drains, big, wide skies and sunsets, churches in the distance, and the constant struggle with the sea.
I live in The Fens, and although I’m not from here originally, I loved the sense of space and stillness from day one. You’ll either love it or loathe it, each to their own. Me? I love it, no matter the season. I love this land of earth and sky.
I was born near Wicken Fen. I left the UK to travel the world, came home to Cambridgeshire and when I heard this music I cried for the love and peace it holds for me. Happy days to all!!
+Steve Richards Same feelings here. I was born and raised in the Lincolnshire Fens near Boston. The older I get the more I love their austere beauty and peace.
Colin I couldn't agree more with you description about RVW having a gift for expressing something very deep and intangible about England. We are very proud.
big thanks, another wonderful piece from England's finest composer (and a good man), with excellent images as accompaniment. RVW did for English landscapes what the more brooding Sibelius did for Finland's- such beautiful lyricism
This is so beautiful and evocotive of the calmness of the rural scene. Vaughan Williams has always been my number one favourite British composer (though I think there is competition now in the wings). He is firmly in the romantic school of music and has a deep and emotional sense of melody, rhythm, harmony of instruments and a sense of the dramatic that is exhilerating and calming all at once. The competition I mentioned, oh that's from a 12 year old girl from Dorking.
Colin, Thanks for upload of a 'quintessential' English composer, My dad was stationed in England during WW2 and became acquainted with VW's music played in the officer's club. He loved the spirit of the 'Brits' and their good humor in very stressful times. I think VW's work gave him time to reflect when all around him was madness.
Colin Thank you Colin for introducing me to Ralph Vaughn Williams. My favourite is The Lark Ascending! I am from England but now I live in Lapland. I am always reminded of home when I listen to this. Thanks again. God bless.
Colin, this is simply wonderful music. The pictures evoke a part of England that I do not know, yet would love to explore. RVW is the quintessential English composer so thank you for uploading this beautiful piece and for adding the stunning pictures. Graham in Wimborne.
Like others, I am moved by this music and your stunning images, including the shift from monochrome to colour and back for the same picture of Ely, which makes it appear to be in the 1800s and then the present day! I am Scottish but admire the Fen country and many other parts of our wonderful island of Albion. I feel an attachment everywhere, readily evoked by very English music like this.
I am ashamed to admit that I was not familiar with this piece. I loved it. The photographic images were so poignant and some so beautiful,particularly the sky and country scapes. They added to and enhanced the beautiful music. Thank you for sharing this.
Colin, My thanks for this lovely piece, and the several VW you have brought to internet. The composer has long been a favourite of mine, allowing me, in my long naturalisation in Australia, to retain the essence of my first 17 years experience of England. I think my reason for being so engaged, often moved, by VW, is that he reminds us, like all great composers, how music simulates so intimately yet inchoately, the very basis of our experience, which is the dance of pattern and flow. he commented once that in heaven he would not compose music because he would be music. Besides that, the old gent looks the dead ringer for my father-in-law. Best wishes to you.
Thanks for your kind and interesting comment, George. It's always good to receive responses from people who have enjoyed my videos and encourages me to do more. Please consider subscribing to my Channel, to see other of my videos.
Wonderful music with beautifully curated photographs. It's enough to give one palpitations. With ancestors from both Norfolk and Oxfordshire I always make a pilgrimage to Ely every summer when we escape our NZ winter.
Have never lived in England, but the music of Vaughan Williams (& Elgar, for that matter) has often made me feel like I truly *know* that land......because their music so richly conveys the beauty of the landscape!
Oui , ces musiques parlent directement à notre coeur , sans snobisme mondain du style qui a littéralement souillé le goût de nos "connaisseurs" érudits qui n'ont que le mot orgueilleux audace dans leur intellect trop lourd . Mais Montaigne , excellent philosophe français du XVI° s. n'avait il pas bien compris qu" il vaut mieux une tête bien faite qu'une tête trop pleine "..
moi aussi- cabbagge crates over the briney (sorry, a Monty Python sketch i was just watching). No, music speaking directly to the heart, whereas snobs have filled their heads with over-intellectual responses.
