Three Shakespeare Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams
for S(S)ATB unaccompanied Three Shakespeare Songs comprises three short movements setting texts from Shakespeare's The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream. They were composed as test pieces for the 1951 British Federation of Music Festivals National Competitive Festival. The atmospheric first movement, 'Full fathom five', is mystical and beguiling, with eerie, hypnotic mimicry of bell tolls in the upper voices. 'The Cloud-Capp'd Towers', the slower central movement, recalls Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 6 in its harmonic language, while the third movement 'Over hill, over dale' is lively conclusion to the set, full of harmonic and rhythmic interest.
Ralph Vaughan Williams, born in Gloucestershire on 12 October 1872, read History at Cambridge and went to the Royal College of Music where his teachers were Parry, Wood, and Stanford. Vaughan Williams believed in the value of music education and wrote practical competition pieces, serviceable church music, and with the 49th Parallel (1940-41) he found a new outlet in writing for film. His profoundly disturbing Symphony No.6 (1948) received international acclaim with more than a hundred performances in a little over two years. His great sensitivity to the 20th-century human condition, his flexibility in writing for all levels of music making, and his unquestionably great imagination combine to make him one of the key figures in 20th century music. Ralph Vaughan Williams had a long association with Oxford University Press; over 200 publications are available in the Oxford catalogue.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780193438279 |
| ISBN 10 | 0193438275 |
| Title | Three Shakespeare Songs |
| Author | Ralph Vaughan Williams |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Year published | 1951-02-08 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |