Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Editorial Conventions
- Abbreviations
- Prologue
- 1 First Encounters and A Sea Symphony
- 2 A London Symphony
- 3 A Pastoral Symphony and Boult on Conducting in the 1920s
- 4 Job: ‘To Adrian Boult’
- 5 Symphony No. 4 in F Minor
- 6 Wartime Tensions
- 7 Symphony No. 5 in D Major
- 8 Symphony No. 6 in E Minor
- 9 Sinfonia antartica and the Last Two Symphonies
- 10 Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Other Orchestral Works
- 11 Choral and Vocal Works
- 12 Vaughan Williams, Boult and The Pilgrim’s Progress
- Appendix 1 Annotations on Boult’s Working Scores
- Appendix 2 Boult’s Vaughan Williams Performances – A Chronology
- Appendix 3 Discography
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - First Encounters and A Sea Symphony
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Editorial Conventions
- Abbreviations
- Prologue
- 1 First Encounters and A Sea Symphony
- 2 A London Symphony
- 3 A Pastoral Symphony and Boult on Conducting in the 1920s
- 4 Job: ‘To Adrian Boult’
- 5 Symphony No. 4 in F Minor
- 6 Wartime Tensions
- 7 Symphony No. 5 in D Major
- 8 Symphony No. 6 in E Minor
- 9 Sinfonia antartica and the Last Two Symphonies
- 10 Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Other Orchestral Works
- 11 Choral and Vocal Works
- 12 Vaughan Williams, Boult and The Pilgrim’s Progress
- Appendix 1 Annotations on Boult’s Working Scores
- Appendix 2 Boult’s Vaughan Williams Performances – A Chronology
- Appendix 3 Discography
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In his tribute to Vaughan Williams published in Musical Times, Adrian Boult recalled his first experience of the composer and his music:
We are often told that early memories are specially vivid, and I can certainly agree that my early memories of Ralph Vaughan Williams are as fresh as anything I can think of. Rather strictly brought up as I had been on a diet mainly of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, it was a great experience as a youngster to be thrown into a chorus, directed by Hugh Allen, singing [Toward] the Unknown Region and, soon after, the Sea Symphony. The impact of Vaughan Williams, this magnificent-looking young man, and his fresh and vital music were unforgettable.
After five years at Westminster School, where Boult had taken every opportunity to experience the riches of London’s musical life, he arrived at Christ Church, Oxford, in the autumn of 1908 (initially to read History). As he wrote in My Own Trumpet, his first priority was to get involved in the city’s musical life, and to make contact with Hugh Allen, conductor of the Oxford Bach Choir:
After hearing some of the Bach Choir performances in London under Dr H. P. Allen’s direction, I had decided that my first action in Oxford must be to join the Oxford Bach Choir. This was all very well, but I discovered that their first fixture was a performance of the B minor Mass in Reading in the second week of term; no new members would be accepted until after this date … This wouldn’t do for me at all. I knew the Mass well though I had never sung it (or anything else for that matter), and I was determined to sing at Reading. So I bearded the lion in his den, and without a test or question, he booked me in, out of pure kindness of heart.
Hugh Allen (1869–1946) had been appointed organist of New College, Oxford in 1901, and quickly revived the musical life of the whole university: as The Times put it in its obituary, ‘His arrival there wrought an immediate change for the better in the musical outlook of Oxford University.
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- Ralph Vaughan Williams and Adrian Boult , pp. 7 - 22Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022