Thanks Colin for this wonderful series of pictures and the lovely music. Some year ago I spent some lovely months in your beautiful country and also had a chance to visit Fen country, and it is just as lovely as these pictures show. All the best, Mikael (Finland)
First time ever I have heard this piece by Vaughan Williams and fell in love with it, particularly as the accompanying photos were so beautiful. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I wonder how much more "undiscovered" music there is out there. David - Pant Valley Artist
Beautiful. Just beautiful. You have done it again, Colin. Your have harnessed technology to serve art. The result is amazing. Thank You for posting RVW's beautiful Fen Country along with your thoughtful pictures.
I was a chorister of Ely Cathedral, and, of course, went to The King's School, which is where you must have taught. This is a very beautiful film, which I have just used to illustrate The Fens on Facebook for two friends of mine who have just started at Cambridge. One of them is a choral scholar at King's, and the other is from Ukraine. Thank you for this film. John Pryer (Théorbe)
Thanks Don. This is the area I live in. I was a teacher before I & had a wonderful view of Ely Cathedral from my classroom! I doubt if there are enough paintings of the fens to make a video! Being flat & featureless, it doesn't often get painted! Do take a look at what I did with Norfolk Rhapsodies 1 and 2. I think you might like them, as they use paintings and the music is lovely. Thanks for subscribing. Can I also recommend the RVW biography I did recently. I'm very proud of it.
Just after performing Norfolk Rhapsody 2 I relocated to Norfolk for a temporary job. Although I've left the county again, this video revives fond memories of the Fens and Broads. I really should visit my friends in Cambridge again. Thanks for uploadingthis magnificent music. Greetings from the Yorkshire hills :-)
This piece is new to me (as is much classical music) but the marriage of music to images here touches me deeply. It’s not always easy being an expat and so far away (Canada). However these little tastes of my home country are a pleasure.
Thank you Colin, for this beautiful video. ELY was my organ teacher's favourite cathedral and he spent hundreds of hours constructing a scale model, now, sadly, lost. Time for a pilgrimage I'm thinking.
Thanks for creating the beautiful video to accompany this excellent music. One day, I hope to travel from my home in Pennsylvania, to visit your beautiful country. Now, the Fen country is on my list as well. During WWII, my father piloted B-17's out of Kimbolton (not too far from you?).
Did you make it? If not, don't bother with London. Visit the counties.In WW2 my father (RAF Bomber Com) said England looked like a giant aircraft carrier there were so many aerodromes.For a small island, constantly changing shape, there is such diversity. The Fens have a different history from my ancestral counties - continual invasions from Scandinavia, drainage by the Dutch, a long farming legacy, plying across the North Sea to the Baltics, bomber stations, hordes of "foreigners" :)) (Londoners are foreign to Fenlanders, in fact, to everyone).
I attended school at Kimbolton. Many cross-country runs down what remained of the runway and by the Control Tower building. Lived for a while in Ely, not far from Wicken Fen and my work commute involved a daily drive across the Fens to Downham Market and Kings Lynn. VW's music still part of the soundtrack to my time there: spoke to me then and still does: beautiful, haunting, timeless, deeply spiritual and richly poetic.
Gorgeous. I see this recording also comes with a work by RVW dating from even before and one by Hadley arranged by RVW for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Got to try it!
Colin... hi there... writing this in bed in the wee village where I live in the middle of Sweden, still throwing off the last vestiges of the lurgy that befell me last weekend during a visit to Stockholm. I'd not listened to 'In the Fen Country' before but felt it might suit my mood today... it's quite lovely, in turns soft and dream-like then rousing and turbulent like the big skies and real weather in your atmospheric and evocative images. I've visited Norfolk but not the Fens... a lacuna I must remedy ere long! Thank you for another mesmerising murmuration of sound and image...
