A little Vaughan Williams

The comment on last week’s blog from the delightful Mr Mantyjarvi, whose music I’d been blithely discussing, has had three effects on me. Firstly, now that I know he is so knowledgeable about Moomins I am an even bigger fan than I already was. Secondly, I’ve realised – perhaps belatedly – that people might actually read the blog. Which leads me to thirdly, feeling very guilty about being so frivolously rude about Bob Applebaum last week. I do actually really like his “Witches Song”, which is lucky as worked quite a lot on it at this week’s rehearsal. We were trying to nail the scrunchy jazz chords, and it’s starting to sound luscious. Unfortunately, I went to a singing lesson during rehearsal, and while my back was turned the dastardly soprano section volunteered me to hit the tricky solo note at the very end. And I thought they were my friends! I am now applying for a transfer to the Altos, but in the meantime I’m going to get that note if it kills me. I’m doing it for the reputation of amateur singers everywhere!

So let’s talk about a composer that is in no position to sue me if he doesn’t like what I write in the blog – Vaughan Williams and his Three Shakespeare Songs. They’re simply gorgeous pieces, and we’re determined to do them justice in the concert. But they’re also very testing. “Full Fathom Five” is full of cross rhythms which are very difficult not to rush, “The Cloud Capp’d Towers” is an exercise in struggling to keep the pitch up, and “Over Hill Over Dale” is all about unexpected entries and working to stay together. After wrestling with them for a while, it felt as though they were designed to test us in the areas where we’re most likely to trip up. And as it turns out, they were written to do exactly that. Vaughan Williams wrote them for a choir competition festival at the request of Armstrong Gibbs, another Oriana favourite. Initially Vaughan Williams wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea, but then Armstrong Gibbs was taken ill with the flu, and while he was in bed a package arrived bearing the Three Shakespeare Songs and a dedication that he could do with them whatever he pleased. Which is a nice story, but it did rather make me wonder why Vaughan Williams would go to such trouble just because his friend had the flu. Do you suppose he was always so inspired by illness? Perhaps all his pieces were written in reaction to friends’ mild ailments. “A Seasick Symphony”? “Fantasia on the Theme of Tonsilitis”? “Gangrenesleeves?” The mind boggles!