Desert Island Disc no. 1

Hello everyone! :)
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but it's been a MAD week and I'm so glad it's over!

Anyway, welcome to my first Desert Island Disc. Usually, I'll pick one piece that I would take to a desert island every week, but for today, I'm going to choose 2 because I feel I can't write about one without talking about the other.

The first piece I'm going to talk about is 'Serenade to Music' by Ralph Vaughan Williams, my favourite composer. The text in the piece is an adaption about music in Act V Scene 1 in 'The Merchant of Venice' by Shakespeare. Vaughan Williams wrote the piece as a tribute to conductor Sir Henry Wood and it was first performed in the Royal Albert Hall, conducted by Sir Wood in Septmeber 1938.

This piece is particularly special to me because, when I first listened to this piece, it was the first time I knew I wanted to study and have a career in music. The harmonies, even from the word 'go', are so sweet and you feel like you're melting. Plus the timbre created by the strings, harp and the oboes in the opening phrase is so mellow and smooth, it's wonderful! What I love about Vaughan Williams is his harmonies and very weird harmonic progressions, i.e. the different keys he changes, but the piece still sounds so beautiful! When the singers come in, the third chord on 'moonlight' is something that really elevates my mood. Another wonderful thing about Vaughan Williams is that, as a nationalist composer, he was influenced by traditional English folk music which really be heard in the melody, which is so smooth and very lyrical. I implore you to listen to this piece of music, because it cahnged my life and I hope you like it as much as I do.

Serenade to Music - the premiere recording in 1938

This was the piece I was originally going to talk about but I would not have discovered it if I hadn't found Serenade to Music first. This is 'The Lark Ascending' by Vaughan Williams. This work was inspired by George Meredith's 122 line poem about a sky lark, which was origianlly written for a solo violin and piano in 1914, but another version of solo violin and orchestra was written in 1920. The orchestral version is the one most heard now. Vaughan Williams sketched the work out while watching troop ships cross the English Channel at the beginning of the First World War. What's quite amusing is that a small boy saw him making the sketches and thought he was jotting down a secret code, informed a police officer who arrested Vaughan Williams. LOL. #musicnerd

This piece has pretty much always been in the top 100 classical songs and for a very good reason. I don't think I have heard such genius in the construction of a melody than the violin part of this piece. This has a much more folky feel with the use of pentatonic scales (a pentatonic scale is made up of 5 notes, in which the melody is solely based - these are used in folk music) but the piece is not as warming and sweet as Serenade to Music, but that definately doesn't detriment it's beauty. The timbre created by the horns at the beginning of the piece is stunning - its a very mellow sound which warms you into the piece.
I could probably go on forever about the solo violin part. You would need to listen to it to fully appreciate its beauty. It really creates a sense of a lark flying with there is very clever composing of the melody to imitate a bird's song. Moreover, the piece, as a whole, makes you feel as if you are sitting in the middle of the English countryside, surrounded by the most glorious nature: the blossoming flowers, the green hills, the drip-tip leaves and in amongst it all is the most beautiful sounds of nature; a lark's song. The harmony of this piece is stunning, because it sounds quite ambiguous, probably an influence of the Impressionist French composers of this time, in which Vaughan Williams was taught by Maurice Ravel. Ravel's construction of melody probably influenced VW which can be seen in another piece, which I am yet to post as another Desert Island Disc ;)
OUt of the two pieces, The Lark Ascending is my favourite. I know I've been writing quite a bit about the piece, but the way it makes you feel is almost speechless: the harmonies, melody and use of timbres binds together to produce a timeless piece that really touches my heart. I really hope you can listen to this piece and appreciate it as much as I do, because I don't know what I would without this piece of music in my life.

The Lark Ascending - David Nolan as solo violin

I do apologise if the recordings are terrible, because I hate for the pieces to be ruined or for you to base an opinion on bad recordings. I would listen to see if they are good, but for some reason, the sound on my internet isn't working! But please listen! They are incredible pieces and very accessible as well.

I hope you enjoyed the first Desert Island Disc and I'll see you next week with another piece to take to a desert island. Or maybe before if I blog about something else.

Hope you are all okay!

Love Alice :)
xxx