+Michael A Vanderosen Like so many places, Michael, the Fens aren't what they were. But there is still much to enjoy here. I'd compare the view of Ely Cathedral, seen suddenly as you pass over a low hill to the south east of the city, with anything France or Italy has to offer. But not usually as sunny!
My wind ensemble had a concert last Sunday and played Williams' "English Folk Song Suite," and, moved by that music and vaguely remembering having heard "In the Fen Country" many many years ago, I felt compelled to revisit the Fen. And I was rewarded.
We've had two white christmases in Cambridgeshire in the last five years! And it rains all the time! The rain is what makes the country so beautifully verdant!
Once again thanks for your channel Colin, you've introduced me to some truly wonderful music and I really appreciate the time you take putting together the visuals, they are very evocative and have clearly had much thought put into them. Always very rewarding to come and spend time here :) Oh, and this piece is wonderful... RVW is rapidly becoming my favourite. Looked this one up after David Dimbleby featured in his Picture of Britain series. Very pertinent to me personally as I grew up in the Fens around Cambridgeshire.
Absolutely beautiful! The pacing and the choice of photos is wonderful. I have always loved this VW piece your effort matches the music perfectly. I especially liked the approach to the cathedral from a distance and then slowly panning up the exterior until you went inside of the tower and pulled back to show the interior.
Also, this is my first time listening to Vaughan Williams, my dad and my composition mentor recommended it to me, and I really like it so far. It has been a really good experience transcribing this piece so far, and I expect it to stay like it!
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Your remark puzzles me however. First, this isn't the 'Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis', it's called 'In the Fen country'. Secondly, this piece isn't just for strings, it's for full orchestra and thirdly there are PLENTY of trees in this film.
271250cl .. great job on darkening the fens at 9:50 as if the sun were setting (as the climax of the music "sets" in anticipation of the transition to the more introspective ending music), and then your fade-in with that sort-of sunrise picture (as said introspective music "rises" afresh like a brand new day after the majesty of yesterday's climax).
Well, it certainly doesn't snow here as much as it does in some parts of America, thank goodness. I have a friend in upstate NY and he get hit by horrendous snow-storms. It usually snows here in January or February, but lately we've had early snow in December. Generally we get three or four inches - more in the west and north, I'm 62 and have never seen a white Christmas though. It rarely rains in the eastern counties of England.
At first, I wished you'd used paintings, as you have done so effectively on other works, but I was finally won over. If the photos were recent ones, care was clearly taken to avoid the "extensive" farming you mentioned. Nice shots of the Cathedral. The windmills appeared to be in usable shape. Anyway, thanks for the winning merger of the audio and visual.
Just to say, I'm back in Canada after 7 years in Japan and I can't wait for my white christmas!! It's start to be rare even here up north. Nothing like my childhood anymore.
Perhaps the exterior and the interior of Ely Cathedral for the Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis. For some reason that piece always reminds me of churches and cathedrals and bells.
David Howell I have a boat in Ely. Watching the cathedral as you float towards Ely on the River Great Ouse it is as if VW has converted feelings and images into sound. Marvellous.
Ya RVW was indeed the MOPST EXPRESSIVE of all co mposers. He and Sir. Edward Elgar were probably the best/finest of all of the British composers. I gotta review all 9 of his symphonies again soon.
Thanks for your comment! Sadly, the Fens aren't what they were. In RVW's day they were still wild & isolated but today (having the richest soil in the country) they are intensively farmed & have lost much of their character. But the little city of Ely (dwarfed by its huge cathedral) is quaint and picturesque, and Cambridge, of course, is a marvel, though again much changed since VW's time. Kimbolton is not far away at all; there were (and are!) many American airbases in this region.
Thanks for your comment johcafra. You're cordially invited to subscribe to my channel where you'll find other presentations like this one. Good wishes.
