Ralph Vaughan Williams and His Operas - Coursework Example

Why have Vaughan Williams operas been relatively neglected in both critical terms and in frequency of performance? (Date) Introduction It is an admitted fact that Vaughan Williams received an unjustifiably low degree of attention and appreciation in the past decades. He is one of the seminal figures in the development of British music and in the history of musical nationalism. However, as Alain Frogley identifies, “no substantial writing on Vaughan Williams had appeared in print since the authorised life and works volumes were published in the mid-1960s, a few years after the composer’s death”1. Also, the author identifies that there was not even a single PhD on the works of Vaughan Williams either from America or from Britain2. At this juncture, in order to understand the reasons behind the great degree of neglect Vaughan Williams faced, it is necessary to start from the beginning of his musical life. The early life of Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams was born as the third child of Arthur and Margaret Vaughan Williams, on 12 October 12, 1872, in Down Ampney. Arthur was the vicar of All Saints Church at Down Ampney. Ralph received his early music lessons from his aunt Sophy as music was important in the family. Thus, at the age of six, he produced his first piano piece named ‘The Robin Nest’. According to records, he also loved reading, playing duets, and enjoying Shakespearian works3. As he reached the preparatory school at Rottingdean, he realised that he was good in violin. However, his family wanted him to concentrate on organ instead of violin. After his preparatory school, he joined the Royal College of Music where Sir Hubert Parry gave him in depth knowledge about music. Furthermore, it was at this time that he was filled with a degree of nobility and greatness of English choral tradition. One can see the influence of folk songs on the texture, contours, and melodies of his works like Fen Country and Norfolk Rhapsodies. In addition, there was the impact of his connection with hymn-tunes on his works as he was the musical editor of the English Hymnal for a long time. At that time, he spent considerable amount of time studying the works of Tudor and Elizabethan composers. In fact, over these years, he was influenced by the works of a lot of great people ranging from Sir Hubert Parry, Tudor, and Elizabethan choral music. Thus, in the year 1910, he produced remarkable works like Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and A Sea Symphony. A look into the reasons behind the lack of recognition As Alain Frogley points out, the lack of recognition received by Vaughan Williams was not a mere accident; instead, his contribution was distorted and blighted “not only by the international musical politics of this century, but to an even greater degree by the special ideological tensions of Britain’s long decline as a world power”4. Wilfred Mellers points out that it is common for the ‘popular image of nearly every composer‘to face a kind of distortion and over-simplification5. In other words, it is pointed by the scholar that every artist who creates reflex reactions is destined to face a degree of adverse criticism. If this is the case, Vaughan Williams has all the rights to be rejected and neglected because in the words of Alain Frogley, “Few composers produce quite such a strong reflex action”6. Thus, one gains the insight that the first and foremost reason for this neglect can be found in psychology. Also, it becomes evident that to understand the reason behind the repulsion, it is necessary to understand the reason behind Vaughan Williams’ popularity when he was alive. Another point, according to Hilary Davan Wetton, is to be found in the issue of nationalism. It is pointed out that musicologists and scholars in other cognate disciplines have not done enough work to link history with art. Though literary critics and others have published a wide variety of works on the concept of nationalism, they did relatively less analysis on the relation between history and music7. Yet another vital point, according to the scholar is that the twentieth century writers were influenced more by modernism. In other words, the twentieth century writing gave more attention to modernists like Stravinsky and Schoenberg8. As a result, one can see that not only Vaughan Williams but many other prominent British composers found no place in the public attention. It is pointed out by John Bridcut that as Vaughan Williams was a man very close to the imperial power, it is rather surprising to note that he could not get the kind of attention he deserved9. Another explanation to the phenomenon comes from the work of Jonathan M. Kraemer. The scholar points out that “the reception of Vaughan Williams’ music has been blighted by broader cultural forces, in particular by tensions in the national self-image, and that an understanding of these is essential if we are to achieve a more accurate assessment of his overall achievement, and a less prejudiced response to his music”10. In the opinion of Alain Frogley, it is necessary to address three issues in order to understand the distortion faced by Vaughan Williams. They are ‘(a) the nature and limitation of the current associations of the label ‘nationalist’ as applied to Vaughan Williams; (b) how this label has evolved over the years; and (c) its links with broader constructions of English national identity in the twentieth century’11. When one looks into the works of Vaughan Williams, one can see the influence of various factors which give him the reputation as a nationalist composer. The said elements are his works