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{{Short description|1947 symphony by Vaughan Williams}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}} {{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
]'s Symphony in E minor, published as '''Symphony No. 6''', was composed in 1944–47,<ref name="rvws">{{cite web|title=Vaughan Williams Symphonies|url=https://rvwsociety.com/symphonies/|accessdate=2017-12-08|publisher=Vaughan Williams Society}}</ref> during and immediately after ] and revised in 1950. Dedicated to Michael Mullinar,<ref name="rvws" /> it was first performed, in its original version, by ] and the ] on 21 April 1948. Within a year it had received some 100 performances, including the U.S. premiere by the ] under ] on 7&nbsp;August 1948. ] gave the first New York performances the following January with the ] and immediately recorded it, declaring that "this is music that will take its place with the greatest creations of the masters."{{Citequote|date=February 2019}} However, Vaughan Williams, very nervous about this symphony, threatened several times to tear up the draft. At the same time, his programme note for the first performance took a defiantly flippant tone.{{Citation needed|date=February 2019}} ] composed his Symphony in E minor, published as '''Symphony No. 6''', in 1944–47,<ref name="rvws">{{cite web|title=Vaughan Williams Symphonies|url=https://rvwsociety.com/symphonies/|accessdate=2017-12-08|publisher=Vaughan Williams Society}}</ref> during and immediately after ] and revised in 1950. Dedicated to ],<ref name="rvws" /> it was first performed, in its original version, by Sir ] and the ] on 21 April 1948. Within a year it had received some 100 performances, including the U.S. premiere by the ] under ] on 7&nbsp;August 1948. ] gave the first New York performances the following January with the ] and immediately recorded it, declaring that "this is music that will take its place with the greatest creations of the masters."<ref>{{cite web|title=Stokowski and Vaughan Williams| url=https://www.stokowski.org/Stokowski_and_Vaughan_Williams.htm}}</ref> However, Vaughan Williams, very nervous about this symphony, threatened several times to tear up the draft. At the same time, his programme note for the first performance took a defiantly flippant tone.{{Citation needed|date=February 2019}}


Perhaps the composer never intended the symphony to be programmatic, but it was inevitable that his post-war audience should associate its disturbing and often violent character with the detonation of the ]s over ] and ]. In response to these questions, he is widely quoted as having said, "It never seems to occur to people that a man might just want to write a piece of music".<ref name="cn"></ref><ref name="nb"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927222402/http://www.newberkshire.com/7bso-boston-symphony-colin-davis.php |date=27 September 2007 }}</ref> In connection with the last movement, the composer did eventually suggest that a quotation from Act IV of ]'s '']'' comes close to the music's meaning: "We are such stuff / As dreams are made on; and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep." <ref>Vaughan Williams, Ursula. (1964) ''R.V.W.: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams'', Oxford University Press. (See Chapter XIII, p. 283.)</ref> Perhaps the composer never intended the symphony to be programmatic, but it was inevitable that his post-war audience should associate its disturbing and often violent character with the detonation of the ]s over ] and ]. In response to these questions, he is widely quoted as having said, "It never seems to occur to people that a man might just want to write a piece of music".<ref name="cn"></ref><ref name="nb"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927222402/http://www.newberkshire.com/7bso-boston-symphony-colin-davis.php |date=27 September 2007 }}</ref> In connection with the last movement, the composer did eventually suggest that a quotation from Act IV of ]'s '']'' comes close to the music's meaning: "We are such stuff / As dreams are made on; and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep."<ref>Vaughan Williams, Ursula. (1964) ''R.V.W.: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams'', Oxford University Press. (See Chapter XIII, p. 283.)</ref>

The deaths of the band members in the ] bombing in 1941 moved him to incorporate elements of jazz, including a saxophone solo in the Scherzo movement.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Byron |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8qTMEAAAQBAJ&dq=Ken+%27Snakehips%27+Johnson+jazz+vaughan+williams+6th+symphony&pg=PA156 |title=Vaughan Williams and His World |last2=Grimley |first2=Daniel M. |date=2023-08-05 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-83045-2}}</ref> This influence was noted by the conductor ] who took the symphony on its initial tour around the world.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heffer |first=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eFGzAwAAQBAJ&dq=Ken+%27Snake-hips%27+Johnson+vaughan+williams&pg=PT90 |title=Vaughan Williams |date=2014-06-19 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-31548-2}}</ref>