Congrats on the video, and thanks for discovering me more music from this composer, I can't get enough. What other composers or pieces would you recommend in RVW's calm, soothing, pleasant style? It truly alters my state of mind and makes me feel good, breathe slowly and enjoy the moment. I have a hard time doing things in silence, but most music distracts me. When I need to concentrate and get things done, having this sort of music in the background keeps me positive and focused.
I don't know this piece, Colin, but am glad to have discovered it. I need to read about the history of this piece as I am sure I can hear a "Last Post" echo at 10m 11s. What do you think? When was "The Last Post" written? Lovely photography to go with it.
Tim: Sorry for the delay in responding. I don't know when the Last Post was written but it certainly predates RVW's music. The horn-call at 10:11 does resemble it, I must admit. However, RVW had no military experience or connections at the time he wrote 'In the Fen Country' so I wouldn't read too much into it. Having said that, RVW does include a bugle call in the second movement of his Third Symphony, the 'Pastoral', an echo - he said - of the bugles he heard on the battlefields of France in WWI. VW's most famous horn-call opens the first movement of his glorious Fifth Symphony.
Colin Thanks again, Colin. Yes, the bugle call in his Third raises the hairs on the back of your neck. Very haunting and sad - a call to the poor fallen indeed. I'm now discovering RVW's Norfolk Rhapsody.
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As someone born and raised in the Lincolnshire Fens, this music is perfectly evocative of an area possessed of a unique beauty born of nature and man`s attempts at drainage and farming. Yet it still has something unearthly and untouched about it.
The pictures are well chosen, with all those straight rivers and drains, big, wide skies and sunsets, churches in the distance, and the constant struggle with the sea.
I live in The Fens, and although I’m not from here originally, I loved the sense of space and stillness from day one. You’ll either love it or loathe it, each to their own. Me? I love it, no matter the season. I love this land of earth and sky.
I was born near Wicken Fen. I left the UK to travel the world, came home to Cambridgeshire and when I heard this music I cried for the love and peace it holds for me. Happy days to all!!
+Steve Richards Same feelings here. I was born and raised in the Lincolnshire Fens near Boston. The older I get the more I love their austere beauty and peace.
Colin I couldn't agree more with you description about RVW having a gift for expressing something very deep and intangible about England. We are very proud.
KL Vaughan Williams Many thanks for your kind response.
big thanks, another wonderful piece from England's finest composer (and a good man), with excellent images as accompaniment. RVW did for English landscapes what the more brooding Sibelius did for Finland's- such beautiful lyricism
This is so beautiful and evocotive of the calmness of the rural scene. Vaughan Williams has always been my number one favourite British composer (though I think there is competition now in the wings). He is firmly in the romantic school of music and has a deep and emotional sense of melody, rhythm, harmony of instruments and a sense of the dramatic that is exhilerating and calming all at once. The competition I mentioned, oh that's from a 12 year old girl from Dorking.
Colin, Thanks for upload of a 'quintessential' English composer, My dad was stationed in England during WW2 and became acquainted with VW's music played in the officer's club. He loved the spirit of the 'Brits' and their good humor in very stressful times. I think VW's work gave him time to reflect when all around him was madness.
Thanks David, glad you enjoyed it - good of you to take the time to respond! :)
Colin Thank you Colin for introducing me to Ralph Vaughn Williams. My favourite is The Lark Ascending! I am from England but now I live in Lapland. I am always reminded of home when I listen to this. Thanks again. God bless.
You're very welcome, Lee, and thanks for taking the time to comment.
My pleasure. Keep up the good work!
The British literally saved the world. God bless 'em - from a grateful Yank.
Colin, this is simply wonderful music. The pictures evoke a part of England that I do not know, yet would love to explore. RVW is the quintessential English composer so thank you for uploading this beautiful piece and for adding the stunning pictures. Graham in Wimborne.
Lovely images to accompany this classic RVW, thank you.
Like others, I am moved by this music and your stunning images, including the shift from monochrome to colour and back for the same picture of Ely, which makes it appear to be in the 1800s and then the present day! I am Scottish but admire the Fen country and many other parts of our wonderful island of Albion. I feel an attachment everywhere, readily evoked by very English music like this.
