20th Century

British Choral Works

Ralph Vaughan Williams

(1872-1958)

*most important English composer of his generation*

-served in WWI as medic (in his 40's!)

-we forget about WWI....

-Siegfried Sassoon; Wilfred Owen; Rupert Brooke; http://info.ox.ac.uk/jtap/tutorials/intro/

-http://www.cs.qub.ac.uk/~J.Collis/RVW.html

Dona Nobis Pacem (1936)

• soprano and baritone solo, chorus, orchestra

• cantata in five sections

• Walt Whitman, Bible

• dramatic and pictorial; most literal of three examples

• perceived as propaganda

1.  Agnus Dei; soprano solo, drums of war at end

2.  Beat! Beat! Drums; war erupts with beating drums and blowing bugles

3.  Reconciliation

4.  Dirge for Two Veterans; death and burial

5.  The Angel of Death; ostinato bass;

6.  O Man, greatly beloved; transformation; "Glory to God"

Sir Michael Tippett

(1905-1998)

www.michael-tippett.com

-conceived structure, then focus on details

-impact of 16th century madrigals and church music; contrapuntal composer

-influence of Purcell

-like Vaughan Williams, cherished folk song and dance of native country

-avowed pacifist; spent time in jail during WWII

-Francophile sensitivity

-diatonic tonality

-personal discovery through Jungian analysis; colored all his work

-art to activism

A Child of Our Time (1941; first perf. 1944)

• http://www.michael-tippett.com/iocchildeng.htm

• minor thirds; minor triads with added 7ths

• need to reconcile chromatic and contrapuntal music language with that of spirituals

• Baroque influence: earlier formal models, contrapuntal techniques, ostinato, function of soloists and chorus

• bass pedal point at unifying element

• chorus functions: narrative, dramatic, contemplative

• spirituals as modern counterpoint of Lutheran chorales; concluding each part and scenes in Part II

Sir Benjamin Britten

(1913-1976)

-religious sensibility, but not strictly speaking a man of faith

-pacifist

-sojourn to USA 1939-1942

-effortless technique; influence of Purcell

-nearly every opera touches in some way on the theme of individual and society and violation of innocence

-choral writing tends not to conform to tradition: consort-like instrumental combos, unusual choral scoring

-melodic variation; clear and poetic text painting

War Requiem (1962)

• Coventry Cathedral, 1962 http://uk.geocities.com/knowbritain/churches/coventry_cathedral_1.html  ·  http://www.exponet.co.uk/Cathedral/catimg3.asp

• not merely ceremonial, but also personal

• powerful use of chamber orchestra and two soloists

• soprano solo too, plus chorus, orchestra, boy's chorus

• Wilfred Owen poetry

• non-liturgical setting of traditional text

• http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~tan/Britten/britwar.html

References

Cooke, Mervyn.  Britten: War Requiem.  New York: Cambridge UP.  ML410 B853.C76

Evans, Peter.  The Music of Benjamin Britten.  Oxford: Clarendon, 1996. ML410 B853.E9, 1979 (Chapter 18)

Frogley, Alain, ed.  Vaughan Williams Studies.  New York: Cambridge UP, 1996. ML410.V3 V46 1996 (read chapter on RVW and wartime cinema and propaganda)

Gloag, Kenneth.  Tippett: A Child of Our Time.  New York: Cambridge UP, 1999.  ML410 T467.G56

Kennedy, Michael.  The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams.  New York, Oxford UP, 1980, 2nd ed.

Poland, Jeffrey.  "Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time: An Oratorio for Our Time." Choral Journal 34, No. 7 (February 1994), pp. 9 ff.

Robinson, Suzanne, ed.  Michael Tippett: Music and Literature.  Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2002.  ML410 T467.M53 2002 (Chapter 4)