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Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams by Michael (Michael J.) Kennedy
This is the authoritative account of Vaughan Williams's musical life-- the story of a great composer's career, and at the same time the story of music in England for over half a century. Kennedy considers the principal works in chronological order, outlining the main features of each and discussing details of the music's structure, often illuminating his point with a musical quotation. He also provides a good deal of biographical data, and so builds up a picture of the composer, as well as providing thumbnail sketches of many of Vaughan Williams's friends and colleagues. Kennedy's extensive knowledge of Vaughan Williams's output also enables him to refer back and forth across the works to pick out lines of development and influence. Along with Michael Kennedy's new preface, the second edition includes a full classified list of Vaughan Williams's works.
- GenresMusic
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
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About the author
George Michael Sinclair Kennedy
17 books1 followerGeorge Michael Sinclair Kennedy CBE was an English biographer, journalist and writer on classical music.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 21, 2009
This is an excellent account of the works of RVW written by someone who knew him but also someone who does his research as best he can.
The only real problem with the book is that the author is an enthusiast.
If he hadn’t been an enthusiast he wouldn’t have written it, and I believe enthusiasm is a good thing. But it can lead to a music critic heaping too much praise on a given work and a reader rushing out and buying it on the strength of this opinion. In his book on Richard Strauss, Kennedy has many good things to say about Die Liebe der Danae. On buying this opera, which I am now trying to sell, I found it to be very weak, the weakness stemming from the poor libretto. I don’t know most of the choral works reviewed in the RVW book, but some of them may prove weaker than the author suggests. (Kennedy has me in the category ‘sensitive soul’ since I am one who is unhappy with the Whitman texts chosen by the composer for the Sea Symphony.) On the other hand, he makes it clear which works he thinks better and which somewhat less good, so an explorer can start with ‘the best’. If he doesn’t like that he needn’t proceed.
One area where Kennedy is particularly helpful is in his comments on works which have occasioned over-interpretation by critics and the public alike. One such case is the fourth symphony, which some took to be an accurate prophecy of impending war. Kennedy shows very well that this was not in the composer’s mind. Another case is the sixth symphony, where some listeners have taken the last movement to depict the world after a nuclear holocaust. This interpretation is wrong too, but the fourth movement of the sixth is an attractive nail on which to hang a favourite jacket. Kennedy writes:
'No vision of destruction was in the composer’s mind. He wrote to me on the subject of the finale on 22 January 1956. “With regard to the last movement of my No. 6, I do NOT BELIEVE IN meanings and mottoes as you know, but I think we can get in words nearest to the substance of my last movement in ‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded by a sleep’.” (page 302)
All in all, this book delivers on its title – no mean achievement.
In passing, Kennedy quotes RVW on Tchaikovsky, a composer I don’t like a lot for reasons he tries to explain.
‘Never a stroke fails; every emotion which he feels he translated into music with the readiness of a true Russian linguist. And herein lies his weakness, that the expression is often too intense for the emotion behind it; the very fact that expression comes so easily too him is apt to make him careless as to whether his idea is worth expressing.’
(page 48)
The only real problem with the book is that the author is an enthusiast.
If he hadn’t been an enthusiast he wouldn’t have written it, and I believe enthusiasm is a good thing. But it can lead to a music critic heaping too much praise on a given work and a reader rushing out and buying it on the strength of this opinion. In his book on Richard Strauss, Kennedy has many good things to say about Die Liebe der Danae. On buying this opera, which I am now trying to sell, I found it to be very weak, the weakness stemming from the poor libretto. I don’t know most of the choral works reviewed in the RVW book, but some of them may prove weaker than the author suggests. (Kennedy has me in the category ‘sensitive soul’ since I am one who is unhappy with the Whitman texts chosen by the composer for the Sea Symphony.) On the other hand, he makes it clear which works he thinks better and which somewhat less good, so an explorer can start with ‘the best’. If he doesn’t like that he needn’t proceed.
One area where Kennedy is particularly helpful is in his comments on works which have occasioned over-interpretation by critics and the public alike. One such case is the fourth symphony, which some took to be an accurate prophecy of impending war. Kennedy shows very well that this was not in the composer’s mind. Another case is the sixth symphony, where some listeners have taken the last movement to depict the world after a nuclear holocaust. This interpretation is wrong too, but the fourth movement of the sixth is an attractive nail on which to hang a favourite jacket. Kennedy writes:
'No vision of destruction was in the composer’s mind. He wrote to me on the subject of the finale on 22 January 1956. “With regard to the last movement of my No. 6, I do NOT BELIEVE IN meanings and mottoes as you know, but I think we can get in words nearest to the substance of my last movement in ‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded by a sleep’.” (page 302)
All in all, this book delivers on its title – no mean achievement.
In passing, Kennedy quotes RVW on Tchaikovsky, a composer I don’t like a lot for reasons he tries to explain.
‘Never a stroke fails; every emotion which he feels he translated into music with the readiness of a true Russian linguist. And herein lies his weakness, that the expression is often too intense for the emotion behind it; the very fact that expression comes so easily too him is apt to make him careless as to whether his idea is worth expressing.’
(page 48)
Displaying 1 of 1 review