Fen girl here. First time I've heard this. Beautiful photos. Takes me home
I am ashamed to admit that I was not familiar with this piece. I loved it. The photographic images were so poignant and some so beautiful,particularly the sky and country scapes. They added to and enhanced the beautiful music. Thank you for sharing this.
Haunting!
Many thanks.I have always loved the music of Vaughan Williams.The images fully compliment the relaxing music.
Colin, My thanks for this lovely piece, and the several VW you have brought to internet. The composer has long been a favourite of mine, allowing me, in my long naturalisation in Australia, to retain the essence of my first 17 years experience of England. I think my reason for being so engaged, often moved, by VW, is that he reminds us, like all great composers, how music simulates so intimately yet inchoately, the very basis of our experience, which is the dance of pattern and flow. he commented once that in heaven he would not compose music because he would be music. Besides that, the old gent looks the dead ringer for my father-in-law. Best wishes to you.
Thanks for your kind and interesting comment, George. It's always good to receive responses from people who have enjoyed my videos and encourages me to do more. Please consider subscribing to my Channel, to see other of my videos.
Wonderful music with beautifully curated photographs. It's enough to give one palpitations. With ancestors from both Norfolk and Oxfordshire I always make a pilgrimage to Ely every summer when we escape our NZ winter.
This reminds me of Thomas Hardy novels or Waterland by Graham Swift. Thanks again, Colin.
You're welcome, Larry, as always. Thanks for responding.
Have never lived in England, but the music of Vaughan Williams (& Elgar, for that matter) has often made me feel like I truly *know* that land......because their music so richly conveys the beauty of the landscape!
Oui , ces musiques parlent directement à notre coeur , sans snobisme mondain du style qui a littéralement souillé le goût de nos "connaisseurs" érudits qui n'ont que le mot orgueilleux audace dans leur intellect trop lourd . Mais Montaigne , excellent philosophe français du XVI° s. n'avait il pas bien compris qu" il vaut mieux une tête bien faite qu'une tête trop pleine "..
Yes, in spite of the language barrier, I do believe I understand your meaning.....and agree completely!
moi aussi- cabbagge crates over the briney (sorry, a Monty Python sketch i was just watching). No, music speaking directly to the heart, whereas snobs have filled their heads with over-intellectual responses.
exactement ! et il suffit d'ajouter Britten et Dowland pour avoir une idée encore meilleure de l'âme de l'Angleterre...
This was as beautiful to watch as it was to hear. Many thanks.
Warm thanks and greeting from Sweden!
Thanks Colin for this wonderful series of pictures and the lovely music. Some year ago I spent some lovely months in your beautiful country and also had a chance to visit Fen country, and it is just as lovely as these pictures show. All the best, Mikael (Finland)
So glad you enjoyed it. Many thanks for taking the time to write!
What exquisitely beautiful photographs (and of course, music)!
I live in Suffolk, and this beautiful music of 'big skies' (no hills) is exactly what I see!
First time ever I have heard this piece by Vaughan Williams and fell in love with it, particularly as the accompanying photos were so beautiful. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I wonder how much more "undiscovered" music there is out there. David - Pant Valley Artist
The best recording of the masterpiece.
Stunning, thank you so much. I used to live in the Fens, between the Ouse Washes and Ely, so this brought back happy memories, particularly the skies.
Beautiful. Just beautiful. You have done it again, Colin. Your have harnessed technology to serve art. The result is amazing. Thank You for posting RVW's beautiful Fen Country along with your thoughtful pictures.
+Buzz Bray Thanks for your kind and very encouraging response, Buzz. Very glad you enjoyed it.
I was a chorister of Ely Cathedral, and, of course, went to The King's School, which is where you must have taught. This is a very beautiful film, which I have just used to illustrate The Fens on Facebook for two friends of mine who have just started at Cambridge. One of them is a choral scholar at King's, and the other is from Ukraine. Thank you for this film. John Pryer (Théorbe)
Thanks for taking the time to comment - much appreciated.
