The Wasps - "Overture" by Ralph Vaughan Williams (Audio + Sheet Music)

pf: Hallé Orchestra cond/ Sir Mark Elder
Instrumentation: 2 flutes (also piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (B♭), 2 bassoons, 4 horns (F - 3, 4 ad lib.), 2 trumpets (F), 3 trombones (ad lib.), timpani, triangle, side drum, bass drum, cymbals
harp, string orchestra
Year/Date of Composition: 1909
First Publication: 1914 - London: Schott.
As had his teachers Sir Hubert Parry and Sir Charles Villiers Stanford before him, in 1909 Vaughan Williams was asked by the Greek Play Committee at Cambridge to write incidental music for their annual performance, which that year featured Aristophanes' satirical play The Wasps. Originally constituting an overture and 17 other items scored for tenor and baritone soloists, male chorus and orchestra, the music was heard for the first time at the performance of the play on November 26, 1909. The music was a huge hit, and a couple of years later Vaughan Williams extracted what he called an Aristophanic Suite from his incidental music; the Suite was first performed on July 23, 1912, with Vaughan Williams himself conducting the New Symphony Orchestra.
While the play itself is strongly satirical, Vaughan Williams' music is consistently good-natured. The music is also among his first to reflect the sound and spirit of English folk song, even though no actual folk songs are heard. Neither are heard any ancient Greek scales or quotations from Greek music; authenticity was not the composer's aim.
The overture to The Wasps was one of Vaughan Williams' first works to enter the fringes of the standard repertory, and has remained a concert and recording staple. We hear the buzzing of the wasps at the beginning of the overture, followed by a sequence of jolly melodies. More restrained and lyrical music temporarily takes over. Then suddenly the wasps return and the tempo picks up again. After a brief dramatic interlude, the tunes of the opening return, closing the overture in lively style. It might be noted that one of Vaughan Williams' first recordings as a conductor was of this overture, made with the Aeolian Orchestra in 1925.
The Aristophanic Suite also includes "The March Past of the Kitchen Utensils," a fine comic march, and a couple of Entr'actes. The Suite concludes with an exotic Ballet which, after a return of the buzzing wasps, leads into the rambunctious Final Tableau and a whirlwind coda.
Sources:
www.allmusic.co....
imslp.org/wiki/....