Dona nobis pacem. A cantata for soprano and baritone soli, chorus and orchestra. < Full score. >

by Ralph Vaughan Williams

As has been said often before, this cantata is avowedly propagandist and its design has been said to lack unity but it is undeniably effective in performance. The opening prayer is strongly the orchestration is dark and rich, and the first two bars for orchestra generate the impassioned, almost frantic, choral supplication for peace which is in marked contrast to the soprano’s more ethereal pleas. The frenzy of Whitman’s ‘Beat, beat, drums!’ is soon unleashed. Drums and trumpets predominate, the music describing the bustle as well as the clangor of war. The storm subsides into E major, and the baritone sings ‘Word over all, beautiful as the sky’ -- with its picture of the soldier and his dead enemy -- ‘a man divine as myself’ -- which is surely a progenitor of Wilfred Owen’s Strange Meeting. The pathos of the poem is reflected in the following passage for unaccompanied chorus after which the soprano’s ‘Dona nobis pacem’ is touching in its poignancy. The central movement, the ‘Dirge for Two Veterans’, was written before 1914. Nevertheless it fits into the cantata, for its simpler style is suited to this particular poem. The baritone declaims John Bright’s famous words, and once again soprano and chorus make their frantic plea for peace. The baritone answers them with words of reassurance and a mood of optimism floods the music as the words ‘Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation’ and ‘Peace on earth, goodwill towards men’ are sung to an accompaniment of bells and other emanations of rejoice in the manner of ‘Let all the world in every corner sing’ and of the finale, twenty years hence, of the Eighth Symphony. The jubilation dies away and the soprano has the last word, niente, but this does not obliterate the impression of happiness that the whole work, curiously, leaves. With the advantage of hindsight, we know that the optimism and faith were unjustified but, taking the widest view, who shall say that its optimism will not finally be justified?

Genres: 20th Century, Nonfiction, Music

129 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.

Vaughan Williams was born to a well-to-do family with strong moral views and a progressive social outlook. Throughout his life he sought to be of service to his fellow citizens, and believed in making music as available as possible to everybody. He wrote many works for amateur and student performance. He was musically a late developer, not finding his true voice until his late thirties; his studies in 1907–1908 with the French composer Maurice Ravel helped him clarify the textures of his music and free it from Teutonic influences.

Vaughan Williams is among the best-known English symphonists, noted for his very wide range of moods, from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious to exuberant. Among the most familiar of his other concert works are Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910) and The Lark Ascending (1914). His vocal works include hymns, folk-song arrangements and large-scale choral pieces. He wrote eight works for stage performance between 1919 and 1951. Although none of his operas became popular repertoire pieces, his ballet Job: A Masque for Dancing (1930) was successful and has been frequently staged.

Reviews

[Ron Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This masterwork by Ralph Vaughan Williams intertwines traditional Latin texts, poetry by Walt Whitman and John Bright, and various Biblical excerpts to achieve a piece that is truly unique and powerful. Vaughan Williams's music and selected texts are expertly paired to represent the dichotomy between war and peace. Each section seamlessly melts into the next with no discernible breaks in between: from the soprano's haunting and legato opening of the Agnus Dei to the bombastic and percussive "Beat! beat! drums! in the 2nd section. (For example)

Possibly my favorite example of musical text painting occurs in section III: Reconciliation-

"Word over all, beautiful as the sky,
Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly, softly, wash again and ever again this
soiled world;
For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin - I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin."
~Walt Whitman

After a musical tug-of-war between lightness and darkness, light prevails with a resounding setting of
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men."
Before the satisfying and beautiful apotheosis of the piece with the return of
Dona nobis pacem. Bookended with the solo soprano voice.

I've added Leaves of Grass to my reading list to explore more of Walt Whitman's poetry.