Later in their careers, Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams gained fame from their unique creativity and modern expression, but the young composers began their careers drawing on influences from family and music exposures. The pre-World War I compositions of Holst and Vaughan Williams evolve as the composers collect life experiences and these influences can be heard in this early music. Yet, the music of both young Holst and young Vaughan Williams also present very original aspects that presage the genius of their later works. Although both musicians were heavily influenced by their upbringings, popular composers, and even each other, it was those very same influences that ultimately led to their distinctive individualities.
Biographer Richard Capell says music was Holst’s “family language.” Holst’s great-grandfather, grandfather, father, and others in his family were all musicians. Because family is as great an influence as life can bring, his family led him to a lifelong attachment to the trombone, an instrument that was introduced to him as a child to combat asthma and later became his most reliable source of income. (Capell, 1926). Vaughan Williams’ childhood, by contrast, was occupied in large part by reading and education. He was encouraged to read appropriate literature of all kinds, including plays, poetry and prose and also the Prayer Book and Bible. Less appropriate material for a child, such as newspapers, was “available through Aunt Sophie’s economical cutting squares of newspaper for lavatory use” according to Vaughan Williams’ wife, Ursula, in writing of her husband. Although Vaughan Williams received music lessons from this aunt, unlike Holst, Vaughan Williams’ family language was literature and the u...
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Vaughan Williams's Choice of Words
William Kimmel
Music & Letters, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Apr., 1938), pp. 132-142
Published by: Oxford University Press
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Ralph Vaughan Williams
Music & Letters, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Apr., 1920), pp. 78-86
Published by: Oxford University Press
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Ralph Vaughan Williams and His Choice of Words for Music
Ursula Vaughan Williams
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 99, (1972 - 1973), pp. 81-89
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/766156
“Ralph Vaughan Williams." International Dictionary of Opera. 2 vols. St. James Press, 1993.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2010. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.umb.edu/servlet/BioRC
Classical music can be best summed by Mr. Dan Romano who said, “Music is the hardest kind of art. It doesn't hang up on a wall and wait to be stared at and enjoyed by passersby. It's communication. Its hours and hours being put into a work of art that may only last, in reality, for a few moments...but if done well and truly appreciated, it lasts in our hearts forever. That's art, speaking with your heart to the hearts of others.” Starting at a young age Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven have done just that with their musical compositions. Both musical composers changed the world of music and captivated the hearts of many. Their love of composing shared many similar traits, though their musical styles were much different.
Nearly a century’s worth of compositions has earned Aaron Copland extensive recognition as the foremost American composer of his time. Ironically, Copland was raised the son of Russian Jewish immigrants and inhabitant of a colorless city environment, yet would become known for producing the music of “rugged-souled Americans” (Mellers 4). Unbounded by historical musical constraints such as those present in the culture of France, where Copland studied for many years, Copland found himself free to explore and experiment in pursuit of a unique, undoubtedly American sound.
In this essay I am going to explore the unique collaboration between director and composer and how much a long-term collaborative process between the two can influence the establishment of the former as an author. An author, in this case, stands for an authority actively shaping the film’s story and message but at the same can be understood as an author of music, I will try to consider both factors. In this process I want to begin with filmmaker’s general relationship to music, then while answering the main question I will give examples of the European collaboration of Theo Angelopoulos and Eleni Karaindrou, focusing on their approach of using music in new ways, as well as examples from the more known collaborations between Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann and David Cronenberg’s collaboration with Howard Shore. Furthermore, I am going to include conclusions from my personal experience I have had with my friend and director Nuno Miguel Wong. Concurrently this Essay is not an analysis of the music in the films of the above-mentioned collaborations, but rather focuses on their distinct working relationship and how it might have affected their musical approach and productivity.
Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in The Vicarage, in Down Ampney, on October 12, 1872 to Arthur and Margaret Vaughan Williams. Ralph’s father; Arthur was the vicar of the All Saints Church in Down Ampney in 1868. Through his mothers side Ralph had two famous great-great-grand fathers; Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of the pottery at Stoke-on-Trent, and Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin. In 1875 Ralph’s father suddenly died, when he was only two years old. His mother moved him and his two siblings to the Wedgwood family home: Leith Hill Place, in Surrey.
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Now in time there are many great composer that have outlived their dying age by making an impact and leaving a permanent seal on this planet with the great symphonies they have composed, which in turn has inspired many composers throughout the preceding centuries.
film music. On the one side there are the purists, who cry foul at the piecing together of
this paper I will discuss Gershwin’s life as a child and his upbringing and how his music
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All had great influence on later composers, Mozart on Beethoven, Bartók on Copeland and Bach on everyone including his twenty or so children
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...he connection between the composer and the music. Since composers generally write about events that had an impact in their lives, this analysis receives support.