Ralph Vaughan Williams - Serenade to Music
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- - Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams (12 October 1872 -- 26 August 1958)
- Orchestra: London Philharmonic
- Performers: Norma Burrowes, Sheila Armstrong, Sheila Armstrong, Marie Hayward, Gloria Jennings, Shirley Minty, Meriel Dickinson, Alfreda Hodgson, Bernard Dickerson, Wynford Evans, Kenneth Bowen, Ian Partridge, Christopher Keyte, John Noble, John Carol Case, Richard Angas
- Conductor: Sir Adrian Boult
- Year of recording: 1969 (remaster - 1987)
Serenade to Music ("How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!") for 16 soloists (or soloists & chorus) & orchestra, written in 1938.
One of the finest of all musical settings of Shakespeare, the Serenade to Music was written for and dedicated to Henry Wood on the occasion of his golden jubilee as a conductor, "in grateful recognition of his services to music." Wood, who for decades had been associated with the enormously popular Promenade Concerts in London, had participated in many premieres of Vaughan Williams' compositions and was much admired by the composer. For his tribute, Vaughan Williams had the splendid idea of creating a work that would incorporate the talents of 16 well-known British singers who had had long associations with Wood, for each of whom Vaughan Williams would create a characteristic phrase to sing. These 16 singers took part in the premiere of the Serenade at Wood's Golden Jubilee concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 5 October 1938, with Wood himself conducting a large orchestra of musicians drawn from the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, and Queen's Hall orchestras. It was an emotional performance that, it is said, reduced Sergei Rachmaninov (who was in attendance) to tears. Thankfully these same performers recorded the work a few days later, so listeners today can still share in the moving quality of the event.
Vaughan Williams chose for his text Lorenzo's speech on music in Portia's garden from Act Five, Scene One of The Merchant of Venice. The opening gesture of the Serenade is unusually beautiful, and a solo violin helps establish the languorous mood of a Mediterranean garden. The voices enter, and one of the sopranos sings a rapturous ascending phrase at the first mention of "sweet harmony." Men's voices take over to describe the "floor of heaven...thick inlaid with patines of bright gold," and a brief note of anxiety enters. Fanfares then sound the wakening of Diana, followed by a more melancholy passage contemplating "the man that hath no music in himself." Diana's fanfares briefly return and lead back to the peaceful opening melody, which also concludes the work in hushed fashion. The singers collectively intone the final words, "sweet harmony," and the piece ends in utter tranquility. 
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If Vaughn Williams only wrote this, he would still have to be put in the pantheon of the greatest composers ever. This is a masterpiece of craftsmanship, passion and sublime beauty.
He composed music much much better than this.
@@irbennett Come on then,out with it-don't leave us all in suspense-name at least one piece of music Ralph Vaughan Williams composed that is "much much better than this".Or is it that you can't-coz he didn't?
@@darrylschultz9311 The Sea Symphony. That was easy.
@@irbennett Not easy enough to include in your previous comment apparently.But I'll check it out and see if it's as obviously better as you seem to believe.And if it's not(as Arnold Schwarzenegger would say)-"Ayy veill bee baourk!!".
@@darrylschultz9311 NOT better than, but the movement from the Dona Nobis Pacem called A Dirge for Two Veterans moves me NEARLY as much as the Serenade for music.
Magic!
C'est pas possible j'ai des problèmes . En savoir plus
I sang this in 1966 with the Sacramento Symphony. We were the All-City Honors Choir picked from the four high schools in Sacramento at that time. Heard that wonderful violin while reading and lightly listening to my classical music station. I recognized that opening instantly; put down the book, and sang along. Blew me away when I remembered every word. There is not another Choral Work like it. Shakespeare and Vaughn Williams. Cannot do any better than that.
This piece does indeed seem unique!
I listen to Vaughan Williams he's one of my favourite composers. His music gets straight to my soul. Wonderful music to relax to.
Immer wieder macht ein einzelnes Stück seinen Schöpfer/seine Schöpferin unsterblich. Bei der "Serenade to music" von Ralph Vaughn Williams ist es so. Spätromantische Musik auf dem Olymp - oder im Pantheon... Thanks to R.V. Williams. Einmal dieses Juwel live zu Gehör bekommen...
Geschenk für immer💚
I always listen to this when my anxiety gets too high and it calms me right down.
I agree! It always brings down my blood pressure. If I have a choice it will be the last thing I hear as I depart this “muddy vesture of decay”.
Sheer beauty-a gorgeous dream.👍
Simply beautiful, no other description for it.
Love this. Brings back fond memories of performing it with a wonderful conductor/director and choir. Beautiful, always.
4:58-5:41=Quite possibly the most beautiful music ever written.
Agreed. You hear people describe a piece as 'sublime', but this, this defines the term!
Matthew, I wholeheartedly agree! I am a long-standing fan of Vaughn Williams. I realized, at the end of the piece, that I had actually been holding my breath at the amazing beauty of this music! Thank you RVW!