The Symphony is noteworthy for its unusually discordant harmonic language, reminiscent in approach if not in technique of his ] from over a decade earlier, and for its inclusion of a ] among the ]. In several respects this symphony marks the beginning of Vaughan Williams's experiments with orchestration that so characterise his late music. The Symphony is noteworthy for its unusually discordant harmonic language, reminiscent in approach if not in technique of his ] from over a decade earlier, and for its inclusion of a ] among the ]. In several respects this symphony marks the beginning of Vaughan Williams's experiments with orchestration that so characterise his late music.
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=== Allegro === === Allegro ===
<score vorbis="1"> { \new PianoStaff << \new Staff \relative c'' { \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \key e \minor \tempo "Allegro" 4 = 100 f8--\ff g-- aes4->(~ \times 2/3 { aes8 g e) } \times 2/3 { aes->( g e) } | aes16-> } \new Staff \relative c'' { \clef bass \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \key e \minor r2 < g b, g e e,>2~ | < g b, g e e,>8 } >> } </score> <score sound="1"> { \new PianoStaff << \new Staff \relative c'' { \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \key e \minor \tempo "Allegro" 4 = 100 f8--\ff g-- aes4->(~ \times 2/3 { aes8 g e) } \times 2/3 { aes->( g e) } | aes16-> } \new Staff \relative c'' { \clef bass \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \key e \minor r2 < g b, g e e,>2~ | < g b, g e e,>8 } >> } </score>
The symphony begins very loudly with the full orchestra playing simultaneously in ] and ].{{Citation needed|date=December 2018}}<!--The score example appears to have the orchestra playing in E Phrygian, with a lowered fourth scale degree.--> The chaotic rush of notes makes the listener's job of getting or keeping bearings relatively difficult. Because the composer uses so many disruptive techniques in both rhythm and ], there is often no clear sense of ] or ]. Structurally, the movement falls loosely into the category of ] with its carefully organised contrasting themes and key centres, though this may not be apparent on first hearing. Indeed, the most striking point of contrast may be the reappearance near the end of the movement of one of the main themes in a clear and rich ]. The first movement ends with a sustained unison E in the low instruments, at which point the second movement begins. The symphony begins very loudly with the full orchestra playing simultaneously in ] and ].{{Citation needed|date=December 2018}}<!--The score example appears to have the orchestra playing in E Phrygian, with a lowered fourth scale degree.--> The chaotic rush of notes makes the listener's job of getting or keeping bearings relatively difficult. Because the composer uses so many disruptive techniques in both rhythm and ], there is often no clear sense of ] or ]. Structurally, the movement falls loosely into the category of ] with its carefully organised contrasting themes and key centres, though this may not be apparent on first hearing. Indeed, the most striking point of contrast may be the reappearance near the end of the movement of one of the main themes in a clear and rich ]. The first movement ends with a sustained unison E in the low instruments, at which point the second movement begins.


=== Moderato === === Moderato ===
<score vorbis="1"> \relative c'' { \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \key bes \minor \tempo "Moderato" 4 = 72 << { bes4\p^"pizz." r bes,(^"arco" ces | c!16)-. c-. c8-. r des( d4 c | ces16-.) ces-. ces8-. } \\ { s1 | bes16-. bes-. bes8-. | s4 s2 | bes16-. } >> } </score> <score sound="1"> \relative c'' { \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \key bes \minor \tempo "Moderato" 4 = 72 << { bes4\p^"pizz." r bes,(^"arco" ces | c!16)-. c-. c8-. r des( d4 c | ces16-.) ces-. ces8-. } \\ { s1 | bes16-. bes-. bes8-. | s4 s2 | bes16-. } >> } </score>
The second movement starts a ] away, in ]. The main themes are so ] that they eventually have little sense of profile. A central feature of this movement is a "rat-a-tat" rhythmic ] that recurs through most of the movement, beginning in the second measure. At one point that figure goes away for a while, and the effect of its eventual return is an almost palpable sense of dread. After an enormous battering climax fuelled by that figure (including the single loudest point in the entire symphony), the movement winds down with a lengthy solo played by the ], still accompanied by the same three-note ostinato. The sustained last note links via a half-step drop to the Scherzo Movement. The second movement starts a ] away, in ]. The main themes are so ] that they eventually have little sense of profile. A central feature of this movement is a "rat-a-tat" rhythmic ] that recurs through most of the movement, beginning in the second measure. At one point that figure goes away for a while, and the effect of its eventual return is an almost palpable sense of dread. After an enormous battering climax fuelled by that figure (including the single loudest point in the entire symphony), the movement winds down with a lengthy solo played by the ], still accompanied by the same three-note ostinato. The sustained last note links via a half-step drop to the next movement.