Most sensitively presented - well done. I could never understand why some people just don't 'get' this.
another beautiful Vaughan Williams piece-- a slice of that Edwardian 'summer' that ended much too soon.........
Thank you, Colin. That is a beautiful part of England. Makes one American almost want to retire there. And of course no more beautiful music than RVW.
Thank you Colin .. I've not heard this one before, and it touched a corner of my soul.
So so lovely, beautiful pics to go with this beautiful music. Thank you 💜
Fantastic photos.
Thank you Colin for posting such wonderful music.
Excellent photographs!!!
Another skillfully chosen collection of beautiful pictures, the perfect accompaniment to the music. Thanks, Colin, for another great upload.
Thanks Tom.
Thanks Don. This is the area I live in. I was a teacher before I & had a wonderful view of Ely Cathedral from my classroom! I doubt if there are enough paintings of the fens to make a video! Being flat & featureless, it doesn't often get painted! Do take a look at what I did with Norfolk Rhapsodies 1 and 2. I think you might like them, as they use paintings and the music is lovely. Thanks for subscribing. Can I also recommend the RVW biography I did recently. I'm very proud of it.
Such a lovely work, and so evocative of the Fens. My but how I miss Cambridge . . . Thank-you kindly for hoisting this up onto YT. Cheers!
Just after performing Norfolk Rhapsody 2 I relocated to Norfolk for a temporary job. Although I've left the county again, this video revives fond memories of the Fens and Broads. I really should visit my friends in Cambridge again. Thanks for uploadingthis magnificent music. Greetings from the Yorkshire hills :-)
Masterful! Your images are definitely worthy of this great man's music. A brilliant partnership.
This piece is new to me (as is much classical music) but the marriage of music to images here touches me deeply. It’s not always easy being an expat and so far away (Canada). However these little tastes of my home country are a pleasure.
Thank you for posting this.
Thank you Colin, for this beautiful video. ELY was my organ teacher's favourite cathedral and he spent hundreds of hours constructing a scale model, now, sadly, lost. Time for a pilgrimage I'm thinking.
Thanks for your comment, Freeman. I taught at Ely for 20 years and had a wonderful view of the cathedral from my classroom. Worth a visit!
Absolutely beautiful
Thanks for creating the beautiful video to accompany this excellent music. One day, I hope to travel from my home in Pennsylvania, to visit your beautiful country. Now, the Fen country is on my list as well. During WWII, my father piloted B-17's out of Kimbolton (not too far from you?).
Did you make it? If not, don't bother with London. Visit the counties.In WW2 my father (RAF Bomber Com) said England looked like a giant aircraft carrier there were so many aerodromes.For a small island, constantly changing shape, there is such diversity. The Fens have a different history from my ancestral counties - continual invasions from Scandinavia, drainage by the Dutch, a long farming legacy, plying across the North Sea to the Baltics, bomber stations, hordes of "foreigners" :)) (Londoners are foreign to Fenlanders, in fact, to everyone).
I attended school at Kimbolton. Many cross-country runs down what remained of the runway and by the Control Tower building. Lived for a while in Ely, not far from Wicken Fen and my work commute involved a daily drive across the Fens to Downham Market and Kings Lynn. VW's music still part of the soundtrack to my time there: spoke to me then and still does: beautiful, haunting, timeless, deeply spiritual and richly poetic.
Gorgeous. I see this recording also comes with a work by RVW dating from even before and one by Hadley arranged by RVW for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Got to try it!
Colin... hi there... writing this in bed in the wee village where I live in the middle of Sweden, still throwing off the last vestiges of the lurgy that befell me last weekend during a visit to Stockholm. I'd not listened to 'In the Fen Country' before but felt it might suit my mood today... it's quite lovely, in turns soft and dream-like then rousing and turbulent like the big skies and real weather in your atmospheric and evocative images. I've visited Norfolk but not the Fens... a lacuna I must remedy ere long! Thank you for another mesmerising murmuration of sound and image...