I had one of these solos in college... It was a blessing to be a part of this
@@jmontgomery891you're not Jessie Montgomery the composer, by any chance, are you?
@@somebody9033 no but I'm interested in this Jessie Montgomery now.
I was fortunate enough to perform this with my college choir at Bethany College, Kansas. Amazing.
I forgot what year (I think 2007 or 2008) I sang this with the TMEA All State mixed Choir. What a beautiful song. Over a decade later I can still remember it perfectly.
My God, this is so beautiful!
More wonderful choral music from my favourite British Composer. THANK YOU!
Music to transcend....
Good choice of word. And calls to mind his Sea Symphony -- "O Thou transcendant." (In the 4th Movement.)
The two paragraphs of commentary on the piece were taken from this link: www.allmusic.com/composition/serenade-to-music-how-sweet-the-moonlight-sleeps-upon-this-bank%21-for-16-soloists-or-soloists-chorus-orchestra-mc0002369083. It was written by Chris Morrison. Next time please credit your source. Lovely performance, though.
glorious music--tender, wistful...if you weren't feeling peaceful before listening to it, you are now...
Getting ready to perform this on May 22 with the John's Creek Chorale. Exciting!
+Jannine Gamache (Chancel Chorister) Good luck with that!
Right around 8:05, yeah, Vaughan-Williams gets pretty freaking dark/describing someone who is not a very good person at all…. 😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬
這個版本彌足珍貴,因為是首演後原班人馬於數年後所重錄的(可能是應錄音工程的發明及傳世之用)! 可謂是原滋原味! 版主還於介紹中提到,首演時拉赫曼尼諾夫不但在場,還感動到淚下! 可見此旋律所蘊含的能量! 當你有心事時,來聽此曲,我相信應該會聽到哽咽啜泣吧!?
Sang this beautiful piece in a mass choir at the University of North Alabama, just a few weeks ago. I'll never forget it.
Recorded on 5 November 1969. You list Sheila Armstrong twice! Susan Longfield [1935-1970], whom you fail to mention in the heading, was also a soloist - she sings the phrase 'I am never merry when I hear sweet music'.I knew Sue, who died in August 1970, soon after the recording was first issued.
I don't know, but when you find your self wiping away tears from your eyes when you are hearing how beautiful this work is, that's music!
Indeed! I, for one, cannot listen to the closing bars of this piece without tears streaming down...
The first note always does it to me.
Because it's REAL music, the kind that comes from the soul's very address.
Rachmaninoff was moved to tears at its premiere.
@@viewfromwilmington 👍👍👍
We had "The Merchant Of Venice "as a set book for O' levels in secondary school.The quotes from it here are memorable and beautifully sung. RVW chose the original 16 soloists specially to suit this fantastic composition.
One of my favorites pieces from one of my favorite composers. If you get a chance, track down the music of William Lloyd Weber, yes Andrew's father. While he has passed on her truly wrote some incredible tonal music more along the lines of Vaughan Williams. His tone poem Aurora is amazing.
My mother's favorite. I love and revere this work.
If anyone is curious (as I was) which soprano is missing in description (Sheila Armstrong is mentioned twice) it's Susan Longfield.
Lovely! I wonder if by some off-the-wall chance anyone seeing this remembers singing the work at Dartington College of Arts in the summer of 1973 under the direction of Michael Lane? Just a thought...(Posted by a student of a student of the composer.)
Sang bass part in College! Still brings a tear to my eye. Love it.
I read that Rachmaninoff, dour of affect but certainly one of the most cosmically passionate Romantics, was in tears listening to Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music.
Wenn das Herz Flügel bekommt...lass es fliegen...☆☆☆~~~
Sublime. Simply sublime ...
Hearing this glorious, completely original, chromatic tonal music from 1938, I can't help thinking what a colossal mistake Schoenberg (and others) had made about two decades earlier when they decided that harmonically-based music had reached a dead end and that it had to be replaced by a new system. Let's face it. The 12-tone idea that came out of the false pessimism (and which held sway over academic music circles from about 1915 to 1970) is completely arbitrary, banal, ( a sort of bell-ringing for composers) and owes more to matrix algebra than aesthetic beauty that speaks to the human soul.
Tragically, the atonal madness held sway for so long that the difficult craft of composing music which is heard by the inner voice of real composers like RVW - before being put down as notes on paper - has been largely lost. Can it ever by recovered ?
Well put ---- I think modern art in general tried to aspire to the condition of physics !
I think you should distinguish between 12-tone music and atonal. I find Berg incredibly passionate, and he's more atonal than 12-tone. All music, all art, is expressing yourself.
