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Annette Young's avatar

This all sounds great! Looking forward, in particular, to Chaucer.

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Holly A.J.'s avatar

Yes, the fifth is my favourite. It uses musical themes that Vaughan Williams also used in his opera Pilgrim's Progress, which he was also writing at the time. In his hand written manuscript, he wrote over the third movement, Romanza, these words from Bunyan's allegory:

'Upon that place there stood a cross

And a little below a sepulchre … Then he said

"He hath given me rest by his sorrow and

Life by his death'

The words were not published, as Vaughan Williams wanted the Symphony to be regarded as absolute music (the themes are purely musical), rather than program music (the themes are based on a written narrative). There is a slight snobbishness in the classical music world toward program music being of a lower order than absolute music, and Vaughan Williams had such a hard time breaking into the 'serious' composer category that I wonder if he was a bit self conscious.

There is a resemblance between Vaughan Williams and Sibelius in how they usually use the orchestras as a cohesive blend to produce tonal colours, rather than having each section's tonal colours play off one another the way most symphonic composers, such as Beethoven or Prokofiev, use the orchestra. But Sibelius's symphonies have the sound of the wind in vast pine forests and cold northern lights, while Vaughan Williams's success came in using the simple phraseology of folk music to weave a tapestry evocative of his British heritage.

I would chose Schubert. Austen described her work as an ivory miniature, and remained in the background for most of her short life. Beethoven is much too large, Mozart too famous, and Haydn too broadly humourous for her incisive wit. Schubert's work was written for drawing rooms like Austen's settings, his symphonic instrumentation is on the smallest possible scale, and like Austen was unknown outside his circle for most of his short life.

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