Notes for: August 13, 2013
Ralph Vaughan Williams was arguably the most influential British composer of the first half of the 20th century, writing nine symphonies, several concertos and shorter orchestral pieces, three operas, and a treasury of songs and choral works. Further, he was the founder of the nationalist movement in British music, taking a life-long interest in English folk song and music of the Tudor period and incorporating their elements into his own works. However, he wrote relatively little chamber music – two string quartets, a violin sonata, a dozen or so short instrumental pieces, and the work we hear this evening.
In fact, he probably would not have written this Phantasy Quintet if it had not been for a remarkable English businessman, W. W. Cobbett. In 1900, Cobbett retired from business to devote the remaining 30 years of his life to the promotion of chamber music. His primary contribution was the compilation of the Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, published in 1929 and still a standard reference tool. He also established the British Chamber Music Association and a free public library of chamber music.
In 1905, Cobbett sponsored a competition for the composition of chamber-music “phantasies.” More specifically, with the viol fantasias of Tudor and Jacobean times in mind, he asked composers to write pieces of short duration without movement breaks but permitting continuous sections varying in tempo or character. A number of British composers submitted entries. Vaughan Williams did not, but in 1912 Cobbett invited him to write a phantasy anyway, and this piece was the result.
Vaughan Williams’s phantasy, using two violins, two violas and a cello, is a continuous work in four sections – Prelude, Scherzo, Alla Sarabande and Burlesca. The point apparently is to demonstrate how many moods and textures can be generated from a simple musical phrase within a short time span.
The Prelude, lento ma non troppo, opens with the solo viola offering a long, sinuous theme, in the pentatonic (five-tone) scale characteristic of English folk music. The theme’s dominant feature is an upward arching phrase, whose profile is to become the raw material of all four sections. The viola is answered by the first violin, and the ensuing music ventures into other harmonies and textures.
The Scherzo, prestissimo, is light in mood and asymetrical in rhythm. The cello starts and completes the section, and a prominent role is given to an ostinato bass – that is, a repeated melodic pattern in the bass line.
The Alla Sarabanda, lento, is in the leisurely tempo of a traditional Spanish dance in triple time. The cello takes a rest, and the other instruments play with mutes, giving the sound a delicate luminosity.
As its name suggests, the Burlesca, allegro moderato, introduces a playful, even sardonic, mood. There are reflective moments, however, and echoes of folk song from the opening section. The first violin then has a rhapsodic cadenza, and the quintet ends on an ethereal note.