On Wenlock Edge - Vaughan Williams Flashcards
Describe the English pastoral style.
‘The melodic content of the English pastoral style is often founded on folk-music;
the harmonic content is largely traditional, but gains a distinctive sound from the use of Church and Renaissance modes that arose from the re-appreciation of English Tudor music.
The most distinctive aspect of the idiom is its uncanny evocation of the varied English landscape, with a joy and wonder in its contemplation intertwined with a nostalgia for its history and heritage’.
Who was Vaughan Williams?
Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was an English composer who wrote symphonies, operas, vocal music and a variety of other forms.
How did Vaughan Williams use French impressionistic composers style in his music?
Vaughan Williams studied with Ravel in Paris shortly before writing On Wenlock Edge. The influence of the impressionist style can be heard right through the cycle, e.g. the bell effects in Bredon Hill are similar too
How does ‘On Wenlock Edge’ show English folk song influence?
Use of modality and the use of English poems and countryside writing.
When was ‘On Wenlock Edge’ written?
1909
What is On Wenlock Edge?
It is a song cycle composed of six songs that set poems from A.E. Houseman’s collection of poems ‘A Shropshire Lad.
When was A Shropshire Lad written?
1896
What songs do our ‘On Wenlock Edge’ set works consist of?
Songs 1, 3 and 5 of the song cycle.
- On Wenlock Edge
- Is my team ploughing?
- Bredon Hill
What does On Wenlock Edge song cycle represent’?
They describe rural life and carry a sense of nostalgia and lost innocence.
Very relevant at the start of the 20th century and remained so as the world became immersed in the darkness of the first word war a decade later.
What is the song ‘On Wenlock Edge’ about?
A blustery gale blowing on Wenlock Edge.
What instruments is the score composed for?
Rare orchestration of a piano quintet (piano and a string quartet).
‘On Wenlock Edge’ Melody influence.
Melodic style is modal and folk influenced.
Shown in opening vocal line has a very restricted note range, with only four pitches, before the seventh on the word ‘wrekin’ introduces a fifth note; this is a type of pentatonic outline.
How does Vaughan Williams emphasise the power of the gale and drama of the storm in ‘On Wenlock Edge’ in the melody?
There are repeated notes to emphasise the power of the gale.
The style changes dramatically after the forte climax on the top G in bar 13, as the voice descends chromatically. This sudden change adds to the drama of the storm.
(all repeated in the course of the second verse)
What are features of the melody in the second section in ‘On Wenlock Edge’?
Repeated notes and chromaticism are features of the next section from bar 34.
How is the melody line put together in ‘Is My Team Ploughing?’ and what style is the melodic line in?
The recitative style (free rhythm) melodic line at the beginning of ‘Is My Team Ploughing?’ bars 5-9 Is Dorian in character .
The standard transposed Dorian mode is D to D with a distinctive flattened thirds and seventh.
How does the diatonic melody at the beginning develop in ‘Is My Team Ploughing?’?
As in the first song, the simple diatonic beginning leads to a more chromatic style bars 45-51.
Is the melody conjunct or disjunct in ‘Is My Team Ploughing?’?
The beginning of the song is mainly conjunct, but later there are larger leaps including a tri-tone bar 15 and 8ve bar 42
Describe the arrangement of melody throughout ‘On Wenlock Edge’.
The vocal line is mainly syllabic, and with the exception of the opening phrases of the first two stanzas, there is mainly stepwise movement.
What is used to emphasise the stress and turmoil of the poem in ‘On Wenlock Edge’?
There are notes written in the top register of the singer and the melody has risen by a 7th from the G (bar 10).
and chromatic descent in bar 13 to 16.
What is the opening two stanzas of the melody in ‘On Wenlock Edge’?
It is mainly pentatonic, however, there is a chromatic descent and brings the listener to a more melancholy place.
Use of word painting in ‘On Wenlock Edge’ and effect of final phrase.
Final phrase does not have such a chromatic descent.
bar 63 - The tenor sings ‘twill soon be gone’, the melody falls from a D to a G, bringing the melody to its home note, and confirming the statement being sung.
Verse 3 - word painting - ‘heaving hill’ - heaving chromatic line vocal line goes up and down like a hill
When does an identifiable melody come in at in Bredon Hill?
There is a simple melody dominated homophony as the voice enters over sustained chords
Describe the melody: organisation of pitch in Bredon Hill
The vocal line uses a mainly conjunct stepwise movement.
Vaughan reserves the highest registers of the voice for moment of drama and distress especially in bar 128 as the singer succumbs to the bells.
What note does stanza one and two revolve around and what does this create. Bredon Hill
Much of the melody of stanzas 1 and 2 revolves around G, and while the music departs from here the tension increases through the stanza, the single repeated G melody at the end of the movement on ‘I will come’, provides a stark ending, as well as making the fate of the lovers clear with the home note.
