Something for your Saturday morning

November 21, 2015 at 9:00 am

Not much to say about this one! Pour a cup of tea and draw yourself a musical bath – courtesy of Ralph Vaughan-Williams.

Some quick notes about Vaughan-Williams :

  • He loved and collected English folk music; its influence can be heard in all his music
  • He was the son of a priest, but was an atheist; later, a self-described “cheerful agnostic”
  • Despite the above, he wrote a great deal of sacred music and practically defined the hymnody of the Anglican church for a century
  • He volunteered to serve as an ambulance driverĀ in WWI; the experience affected him (and, by extension, his music) profoundly
  • His remains are interred in Westminster Abbey, near those of Purcell and C.V. Stanford

Vaughan-Williams’ music might be conservative when compared to his contemporaries, but it really hits home. The Lark Ascending is simply transcendent.

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