=== Scherzo: Allegro vivace === === Scherzo: Allegro vivace ===
<score vorbis="1"> \relative c { \clef bass \time 2/4 \key d \minor \tempo "Allegro vivace" 4 = 120 << { bes2\f e f b~ | b8 a g fis | e16-. fis-. g8-. } \\ { bes,2 e~ | e4 d | c b | a8-. b-. c4 | s4 } >> } </score> <score sound="1"> \relative c { \clef bass \time 2/4 \key d \minor \tempo "Allegro vivace" 4 = 120 << { bes2\f e f b~ | b8 a g fis | e16-. fis-. g8-. } \\ { bes,2 e~ | e4 d | c b | a8-. b-. c4 | s4 } >> } </score>
This movement, heavily ] in texture, follows a typical ] structure, but the overall feel is hardly one of amusement; the high spirits are decidedly raucous and sardonic. Although the rhythmic style is less disjointed than in the first movement (the listener has little trouble following the meter here), the harmony (heavily dominated by tritones, or lowered fifths) and orchestration both revert to the first movement's density. The trio section features the tenor saxophone's only true solo role in the symphony; when the scherzo material recurs the composer ] the fugue subject and eventually combines that form with the original version. With the final climax (the trio theme stated by full orchestra) the music almost collapses, leaving the ] holding the sustained note that links to the Finale. This movement, heavily ] in texture, follows a typical ] structure, but the overall feel is hardly one of amusement; the high spirits are decidedly raucous and sardonic. Although the rhythmic style is less disjointed than in the first movement (the listener has little trouble following the meter here), the harmony (heavily dominated by tritones, or lowered fifths) and orchestration both revert to the first movement's density. The trio section features the tenor saxophone's only true solo role in the symphony; when the scherzo material recurs the composer ] the fugue subject and eventually combines that form with the original version. With the final climax (the trio theme stated by full orchestra) the music almost collapses, leaving the ] holding the sustained note that links to the Finale.


=== Epilogue: Moderato === === Epilogue: Moderato ===
<score vorbis="1"> \relative c' { \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \tempo "Moderato" 4 = 56 f8(\pp g aes b~ b | c16 ) } </score> <score sound="1"> \relative c' { \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \tempo "Moderato" 4 = 56 f8(\pp g aes b~ b | c16 ) } </score>
This movement follows a vaguely fugal structure, but that structure is not especially perceptible to the listener because the entire movement is marked ''pp'', meaning played very softly (and at one point ''senza crescendo'', an instruction not to increase the volume), with the further admonishment ''senza espressivo'', meaning without any expression.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}<!--Who claims that a soft dynamic makes fugal processes difficult to hear?--> This makes the movement extremely difficult to play, and the audience must use great concentration to keep from losing track of the composer's train of thought.{{Opinion|date=February 2019}} Vaughan Williams himself, in his aforementioned programme note, speaks of “drifting” and “whiffs of theme” in characterising the music. This is the movement that sparked so many to see the work as a whole as being a vision of a post-nuclear world. Writers have used such words as “dead”, “barren”, and “ruins” to describe it. Curiously enough, both the second and fourth movements have the same tempo marking but the feel is decidedly slower here.{{Clarify|date=December 2017}}<!--"Feel"??-->{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}} This movement follows a vaguely fugal structure, but that structure is not especially perceptible to the listener because the entire movement is marked ''pp'', meaning played very softly (and at one point ''senza crescendo'', an instruction not to increase the volume), with the further admonishment ''senza espressivo'', meaning without any expression.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}<!--Who claims that a soft dynamic makes fugal processes difficult to hear?--> This makes the movement extremely difficult to play, and the audience must use great concentration to keep from losing track of the composer's train of thought.{{Opinion|date=February 2019}} Vaughan Williams himself, in his aforementioned programme note, speaks of "drifting" and "whiffs of theme" in characterising the music. This is the movement that sparked so many to see the work as a whole as being a vision of a post-nuclear world. Writers have used such words as "dead", "barren", and "ruins" to describe it. Curiously enough, both the second and fourth movements have the same tempo marking but the feel is decidedly slower here.{{Clarify|date=December 2017}}<!--"Feel"??-->{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}