The problem, as many rightly state, is not the complexity of 12-tone music, but rather it's simplicity and the iron-clad nature of the rules when done by most composers. I tried to "get" it for a while and I actually wrote a few "6-tone" pieces. It's a compositional technique, but I feel, too sparse and confining. Too hampering of people with actual talent, and too easy for hacks to just crank out whatever they want.
juliangernos I can agreee with your statement but at the same time there is beauty in what Schoenberg and other like him did. There are those out there who enjoy the idea that there is beauty in the technical side, some see a musical matrix and love it. So where as I don't disagree with your statement I do see how the other side view that style of music.
lovely words--but guess what--the tonal composers of the 20th century have triumphed...very little Schoernburg, Berg played in concert hall--lots more Williams--the latter would have chuckled at that--as he was really not for the 12 tone guys...
Your assumption that Schoenberg and others abandoned harmony is incorrect. They abandoned tonality as they believed that was the way forward for the Austro-German tradition. Schoenberg himself said, "There is still plenty of good music to be written in the key of C" so these composers had nothing against tonality. Thay allstarted as tonal composers anyway.
But really, it is not a competition. This piece is gorgeous but I also find Schoenberg's violin concerto to be beautiful. The 12 tone method is no more mathematical than advanced chromatic harmony, it just serializes pitch material and reveals intervallic relationships from the row just as a tonal composer would extract motives from larger themes or a harmonic progression. It is just a DIFFERENT way of composing that is just as valid and enjoyable to many people.
Also, RVW's compositional method is not very complex. He sticks to a pretty predictable and refined process of pentatonic melodies with diatonic an chromatic modulations. His music is beautiful but it is also very simple. Schoenberg reached a much higher level of tonal composition before transitioning to atonal composition.
The name Susan Longfield should replace the second mention of Sheila Armstrong in the singer's list.
Even Boulez, the arch-modernist, liked Vaughan-Williams.
After enjoying this piece on recording, I finally heard it live, by the Cal State Long Beach music dept. As sublime and beautiful as you would imagine! The violin intro, the numerous solos, the vocal line on "How many things by season seasoned are ...", just hair raising. Put this one on your bucket list.
This is very very good! I like the opening orchestral especially.
London Philarmonic, the best interpretation
The jury aka the open-minded audience will always be out on the above stated opinion!!!MBD-BX,NY
Beautiful ! thank you so much :)
Sang this with the Columbus (OH) Symphony Chorus/Orchestra some years ago. Much prefer this 16-voice version than the full choir version that we sang then. That said, I have fond memories of singing this with that group. Just an exquisite piece of music.
@5:32 'Such Harmony lives in Immortal Souls, but whist this Muddy Vesture of Decay does grossly close it in, We cannot Hear it'!
First sung by Gwynn Parry Jones, a survivor of the Lusitania disaster.
"We cannot hear it" in open octaves.
4:48 onwards is hauntingly beautiful.
Inspired by he Universe!
Shut it.......Universe......Duhhh
Explain yourself!!!
Yeah,do it now!Are yer feeling lucky?Well,are you-punk??!!.
Ralph Vaughan Williams:Szerenád a zenéhez
Norma Burrowes-szoprán
Sheila Armstrong-szoprán
Marie Hayward-szoprán
Gloria Jennings-mezzoszoprán
Meriel Dickinson-mezzoszoprán
Shirley Minty-kontraalt
Alfreda Hodgson-kontraalt
Bernard Dickerson-tenor
Wynford Evans-tenor
Kenneth Bowen-tenor
Ian Partridge-tenor
Christopher Keyte-basszus
John Noble-bariton
John Carol Case-bariton
Richard Angas-basszus
Londoni Filharmonikus Zenekar
Vezényel:Sir Adrian Boult
I sang this (Bass) 65 years ago in college. To this day, it still bring tears to my eyes.
Oh those magnificent modulations. Perfect text painting.
I have always been intrigued by the almost-bluesy harmonies of this piece, a phenomenon that is not common elsewhere in Vaughan-Williams' output. It may be merely coincidental, but the ambiguous major-minor 3rd in an otherwise major tonality is a hallmark of blues and jazz. Although I don't think of Vaughan-Williams as a fan of jazz in the way that Constant Lambert was, it is thought that in his Sixth Symphony RVW included a tribute to a jazz band leader who died in a German blitz attack on London.
there are more than a few jazzy moments in the beginning of "Hodie," too.
For eternity ...
- How beautiful do you want it to be ?
Vaughan Williams : Yes.
9:17 Alto solo 😊
This brings back memories. I sang the N.A. solo when the choir I was in did this several years ago.
This is the piece that first told me what my future would be: as a choral musician, conductor, and composer. For that, I have Dr Dennis Shrock to thank. More info: wordsmusicworship.com/2020/06/08/on-mentoring-and-mentors/
Overwhelmingly besutiful
...
🎉🙏🙏🙏🕉
2:09
My wife's choir are singing this today!
9:16
How beautiful
nice.
The Words For
The times you wish
there were the words for
Why, where? When???
Music, a painting? A person?
You only know
that buried within yourself
there is at times
an eruptive wealth of feeling
you’ll never find
the words for
Unbelievably gorgeous!!!
Yeah what is it Eric?
@@darrylschultz9311 yove left the kettle on ,,,,,,