pointing out the importance of national roots for musical styles, his efforts to collect native folksongs, and the influence of other musical sources on his own music, including King James Bible and Shakespeare. Thus, one can say that the works from Vaughan Williams exhibit the English national character; including English landscape and English language. However, the concept of nationalism changed significantly as a result of the World Wars. First of all, for the post-war nations, ethnicity and language were the two main elements of nationalism, and for the ethnic minorities of the established nations, the only dream was independence. Though English musical nationalism finally emerged in the twentieth century, it was not given adequate importance as it was considered only as an ‘icing on the cake’. In other words, as England was already a powerful nation, it was something like adding music to the list of other areas of excellent endeavour. Another reason, according to Richard Brandon Brunson, is to be found in the development of Fascism and socialism12. Admittedly, people like Vaughan Williams, Cecil Sharp, and Gustav Holst, were all socialists. However, the general public still associates the concept o nationalism with right-wing ideology. In fact, English was well connected to socialism as the seventeenth century Puritan revolution had linked Englishness and socialism. Thus, the folksongs of the rural folks often worked against the interests of the upper class. There was a degree of hostility existing between the folk songs and the imperial. However, due to his special position which was very close to aristocracy, the works of Vaughan Williams were often considered hostile to the left-wing interests. Thus, though Vaughan Williams stressed on nationalism and preservation of rural folksongs, he was often considered as an opponent to young left-wing people like Tippett and Britten13. Regarding the lack of attention given to A London Symphony by the contemporary critics, it is opined by Alain Frogley that the reason can be related to the extraordinary consensus that obtained throughout the English society of 1920s. Moreover, it is pointed out by Dickinson that despite this lack of criticism, there were growing trends to view Vaughan Williams’s works as eccentric due to the composer’s tendency to narrow his views on folksongs and nationalism14. It is alleged by Dickinson that the main reasons for the apparent lack of interest were the continued association with Englishness and rural folksongs. To illustrate, after the Great Wars, British influence on the rest of the world declined considerably. As a result, the English turned nostalgic and escapist in nature; coming back to their own domestic affairs instead of the global picture15. At this time, the ruralist ideas gained further appreciation among all the British, including working class. Also, this effort to lick ones wounds through nationalist songs was actively supported by media. As Richard Brandon Brunson points out, at this time, the influence of folk songs and pastoralism on poetry was at its height. A perfect example is A Pastoral symphony first performed in 1922. Thus, his critics alleged that there was excessive dependence on Englishness and rural associations. This was accompanied by oversimplification too16. However, he again broke the hearts of the critics in the fourth decade of the twentieth century. It was a time when Germany came up as a threat to the whole world. Challenging the claim that he was caught in the world of pastoral and parochial music, Vaughan Williams worked on his fourth symphony which was a violent work; a truly international one with no touch of folksongs. It helped in countering the allegation that he was showing insularity and proved that he was, in fact, influenced by contemporary developments. However, a study of the work by Hubert Foss, which was published in the year 1950, proves how this element of nationalism has adversely affected the image of Vaughan Williams. As it points out, the music of Vaughan Williams was considered ‘dogged’, ‘obstinate’, and ‘clumsy’17. Thus, though presented in a positive sense, these elements only damaged the image of Vaughan Williams and his music. Another vital point to be mentioned here is the rebellion that broke out during 1950s. The rebellion was aimed at all the existing ‘Establishments’, and all the important figures of national importance came under attack. In the case of music, this attack aimed all the amateurishness and insularity. Thus, Vaughan Williams was one among the attacked. Critics like Donald Mitchell wrote in 1955, “There is a level below which directness and forthrightness or utterance - qualities for which Vaughan Williams is praised - deteriorate into a downright unacceptable and damaging primitivity”18. Thus, what happened to the image of Vaughan Williams is clear. There are so many other reasons too. According to Dickinson, one reason is the coming of Benjamin Britten. His music was cosmopolitan, professional, and clever. Thus, whenever there was a debate regarding the music of Britten, Vaughan Williams was unnecessarily dragged into the issue for being direct, simple, and nationalist19. The operas of Vaughan Williams – reasons behind their failure It was in 1914 that Vaughan Williams finished his first opera named Hugh the Drover. It was a romantic ballad with words by Harold Child. Another opera, The Pilgrim’s Progress, is about the spiritual journey of a man, showing a great degree of inner spirituality. Following this, operas like Sir John in Love came out. Again, this was based on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. In this work too, he tried to include