The symphony continues to provoke much speculation about its "meaning"{{Opinion|date=February 2019}}, and the only clue from Vaughan Williams himself (as quoted by his widow), points us in the direction of an agnostic '']''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/c/cha10103b.php|title=CD REVIEW – Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony #6, Symphony # 8, Nocturne|publisher=Classical Net Review|last=Schwartz|first=Steve|accessdate=8 February 2019}}</ref> The symphony continues to provoke much speculation about its "meaning"{{Opinion|date=February 2019}}, and the only clue from Vaughan Williams himself (as quoted by his widow), points us in the direction of an agnostic '']''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/c/cha10103b.php|title=CD REVIEW – Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony #6, Symphony # 8, Nocturne|publisher=Classical Net Review|last=Schwartz|first=Steve|accessdate=8 February 2019}}</ref>


A typical performance takes about 35 minutes. It is scored for a large orchestra including: ], 2 ], 2 ], ], 2 ] (in ]), ], ] (in B{{music|flat}}), 2 ], ], 4 ] (in F), 3 ] (in B{{music|flat}}), 3 ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] (optionally doubled), and ]. A typical performance takes about 35 minutes. It is scored for a large orchestra including: 2 ], ] (doubling 3rd flute), 2 ], ], 2 ] in ], ] (doubling ] in B{{music|flat}}), 2 ], ], 4 ] in F, 3 ] in B{{music|flat}}, 3 ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] (optionally doubled), and ].