+Michael A Vanderosen Like so many places, Michael, the Fens aren't what they were. But there is still much to enjoy here. I'd compare the view of Ely Cathedral, seen suddenly as you pass over a low hill to the south east of the city, with anything France or Italy has to offer. But not usually as sunny!
Colin
My wind ensemble had a concert last Sunday and played Williams' "English Folk Song Suite," and, moved by that music and vaguely remembering having heard "In the Fen Country" many many years ago, I felt compelled to revisit the Fen. And I was rewarded.
How beautiful 🧡🌾
Gloriously composed and played!
We've had two white christmases in Cambridgeshire in the last five years! And it rains all the time! The rain is what makes the country so beautifully verdant!
Another very fine VW film! Thank you so much for taking the time to make these. You have real talent, and I look forward to many more such films!
Once again thanks for your channel Colin, you've introduced me to some truly wonderful music and I really appreciate the time you take putting together the visuals, they are very evocative and have clearly had much thought put into them. Always very rewarding to come and spend time here :)
Oh, and this piece is wonderful... RVW is rapidly becoming my favourite. Looked this one up after David Dimbleby featured in his Picture of Britain series. Very pertinent to me personally as I grew up in the Fens around Cambridgeshire.
Really glad you like the music - and thanks for taking the time to respond. Happy future listening!
wonderful post. Thank you seems so inadequate.
A lovely film, as always. Such appropriate images, altering subtly as the music changes. Thankyou.
Nice accompanying video.
Great stuff. Beautiful. Must go to the fens sometime.
I would add the Charming Norwich to your list of places to visit. I fell in love with it during the time I have lived there.
Absolutely beautiful! The pacing and the choice of photos is wonderful. I have always loved this VW piece your effort matches the music perfectly. I especially liked the approach to the cathedral from a distance and then slowly panning up the exterior until you went inside of the tower and pulled back to show the interior.
Soothing, elegant, peaceful.
Splendid. And it inspired me to purchase the CD.
Beautiful video!
Also, this is my first time listening to Vaughan Williams, my dad and my composition mentor recommended it to me, and I really like it so far. It has been a really good experience transcribing this piece so far, and I expect it to stay like it!
David Moore glad you are enjoying the music David and ood luck with your transcribing!
Colin Thank you!
David Moore Jeez, transcribing a piano piece must be quite a feat!
Alex Hills
Yes, if I do say so myself, I'm proud of what I've done. I've also done a transcription of The Lark Ascending to piano.
I love this...thank you.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Your remark puzzles me however. First, this isn't the 'Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis', it's called 'In the Fen country'. Secondly, this piece isn't just for strings, it's for full orchestra and thirdly there are PLENTY of trees in this film.
271250cl .. great job on darkening the fens at 9:50 as if the sun were setting (as the climax of the music "sets" in anticipation of the transition to the more introspective ending music), and then your fade-in with that sort-of sunrise picture (as said introspective music "rises" afresh like a brand new day after the majesty of yesterday's climax).
Well, it certainly doesn't snow here as much as it does in some parts of America, thank goodness. I have a friend in upstate NY and he get hit by horrendous snow-storms. It usually snows here in January or February, but lately we've had early snow in December. Generally we get three or four inches - more in the west and north, I'm 62 and have never seen a white Christmas though. It rarely rains in the eastern counties of England.
Thanks for liking this Oliver. And thanks for becoming a subscriber. I look forward to hearing what you think about some of my other efforts!
I must congratulate you on the time you have applied to your uploads.The combinations of sound and imagery.Keep it up man.atb John
Thanks Sir John! Happy New Year.
Gorgeous.
thank you for this
awesome composer ,
At first, I wished you'd used paintings, as you have done so effectively on other works, but I was finally won over. If the photos were recent ones, care was clearly taken to avoid the "extensive" farming you mentioned. Nice shots of the Cathedral. The windmills appeared to be in usable shape. Anyway, thanks for the winning merger of the audio and visual.
