text by George Herbert
The Five Mystical Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams
(1872-1958) were written between 1906 and 1911 for the Three Choirs Festival,
one of the oldest classical choral festivals in the world. The work for
baritone soloist, chorus and orchestra was premiered on September 14, 1911 with
Vaughan Williams conducting. This was his second commission for the Three
Choirs Festival, the first being Fantasia
on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
Vaughan Williams, a self-proclaimed atheist turned to the
poetry of George Herbert (1593-1633) for these Five Mystical Songs. The four poems are taken from Herbert’s 1633
collection Temple Poems. The four
poems split into five movements showcase Herbert’s writing style including the
conflict between God and soul. This shows what his wife Ursula said of him,
that as he aged he mellowed into “cheerful agnosticism.”
The work is a set of five songs with the first four
featuring the baritone soloist while the choir plays a supporting role. The
final movement is for the choir and allows them to shine through in one of
Vaughan William’s most celebratory choruses ever. The piece combines Medieval
plainchant with lush romantic harmonies and a full orchestra.
The opening movement is the first half of Herbert’s Easter, and sets the tone for the work. The
soloist gives an exhortation to himself as much as to the choir and the
listener. This movement does not shy away from the tragedy that is part of the
Easter story. The choir joins the soloist to reinforce his song of praise which
is interspersed with reflections of the tragedy that Christ went through and
the ways in which this was still done in praise to God.
The second movement, I
Got Me Flowers is the second half of the poem Easter. This movement is primarily for the soloist with the choir
providing back-up as the soloist asks his question. They join in on text with
“There is but one, and that one ever.” Answering the question the soloist asks
about the numbering of days. This beautiful but sparsely orchestrated piece in
what is to me one of the darkest keys, Eb minor, bridges the gap between the
first movement’s constant back and forth and the third movement’s sadness and
ultimate resignation.
In Love Bade Me
Welcome, the soloist wrestles with that sense of unworthiness that I think
we all feel at one time or another in our lives when we think of the sacrifice
of Christ. The opening two verses supported by undulating strings are a
dialogue between the soloist and “Love” with the soloist explaining we he is
undeserving of this love and “Love” explaining why it doesn’t matter. The music
becomes more agitated as the soloist makes one final appeal to “Love” while
“Love” says that he has borne the blame and will serve. The choir enters
intoning the Eucharistic hymn O Sacrum
Convivium and the soloist is invited to partake.
The Call has
become a standard in the vocal repertoire and in the canon of hymnody. This
time the soloist is on his own, but this is also his big finale as the final
movement is left for the choir alone. The beautiful solo oboe and flute lines
that are interspersed help to give this music an almost pastorale quality. The
soloist’s modal melody shows Vaughan Williams’s masterful ability to mix chant
and chant-like melodies with lush harmonies in a way that both seem to fit
exactly together as though the melody was always meant to be harmonized like
that.
The final movement is one of Vaughan Williams’s most
exciting pieces of choral writing. Antiphon
opens with running eighth notes which give way to crashing chords that evoke
the pealing of cathedral bells before the choir breaks into “Let all the world
in every corner sing.” This movement is entirely free of the questioning spirit
that was present in the first three. The fourth movement functions as the
soloist coming to terms with everything that he has learned in the first three
movements; and this finale is the chorus again reinforcing what he has learned
almost functioning as the “heavenly Greek chorus” which comments and helps to
get him back on track concluding in celebration at his lesson learned.
No comments:
Post a Comment