==Performance history== ==Performance history==
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==Recordings== ==Recordings==
The first recording was made on 21 February 1949 by the ] under ], who had been a fellow organ student of Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music in the 1890s (and was to give the U.S. premiere of his Ninth Symphony in 1958). The second was by Sir Adrian Boult days later with the ]. Both used the original version of the third movement. The composer revised that movement in 1950, and Boult recorded it for Decca. At the end of those sessions, the composer thanked the musicians; this speech was taped and included on disc releases of the main recording. Altogether there have been 25 recordings: The first two recordings were initially released on 78rpm discs. The first one was made on 21 February 1949 by the ] under ], who had been a fellow organ student of Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music in the 1890s (and was to give the U.S. premiere of his Ninth Symphony in 1958). The second was by Sir Adrian Boult days later with the ]. Both used the original version of the third movement. The composer revised that movement in 1950; Boult immediately recorded it for HMV and that new version was included in the subsequent LP releases. Boult also made a new recording of the symphony in late 1953 for Decca in the presence of the composer, who thanked the musicians at the end of those sessions; this speech was taped and included on disc releases as an appendix to the symphony. Altogether there have been 26 recordings:
*Stokowski — Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York — Columbia Masterworks ML 4214 (Manhattan Center, Feb. 21, 1949) *Stokowski – Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York – Columbia Masterworks ML 4214 (Manhattan Center, 21 Feb. 1949)
*Boult — London Symphony Orchestra — HMV 10-inch BLP 1001 (Abbey Road, Feb. 23–24, 1949) *Boult – London Symphony Orchestra – HMV 10-inch BLP 1001 (Abbey Road, 23–24 Feb. 1949)
*Boult — ] — Decca LXT 2911 (Kingsway Hall, Dec. 28–31, 1953) *Boult – ] – Decca LXT 2911 (Kingsway Hall, 28–31 Dec. 1953)
*Barbirolli — ] — Music & Arts CD 251–2 (Symphony Hall, Oct. 30, 1964) *Barbirolli – ] – Music & Arts CD 251–2 (Symphony Hall, 30 Oct. 1964)
*Abravanel — ] — Vanguard VSD-71160 (University of Utah Music Hall, Dec. 1965) *Abravanel – ] – Vanguard VSD-71160 (University of Utah Music Hall, Dec. 1965)
*Boult — ] — HMV ASD 2329 (Abbey Road, Feb. 27 and March 1, 1967) *Boult – ] – HMV ASD 2329 (Abbey Road, 27 Feb. and 1 March 1967)
*Previn — London Symphony Orchestra — RCA Victor SB 6769 (Kingsway Hall, April 1–3, 1968) *Previn – London Symphony Orchestra – RCA Victor SB 6769 (Kingsway Hall, 1–3 April 1968)
*Barbirolli — ] — Orfeo C 265 921 B (Herkulessaal, April 10, 1970) *Barbirolli – ] – Orfeo C 265 921 B (Herkulessaal, 10 April 1970)
*Boult — New Philharmonia Orchestra — BBC Legends BBCL 4256-2 (Cheltenham Town Hall, July 7, 1972) *Boult – New Philharmonia Orchestra – BBC Legends BBCL 4256-2 (Cheltenham Town Hall, 7 July 1972)
*Boult — ] — Carlton BBC Radio Classics 15656 91642 (Royal Albert Hall, Aug. 16, 1972) *Boult – ] – Carlton BBC Radio Classics 15656 91642 (Royal Albert Hall, 16 Aug. 1972)
*Berglund — ] — HMV ASD 3127 (Kingsway Hall, June 17–18, 1974) *Berglund – ] – HMV ASD 3127 (Kingsway Hall, 17–18 June 1974)
*Handley — London Philharmonic — Classics for Pleasure CFP 40334 (Walthamstow Assembly Hall, Feb. 5–6, 1979) *Handley – London Philharmonic Orchestra – Classics for Pleasure CFP 40334 (Walthamstow Assembly Hall, 5–6 Feb. 1979)
*Davis-C — Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra — BR Klassik 900705 (Gasteig, April 30, 1987) *Davis-C – Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – BR Klassik 900705 (Gasteig, 30 April 1987)
*Rozhdestvensky — ] — Melodiya CD 10-02170-5 (Philharmonia Building, Leningrad, Oct. 31, 1988) *Rozhdestvensky – ] – Melodiya CD 10-02170-5 (Philharmonia Building, Leningrad, 31 Oct. 1988)
*Thomson — London Symphony Orchestra — Chandos CHAN 8740 (St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead, Dec. 16–17, 1988) *Thomson – London Symphony Orchestra – Chandos CHAN 8740 (St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead, 16–17 Dec. 1988)
*Slatkin — ] — RCA Victor Red Seal RD 60556 (Watford Town Hall, April 6–8, 1990) *Slatkin – ] – RCA Victor Red Seal RD 60556 (Watford Town Hall, 6–8 April 1990)
*Marriner — ] — Collins Classics 12022 (Henry Wood Hall, May 1990) *Marriner – ] – Collins Classics 12022 (Henry Wood Hall, May 1990)
*Davis-A — BBC Symphony Orchestra — Teldec 9031-73127-2 (St Augustine's Church, London, Oct. 1990) *Davis-A – BBC Symphony Orchestra – Teldec 9031-73127-2 (St Augustine's Church, London, Oct. 1990)
*Bakels — Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra — Naxos 8.550733 (Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, Nov. 12, 1993) *Bakels – Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra – Naxos 8.550733 (Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, 12 Nov. 1993)
*Handley — ] — EMI Eminence CD EMX 2230 (Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, March 5–6, 1994) *Handley – ] – EMI Eminence CD EMX 2230 (Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 5–6 March 1994)
*Haitink — London Philharmonic — EMI CD 5 56762 2 (Colosseum, Watford, Dec. 13–14, 1997) *Haitink – London Philharmonic – EMI CD 5 56762 2 (Colosseum, Watford, 13–14 Dec. 1997)
*Norrington — London Philharmonic — Decca 458 658–2 (Colosseum, Watford, Dec. 15–16, 1997) *Norrington – London Philharmonic – Decca 458 658–2 (Colosseum, Watford, 15–16 Dec. 1997)
*Hickox — London Symphony Orchestra — Chandos CHSA 5016 (All Saints Church, Tooting, Jan. 21–22, 2003) *Hickox – London Symphony Orchestra – Chandos CHSA 5016 (All Saints Church, Tooting, 21–22 Jan. 2003)
*Elder — ] — Hallé CD HLL 7547 (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Nov. 10, 2016) *Elder – ] – Hallé CD HLL 7547 (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 10 Nov. 2016)
*Manze — Royal Liverpool Philharmonic — Onyx 4184 (Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, April 21–23, 2017) *Manze – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic – Onyx 4184 (Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 21–23 April 2017)
*Pappano – ] – LSO Live LSO0867D (Barbican Hall, 15 March 2020)
*Wilson – ] – BBC Music Magazine, Vol. 30, No. 8


