Transcript British Composers and the First World War: Choral Expressions of

Choral Expressions of Wartime Experience
by Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst
Daniel Galbreath
Department of Music
Introduction

 The early 20th Century: World Wars and the “British
Renaissance”
 Gustav Holst and Vaughan Williams
 Premise of Project
 Format of each section
http://www.rvwsociety.com/bio_expanded.html
Gustav Holst:
Biographical Information

 1874 – 1934
 Taught at St. Paul’s and James Allen’s Girls’ Schools,
Morley College for Working Men and Women
 Roles during World War I
 Teaching
 YMCA Music Director, beginning 12 days before
Armistice, in Salonica (Thessalonica), Greece &
Constantinople (Instanbul), Turkey
Composing
Ode to Death

 Importance of music during wartime
 Teaching:
“September 24 Monday Morley classes (raid)
September 25 Tuesday (raid) no class
October 1 Monday raid—harmony class”
-from Holst’s notebook
 Organizing festivals at home and abroad
“‘Tomorrow morning we have Musical Competitions for the
whole of the Army of the Black Sea. Some of the competitors
are coming a thousand miles. We have bands, choirs,
violinists, pianists, and singers coming from as far away as
Batoum and Baku….’”
-William Vowels, quoting Holst
Composing
Ode to Death, cont.

 Losses in WWI: Dedication of Ode to Death
 Dedicated to composer Cecil Coles and “to others”
 Firsthand experience of remnants of war:
“[we] had to cross the Struma Valley, where so much fighting
took place….[we were] jumping over trenches [and] avoiding—or
not avoiding—barbed wire, exploring dug outs and gun
emplacements….”
http://www.last.fm/music/Gustav+Holst/+images/34987347
Text setting in
Ode to Death

 Symbolism of Holst’s spirituality
 Concept of death:
“I had one beautiful experience which was repeated two
nights later. I felt I was sinking so low that I couldn’t go
much further and remain on earth. As I have always
expected, it was a lovely feeling.”
-1932 letter to Vaughan Williams
 Buddhism and detachment:
“Gustav Holst’s religious ideas were based on Buddhism, and
he believed in detachment from love and hate, pleasure and
pain…. It coloured his whole life and his music.”
-Matthias von Holst (brother to
Gustav) in Music and Letters
Text setting in
Ode to Death, cont.

 Death as descending figures:
Opening
Ostinato
Climactic descending line
Text setting in
Ode to Death, cont.

 Depictions of Buddhist detachment
 Tonic, as grounding force, ambiguous throughout
(opening, prev. slide)
 Choral entrances staggered, unifying in non-being of death
Ralph Vaughan Williams:
Biographical Information

 1872 – 1958
 Studied and later taught at the Royal College of Music
 Roles during World War I
 Special constabulary of the Metropolitan
Police Service
 Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps
 Wagon orderly, ambulance of
Royal Garrison Artillery
 Roles during World War II
 Volunteer firefighter
 Composing music for special events
people.famouswhy.com/ralph_vaughan_williams/
Composing
Dona Nobis Pacem

 Spiritual ideas motivating the Dona Nobis Pacem
 Ursula Vaughan Williams and “Cheerful agnosticism”
 Transcendentalism and Walt Whitman
Whitman’s poetry spoke to “the ability of the soul to
transcend death, and it was the promise of release that
would speak also to Vaughan Williams….[Whitman’s
poetry] was resonant and new, free from the taint of a
Christianity that seemed outmoded and intellectually
compromised,”
-essayist Byron Adams
Composing
Dona Nobis Pacem, cont.

 Role of music in wartime
 Many duties similar to Holst’s in terms of organizing festivals
 Music’s nationalistic potential:
“musician cannot divorce music from real life” - letter to Holst
 Distaste for musical propaganda
 Works written in support of England during WWII




Six Songs to be Sung in a Time of War
“Song for Thanksgiving”
England, my England
Dona Nobis Pacem
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2007/mar/09/buildingaclassicalmusiclib2
Text Setting in
Dona Nobis Pacem

 Question of no war versus war to bring peace
 Support for war effort & sacrifice
“Don’t talk about the ‘wretched’ war—it is wretched—but if
we look on it merely as a bore we shan’t push through with
it—as we’ve got to do….”
-Letter to friend Iris Lemare
“I’ve indeed longed to be home in many ways during the last
months—but in other ways I should not like to come home for
good till everything is over, or in some other normal way.”
-Letter to Holst
Text Setting in
Dona Nobis Pacem, cont.

 Central theme developed in piece: “questioning theme”
Opening theme
Fragmentation in “Beat! Beat! Drums!
Text Setting in
Dona Nobis Pacem, cont.

Twisted upon itself in “Reconciliation”
Reconstituted in finale
Conclusion

 Choral works as expressions of opinions and
experiences in the World Wars
 Differences in thoughts and experiences
 Similarities in thoughts and experiences
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6457366