Happy New year.
Just to say, I'm back in Canada after 7 years in Japan and I can't wait for my white christmas!! It's start to be rare even here up north. Nothing like my childhood anymore.
Thanks Larry!
Thanks for your comment, Tom; and thanks also for subscribing to my channel. I hope you enjoy some of the stuff you find there.
Perhaps the exterior and the interior of Ely Cathedral for the Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis. For some reason that piece always reminds me of churches and cathedrals and bells.
Thanks for your kind comment!
thank you sir...:)
MARAVILLOSA
Lindíssimo !!!!
Interesting you should say this...I'm a RVW nut but always loved Zimmer's work too, especially The Thin Red Line Soundtrack.
I spent 2 holidays boating in the fens. That's the best way to see England- cars are too fast.
ah yes, I loved our canal holidays- in Wales, so peaceful
Makes me think of three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog)
David Howell I have a boat in Ely. Watching the cathedral as you float towards Ely on the River Great Ouse it is as if VW has converted feelings and images into sound.
Marvellous.
Ya RVW was indeed the MOPST EXPRESSIVE of all co mposers. He and Sir. Edward Elgar were probably the best/finest of all of the British composers. I gotta review all 9 of his symphonies again soon.
Thanks for your comment! Sadly, the Fens aren't what they were. In RVW's day they were still wild & isolated but today (having the richest soil in the country) they are intensively farmed & have lost much of their character. But the little city of Ely (dwarfed by its huge cathedral) is quaint and picturesque, and Cambridge, of course, is a marvel, though again much changed since VW's time. Kimbolton is not far away at all; there were (and are!) many American airbases in this region.
Thanks for your comment johcafra. You're cordially invited to subscribe to my channel where you'll find other presentations like this one. Good wishes.
Thanks Bob. Sadly, I'm running out of ideas. I keep thinking about the Tallis Fantasia but that's a tough one!
Colin I completely got mixed up, when in reality, I am TRANSCRIBING it. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Oliver Cromwell: Fantastic music,
It (the Tallis fantasia) was written for Gloucester cathedral.
Thanks Hywel. I confess that I didn't take the photos, just pinched them from Google Images!
I can hear the storm break at 4.20.
I am starting my task on transposing this piece! Good luck to me!
David Moore What instruments are you transposing it for, David?
Colin I am transposing it for piano solo.
Colin Like my comment says above, I simply got confused, when I am actually transcribing it.
Again lost for words, and lost in this music,
love the fens, ely and Cambridge.........godmanchester too
Congrats on the video, and thanks for discovering me more music from this composer, I can't get enough. What other composers or pieces would you recommend in RVW's calm, soothing, pleasant style? It truly alters my state of mind and makes me feel good, breathe slowly and enjoy the moment. I have a hard time doing things in silence, but most music distracts me. When I need to concentrate and get things done, having this sort of music in the background keeps me positive and focused.
I don't know this piece, Colin, but am glad to have discovered it. I need to read about the history of this piece as I am sure I can hear a "Last Post" echo at 10m 11s. What do you think? When was "The Last Post" written? Lovely photography to go with it.
Tim: Sorry for the delay in responding. I don't know when the Last Post was written but it certainly predates RVW's music. The horn-call at 10:11 does resemble it, I must admit. However, RVW had no military experience or connections at the time he wrote 'In the Fen Country' so I wouldn't read too much into it. Having said that, RVW does include a bugle call in the second movement of his Third Symphony, the 'Pastoral', an echo - he said - of the bugles he heard on the battlefields of France in WWI. VW's most famous horn-call opens the first movement of his glorious Fifth Symphony.
Colin Thanks again, Colin. Yes, the bugle call in his Third raises the hairs on the back of your neck. Very haunting and sad - a call to the poor fallen indeed. I'm now discovering RVW's Norfolk Rhapsody.