==Other uses== ==Other uses==
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{{Reflist}} {{Reflist}}


{{Vaughan Williams symphonies}} {{Ralph Vaughan Williams}}
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] ]

Latest revision as of 22:10, 10 September 2024

1947 symphony by Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams composed his Symphony in E minor, published as Symphony No. 6, in 1944–47, during and immediately after World War II and revised in 1950. Dedicated to Michael Mullinar, it was first performed, in its original version, by Sir Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra on 21 April 1948. Within a year it had received some 100 performances, including the U.S. premiere by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky on 7 August 1948. Leopold Stokowski gave the first New York performances the following January with the New York Philharmonic and immediately recorded it, declaring that "this is music that will take its place with the greatest creations of the masters." However, Vaughan Williams, very nervous about this symphony, threatened several times to tear up the draft. At the same time, his programme note for the first performance took a defiantly flippant tone.

Perhaps the composer never intended the symphony to be programmatic, but it was inevitable that his post-war audience should associate its disturbing and often violent character with the detonation of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In response to these questions, he is widely quoted as having said, "It never seems to occur to people that a man might just want to write a piece of music". In connection with the last movement, the composer did eventually suggest that a quotation from Act IV of Shakespeare's The Tempest comes close to the music's meaning: "We are such stuff / As dreams are made on; and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep."

The deaths of the band members in the Café de Paris bombing in 1941 moved him to incorporate elements of jazz, including a saxophone solo in the Scherzo movement. This influence was noted by the conductor Malcolm Sargent who took the symphony on its initial tour around the world.

The Symphony is noteworthy for its unusually discordant harmonic language, reminiscent in approach if not in technique of his Symphony No. 4 from over a decade earlier, and for its inclusion of a tenor saxophone among the woodwinds. In several respects this symphony marks the beginning of Vaughan Williams's experiments with orchestration that so characterise his late music.

The symphony is in four linked movements (i.e. one movement leads straight into the next, with no pause between them), and includes a number of ideas that return in various guises throughout the symphony, for example the use of simultaneous chords a half-step apart, or the short-short-long rhythmic figure.

Movements

Allegro

{ \new PianoStaff << \new Staff \relative c'' { \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \key e \minor \tempo "Allegro" 4 = 100 f8--\ff g-- aes4->(~ \times 2/3 { aes8 g e) } \times 2/3 { aes->( g e) } | aes16-> } \new Staff \relative c'' { \clef bass \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \key e \minor r2 < g b, g e e,>2~ | < g b, g e e,>8 } >> }

The symphony begins very loudly with the full orchestra playing simultaneously in F minor and E minor. The chaotic rush of notes makes the listener's job of getting or keeping bearings relatively difficult. Because the composer uses so many disruptive techniques in both rhythm and harmony, there is often no clear sense of metre or key. Structurally, the movement falls loosely into the category of sonata form with its carefully organised contrasting themes and key centres, though this may not be apparent on first hearing. Indeed, the most striking point of contrast may be the reappearance near the end of the movement of one of the main themes in a clear and rich E major. The first movement ends with a sustained unison E in the low instruments, at which point the second movement begins.

