# i love ralph vaughan Williams



## milie (Aug 16, 2013)

Hi im aurélie ***

The compositor that i love the most right now is Ralph Vaughan Williams .
I advised you all to listen to Fantasia on the greensleeves.....*** Enjoy!!!:lol:


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## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

Welcome to the forum milie.

I think you'll find a lot of fellow RVW's fans here.

There is are threads about him here:

general: http://www.talkclassical.com/3452-ralph-vaughan-williams.html
symphonies: http://www.talkclassical.com/24988-favourite-vaughan-williams-symphony.html
symphony recordings: http://www.talkclassical.com/8248-vaughan-williams-symphonies-cycle.html

regards,

M


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Oh Yea, he is such a cuddly teddy bear no one can really avoid loving him!

The 7th Symphony constantly give me goose bumples! 

Welcome to our growing family!

/ptr


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Can I just say that the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is just about the most amazing piece of music ever? I'm in the mood to emote!

:lol:

And welcome to the forum!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I love that lark when it ascends!


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## TudorMihai (Feb 20, 2013)

Yes, I too love RVW. He's one of my favorite composers. He has that wonderful, pastoral flavor in his music that I cannot find in any other composer. Whenever I want to be carried away I close my eyes and listen to "The Lark Ascending". It's flawless and timeless. I also love his symphonies and his Oboe Concerto. He was a real painter of English landscapes.


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## nightscape (Jun 22, 2013)

Coincidentally, I am just now really starting to delve more into RVW's music. For years I've had a CD with pieces that everyone is basically familiar with, such as Lark Ascending and Thomas Tallis Fantasy. It had some other pieces that I never really bothered with for whatever unexplainable reason, such as Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 and In the Fen Country. I probably bought it only for Lark Ascending and was just lazy about listening to everything else (this was during a time when I was starting to force myself to get into classical/orchestral music and really _listen_).

But until recently I was still holding onto these other RVW works with complete neglect. I happened upon some of the Proms 2013 performances on YouTube and saw A Sea Symphony. After hearing the first 15 seconds I was like  (and I never use emoticons!)

Now I'm hunting around and trying to get anything I can get my hands on.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I don't find Vaughn-Williams music quite as "Pastoral" as most people like to describe his music. I think that puts him into a really narrow box based on very few works. Even the so called "Pastoral" symphony I find a lot less pastoral and a lot more eerie and mysterious.


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## belfastboy (Aug 3, 2012)

Blancrocher said:


> Can I just say that the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is just about the most amazing piece of music ever? I'm in the mood to emote!
> 
> :lol:
> 
> And welcome to the forum!


I can't high-five that statement enough!! ........DITTO!


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## nightscape (Jun 22, 2013)

violadude said:


> I don't find Vaughn-Williams music quite as "Pastoral" as most people like to describe his music. I think that puts him into a really narrow box based on very few works. Even the so called "Pastoral" symphony I find a lot less pastoral and a lot more eerie and mysterious.


The word 'pastoral' in this case is not meant to convey a rolling and gentle pasture, but rather the fields of battle experienced in World War I.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

I'll add my voice here. RVW has long been one of my favorite composers. Back in my college days, I wrote a paper about him, if I recall. Right now, I'm exploring some of his lesser-known works, and many of them are surprisingly good.

Random fact: Although Vaughan Williams wrote lots of pieces of a religious nature, he was actually a lifelong agnostic!


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## Oreb (Aug 8, 2013)

Symphony No. 5 - perfection.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

So is that _Sancta Civitas_. And _Flos Campi_. I'm also a huge fan of his Oboe Concerto.


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## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

Perfection also = Dona nobis pacem.


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Ralph Vaughan Williams strikes me as the more melodically inclined *English' Sibelius*.


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## Borodin (Apr 8, 2013)

violadude said:


> I don't find Vaughn-Williams music quite as "Pastoral" as most people like to describe his music. I think that puts him into a really narrow box based on very few works. Even the so called "Pastoral" symphony I find a lot less pastoral and a lot more eerie and mysterious.


A lot of RVW to me feels too "grand" to be completely pastoral, although it definitely is there. I personally think of a perfect pastoral as something like 2:35 - 4:00 very woodsy <3 



.

Can anyone recommend me more music that sounds like this? I'd very much appreciate it.


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## Oreb (Aug 8, 2013)

peeyaj said:


> Ralph Vaughan Williams strikes me as the more melodically inclined *English' Sibelius*.


 In fact, as I'm sure you know, he dedicated his fifth symphony to Sibelius!


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

Talk about someone who was obsessed with chromatic mediants!

But he turns them into gold, as always.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Has anyone else seen this? It's not a perfect documentary, but there are some tremendous moments in it.

After seeing this, I figured out what my dream project would be: The Complete Symphonies of RVW filmed in just the artistic way they did the excerpts in this DVD. The black backgrounds and sectional filming they used for Symphonies 4 & 6 were thrilling, and the filming of the Symphony No 1 excerpts was inspiring.

And, you've always got the film version of "Scott of the Antarctic" to tap into for #7.


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## jdkeyes (Aug 19, 2013)

After lurking for a year or so, I decided to join the forums just for this thread. :tiphat:

I love RVW, and he was one of the composers that really helped to develop my love of classical music way back in high school. It started with Norfolk Rhapsody, with the beautiful sweeping melody broken by the almost militaristic interlude (or at least that's how I saw it at the time). Then the incredible, sometimes haunting, Tallis Fantasia, and its building climax around the 10-11 minute mark which warms my soul everytime I hear it. Lark Ascending is a relatively recent discovery for me, but has become one of my most listened to pieces. And then I am still working my way through the symphonies, with 3 and 5 particular favorites so far. 

There is something extremely comforting for me about Vaughan Williams' compositions, and there is a characteristic to his music that oddly enables me to instantly recognize a work as his. 

At any rate, hello Talk Classical, and it's a pleasure to be around other RVW affecianados.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

RVW's symphonies are among the best this country has produced. Nine works, each one vastly different from the rest, yet all bear the unmistakable "RVW sound". His choral-orchestral works (including Toward the Unknown Region and Dona nobis pacem) are also of a very high standard. And the Tallis Fantasia is incredible! How he creates the sound of an organ through the use of separate string ensembles.


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