his favourite folksongs. In fact, the premier performance of The Pilgrim’s Progress was a failure, and many experts have provided many reasons for the same. In the opinion of Ronald Graeme, the reason lies in the fact that there is nothing operational in the work. Firstly, there is no dramatic elements or duets, or other formal arias. Secondly, it has the nature of a tableaux with a linear narrative and too much of work for the chorus. Though the name indicates progress, there is no visible progress seen on the stage or in the music. Thus, the scholar is of the opinion that the performance belies the title20. Michael Kennedy points out that though Vaughan Williams is good in expressing conflict, he miserably fails in characterisation. The scholar points out that through his Fourth and Sixth symphonies Vaughan Williams has proved that he is capable of portraying conflict in the abstract, but he has failed to do so using human elements21. The second important thing is the influence of religion. Though it is clear that Vaughan Williams wanted to keep his work away from the influence of religion and present in a general setting, the subject of spirituality and his own history in religion negatively affected the work. Michael Kennedy points out that his work failed because the structure of the operas was non-traditional in nature. It is alleged that his work was more like a morality than like an opera. A morality was a play which was intended to enforce a moral truth. It did not have music and depended on speech and actions. Similarly, the work by Vaughan Williams presented a moral story but the only difference was that it included music22. Another important point, according to Richard Brandon Brunson, was the antiquated music. As already noted, he continued to include folk music in the operas too. In fact, critics and audience were bored of the repetition and insularity exhibited by Vaughan Williams23. Also, Vaughan Williams faced the problem that his work was termed as a Christian story though he deliberately wanted to keep it away from the church. Thus, the story of the spiritual journey was seen by many audience and critics as a Church theme providing a moral story to teach. Thus, it could not effectively entertain the audience like a full-blown drama. Instead, it became something like a morality which was used by the ancient church to teach its followers Christian principles. The final analysis Thus, one can say that there is a combination of various reasons, which led to the lack of attention by the critics and less appearance on stage. The first reason, as already noted, is his excessive interest in rural folksongs and nationalism. Thus, his works were considered contradictory to the modern works. Thus, when critics and performers turned to modernism, his works were inevitably ignored. The second important point is the oversimplification he faced as a result of his dependence on folk music and nationalism. The great degree of importance enjoyed by the content of nationalism over the post-war years gave nationalist works great public acceptance, but were criticised for being monotonous. Moreover, this great degree of attention gave birth to resentment and dejection. The third important point is the general rebellion that opposed all that is ‘established’, during 1950s. This time witnessed a discontentment towards all the popular figures, and inevitably, Vaughan William became a victim, being a great advocate of nationalism. In an operational scale, there is the allegation against his opera that his operas are not perfectly designed to be staged. First of all, his operas like The Pilgrim’s Progress are marked by total lack of dramatic movements. Moreover, the characterisation too seems poor. In addition is the poor music. All these reasons led to the poor attention received by Vaughan Williams’ operas. In total, it becomes evident that Vaughan Williams was a man who was often ignored and misrepresented. He exhibited considerable degree of affinity towards nationalism and rural folk music, and these two elements influenced much of his work. However, the changed domestic and international situations resulted in people’s drifting away from these elements, and this resulted in the disappearance of the works by Vaughan Williams from the public sphere. Bibliography Alain Frogley, Vaughan Williams Studies (Cambridge University Press, London: 1996). Brunson, Richard Brandon, "Ralph V aughan William s the Pilgrim s Progress: Problems and Solutions for Future Performances", (2009). UNLV Theses/Dissertations/Professional P apers/Capstones. Paper 1192 E.F Dickinson, Vaughan Williams (London: Faber and Faber, 1963) Graeme, Ronald, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Opera Quarterly volume 16, no. 4 (2000) p. 705) Hilary Davan Wetton, ‘Why is Ralph Vaughan Williams not honoured?’ The Telegraph, 2008 Feb 15 Last accessed 13 Jan 2013 John Bridcut, ‘Why is there no Vaughan Williams memorial?’ The Telegraph May 12, 2008 last accessed 13 Jan 2013. Jonathan M. Kraemer, ‘Echoes of War—The Resonating Patterns of Influence: An examination of the recurrent musical trends in large-scale, sacred, British, Anti-war choral works of the twentieth century’ (2009) < http://repositories.tdl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/9804/kraemer_jonathan_diss.pdf?sequence=1> last accessed 13 Jan 2013 Kennedy, Michael, A Catalogue of the Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams (London: Oxford University Press, 1982). RVWS Society online < http://www.rvwsociety.com/bio_expanded.html> last accessed 13 Jan 2013. Wilfred Mellers, Vaughan Williams and the Vision of Albion (Barrie & Jenkins, London: 1989). Read More