{"id":741,"date":"2014-10-20T00:21:51","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T04:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=741"},"modified":"2018-08-24T15:23:32","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T19:23:32","slug":"toward-the-unknown-vaughan-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=741","title":{"rendered":"Toward the Unknown Vaughan Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dr.<\/a>\"14-10-20<\/a><\/p>\n

Ralph Vaugh\u00adan William\u2019s first crit\u00adi\u00adcal and pop\u00adu\u00adlar suc\u00adcess came fair\u00adly late, when he was 33. This was the remark\u00adable song for cho\u00adrus and orches\u00adtra Toward the Unknown Region<\/em>, based on Walt Whitman\u2019s poem from the \u201cWhis\u00adpers of Heav\u00adenly Death\u201d sec\u00adtion of Leaves of Grass<\/em> :<\/span><\/p>\n

Darest thou now, O Soul, <\/em>
\nWalk out with me toward the Unknown Region, <\/em>
\nWhere nei\u00adther ground is for the feet, nor any path to follow? <\/em><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

No map, there, nor guide, <\/em>
\nNor voice sound\u00ading, nor touch of human hand, <\/em>
\nNor face with bloom\u00ading flesh, nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land. <\/em><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

I know it not, O Soul, <\/em>
\nNor dost thou, all is a blank before us,<\/em>
\nAll waits, undream\u2019d of, in that region, that inac\u00adces\u00adsi\u00adble land. <\/em><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Till, when the ties loosen, 10 All but the ties eter\u00adnal, Time and Space, Nor dark\u00adness, grav\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtion, sense, nor any bounds, bound us. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Then we burst forth,we float, <\/em>
\nIn Time and Space, O Soul, pre\u00adpared for them, <\/em>
\nEqual, equipt at last, (O joy! O fruit of all!) them to ful\u00adfil, O Soul.<\/em><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

This piece has sub\u00adse\u00adquently been set to music many times, by com\u00adposers as diverse as Hen\u00adryk G\u00f3rec\u00adki, William Schu\u00adman, and Philip Glass. But when Vaugh\u00adan Williams pre\u00adsented his ver\u00adsion in 1907, it drew atten\u00adtion to him as part of a tech\u00adni\u00adcal and aes\u00adthetic van\u00adguard that would soon trans\u00adform Eng\u00adlish music. Vaugh\u00adan Williams had been hand\u00aded the book by an old school friend, Bertrand Rus\u00adsell. It was cir\u00adcu\u00adlat\u00ading among young trou\u00adble\u00admak\u00aders. While we can\u2019t recap\u00adture the feel\u00ading of rad\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adism that was sensed in RVW<\/span>\u2019s music, we can appre\u00adci\u00adate the fact that it is com\u00adposed with a fine bal\u00adance of emo\u00adtional impact and tech\u00adni\u00adcal pre\u00adci\u00adsion. I\u2019m no musi\u00adcian, but I can fol\u00adlow a score while lis\u00adten\u00ading, and Vaugh\u00adan Williams\u2019 artistry as a young com\u00adposer leaps from the page.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fast for\u00adward to 1934, and Vaugh\u00adan Williams was still quest\u00ading, still inno\u00advat\u00ading, still search\u00ading for new ways to express him\u00adself. His fourth sym\u00adphony, which I also lis\u00adtened to with the score in hand, is a star\u00adtling con\u00adtrast to the pleas\u00adant pro\u00adgram\u00admatic style of the sec\u00adond and third sym\u00adphonies. In fact, it\u2019s rather severe, and dis\u00adturb\u00ading. It\u2019s intend\u00aded to be \u201cpure\u201d com\u00adpo\u00adsi\u00adtion, sug\u00adgest\u00ading no extra-musi\u00adcal imagery. Vaugh\u00adan Williams was even quot\u00aded as say\u00ading of it, \u201cI don\u2019t know whether I like it, but it\u2019s what I meant.\u201d I don\u2019t think it appeals to the aver\u00adage Vaugh\u00adan Williams fan, who prob\u00ada\u00adbly prefers the larks and fens and drift\u00ading clouds and oth\u00ader Wind in the Wil\u00adlows<\/em> ele\u00adments that are usu\u00adally asso\u00adci\u00adated with the com\u00adposer. But I real\u00adly like this sym\u00adphony, and think it shows why his more impres\u00adsion\u00adist works have an under\u00adly\u00ading depth that gives them vigour. I have only one record\u00ading, an ancient vinyl con\u00adducted by Adri\u00adan Boult. It\u2019s the only Vaugh\u00adan Williams sym\u00adphony I don\u2019t have on CD<\/span>. A bit of triv\u00adia: The Klin\u00adgon theme, used in near\u00adly every ver\u00adsion of Star Trek since the orig\u00adi\u00adnal, is lift\u00aded from the 3rd movement.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sec\u00adond pho\u00adto, show\u00ading a mature Vaugh\u00adan Williams, is of course by the incom\u00adpa\u00adra\u00adble por\u00adtrait pho\u00adtog\u00adra\u00adph\u00ader Yousuf Karsh, of Ottawa.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ralph Vaugh\u00adan William\u2019s first crit\u00adi\u00adcal and pop\u00adu\u00adlar suc\u00adcess came fair\u00adly late, when he was 33. This was the remark\u00adable song for cho\u00adrus and orches\u00adtra Toward the Unknown Region, based on Walt Whitman\u2019s poem from the \u201cWhis\u00adpers of Heav\u00adenly Death\u201d section \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[947,22],"tags":[1373,1371,1369,1370,1368,1075,1372,1374],"class_list":["post-741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-listening","category-cs-listening-2008","tag-adrian-boult","tag-leaves-of-grass","tag-ralph-vaughan-williams","tag-toward-the-unknown-region","tag-vaughan-williams","tag-walt-whitman","tag-whispers-of-heavenly-death","tag-yousuf-karsh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=741"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9846,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions\/9846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}