Moderato

\relative c'' { \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \key bes \minor \tempo "Moderato" 4 = 72 << { bes4\p^"pizz." r bes,(^"arco" ces | c!16)-. c-. c8-. r des( d4 c | ces16-.) ces-. ces8-. } \\ { s1 | bes16-. bes-. bes8-. | s4 s2 | bes16-. } >> }

The second movement starts a tritone away, in B-flat minor. The main themes are so chromatic that they eventually have little sense of profile. A central feature of this movement is a "rat-a-tat" rhythmic motive that recurs through most of the movement, beginning in the second measure. At one point that figure goes away for a while, and the effect of its eventual return is an almost palpable sense of dread. After an enormous battering climax fuelled by that figure (including the single loudest point in the entire symphony), the movement winds down with a lengthy solo played by the cor anglais, still accompanied by the same three-note ostinato. The sustained last note links via a half-step drop to the next movement.

Scherzo: Allegro vivace

\relative c { \clef bass \time 2/4 \key d \minor \tempo "Allegro vivace" 4 = 120 << { bes2\f e f b~ | b8 a g fis | e16-. fis-. g8-. } \\ { bes,2 e~ | e4 d | c b | a8-. b-. c4 | s4 } >> }

This movement, heavily fugal in texture, follows a typical scherzo/trio structure, but the overall feel is hardly one of amusement; the high spirits are decidedly raucous and sardonic. Although the rhythmic style is less disjointed than in the first movement (the listener has little trouble following the meter here), the harmony (heavily dominated by tritones, or lowered fifths) and orchestration both revert to the first movement's density. The trio section features the tenor saxophone's only true solo role in the symphony; when the scherzo material recurs the composer inverts the fugue subject and eventually combines that form with the original version. With the final climax (the trio theme stated by full orchestra) the music almost collapses, leaving the bass clarinet holding the sustained note that links to the Finale.

Epilogue: Moderato

\relative c' { \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \tempo "Moderato" 4 = 56 f8(\pp g aes b~ b | c16 ) }

This movement follows a vaguely fugal structure, but that structure is not especially perceptible to the listener because the entire movement is marked pp, meaning played very softly (and at one point senza crescendo, an instruction not to increase the volume), with the further admonishment senza espressivo, meaning without any expression. This makes the movement extremely difficult to play, and the audience must use great concentration to keep from losing track of the composer's train of thought. Vaughan Williams himself, in his aforementioned programme note, speaks of "drifting" and "whiffs of theme" in characterising the music. This is the movement that sparked so many to see the work as a whole as being a vision of a post-nuclear world. Writers have used such words as "dead", "barren", and "ruins" to describe it. Curiously enough, both the second and fourth movements have the same tempo marking but the feel is decidedly slower here.

The symphony continues to provoke much speculation about its "meaning", and the only clue from Vaughan Williams himself (as quoted by his widow), points us in the direction of an agnostic Nunc dimittis.

A typical performance takes about 35 minutes. It is scored for a large orchestra including: 2 flutes, piccolo (doubling 3rd flute), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets in B♭, tenor saxophone (doubling bass clarinet in B♭), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B♭, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, side drum, triangle, bass drum, cymbals, xylophone, harp (optionally doubled), and strings.

Performance history

The first performance was given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 21 April 1948. Serge Koussevitzky led the score's American premiere on 7 August 1948, at Tanglewood, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Before that year was out, the same musicians had taken the work to Boston, Pittsburgh and Chicago (3 December).

Recordings

The first two recordings were initially released on 78rpm discs. The first one was made on 21 February 1949 by the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York under Leopold Stokowski, who had been a fellow organ student of Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music in the 1890s (and was to give the U.S. premiere of his Ninth Symphony in 1958). The second was by Sir Adrian Boult days later with the London Symphony Orchestra. Both used the original version of the third movement. The composer revised that movement in 1950; Boult immediately recorded it for HMV and that new version was included in the subsequent LP releases. Boult also made a new recording of the symphony in late 1953 for Decca in the presence of the composer, who thanked the musicians at the end of those sessions; this speech was taped and included on disc releases as an appendix to the symphony. Altogether there have been 26 recordings:

  • Stokowski – Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York – Columbia Masterworks ML 4214 (Manhattan Center, 21 Feb. 1949)
  • Boult – London Symphony Orchestra – HMV 10-inch BLP 1001 (Abbey Road, 23–24 Feb. 1949)
  • Boult – London Philharmonic Orchestra – Decca LXT 2911 (Kingsway Hall, 28–31 Dec. 1953)
  • Barbirolli – Boston Symphony Orchestra – Music & Arts CD 251–2 (Symphony Hall, 30 Oct. 1964)
  • Abravanel – Utah Symphony Orchestra – Vanguard VSD-71160 (University of Utah Music Hall, Dec. 1965)
  • Boult – New Philharmonia Orchestra – HMV ASD 2329 (Abbey Road, 27 Feb. and 1 March 1967)
  • Previn – London Symphony Orchestra – RCA Victor SB 6769 (Kingsway Hall, 1–3 April 1968)
  • Barbirolli – Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – Orfeo C 265 921 B (Herkulessaal, 10 April 1970)
  • Boult – New Philharmonia Orchestra – BBC Legends BBCL 4256-2 (Cheltenham Town Hall, 7 July 1972)
  • Boult – BBC Symphony Orchestra – Carlton BBC Radio Classics 15656 91642 (Royal Albert Hall, 16 Aug. 1972)
  • Berglund – Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra – HMV ASD 3127 (Kingsway Hall, 17–18 June 1974)
  • Handley – London Philharmonic Orchestra – Classics for Pleasure CFP 40334 (Walthamstow Assembly Hall, 5–6 Feb. 1979)
  • Davis-C – Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – BR Klassik 900705 (Gasteig, 30 April 1987)
  • Rozhdestvensky – USSR State Symphony Orchestra – Melodiya CD 10-02170-5 (Philharmonia Building, Leningrad, 31 Oct. 1988)
  • Thomson – London Symphony Orchestra – Chandos CHAN 8740 (St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead, 16–17 Dec. 1988)
  • Slatkin – Philharmonia Orchestra – RCA Victor Red Seal RD 60556 (Watford Town Hall, 6–8 April 1990)
  • Marriner – Academy of St Martin in the Fields – Collins Classics 12022 (Henry Wood Hall, May 1990)
  • Davis-A – BBC Symphony Orchestra – Teldec 9031-73127-2 (St Augustine's Church, London, Oct. 1990)
  • Bakels – Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra – Naxos 8.550733 (Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, 12 Nov. 1993)
  • Handley – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic – EMI Eminence CD EMX 2230 (Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 5–6 March 1994)
  • Haitink – London Philharmonic – EMI CD 5 56762 2 (Colosseum, Watford, 13–14 Dec. 1997)
  • Norrington – London Philharmonic – Decca 458 658–2 (Colosseum, Watford, 15–16 Dec. 1997)
  • Hickox – London Symphony Orchestra – Chandos CHSA 5016 (All Saints Church, Tooting, 21–22 Jan. 2003)
  • Elder – Hallé Orchestra – Hallé CD HLL 7547 (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 10 Nov. 2016)
  • Manze – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic – Onyx 4184 (Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 21–23 April 2017)
  • Pappano – London Symphony Orchestra – LSO Live LSO0867D (Barbican Hall, 15 March 2020)
  • Wilson – BBC Philharmonic – BBC Music Magazine, Vol. 30, No. 8

Other uses

Part of the symphony's first movement (Allegro) was used as the theme tune for the ITV drama A Family at War.

References

  1. ^ "Vaughan Williams Symphonies". Vaughan Williams Society. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  2. "Stokowski and Vaughan Williams".
  3. Classical.Net book review
  4. NewBerkshire.com concert review Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Vaughan Williams, Ursula. (1964) R.V.W.: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Oxford University Press. (See Chapter XIII, p. 283.)
  6. Adams, Byron; Grimley, Daniel M. (5 August 2023). Vaughan Williams and His World. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-83045-2.
  7. Heffer, Simon (19 June 2014). Vaughan Williams. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-31548-2.
  8. Schwartz, Steve. "CD REVIEW – Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony #6, Symphony # 8, Nocturne". Classical Net Review. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
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