Symphony No. 5 (Vaughan Williams)

In 1935 Vaughan Williams had caused surprise and even shock with his Fourth Symphony,[n 1] a strident and dissonant piece in great contrast with its quiet and contemplative predecessor, A Pastoral Symphony (1922).[2] After this he experienced a temporary writer's block, before he began writing his Fifth Symphony in 1938. He had been working intermittently for more than thirty years on what became his opera (or "Morality") The Pilgrim's Progress.[n 2] Believing that the opera might never be completed he decided to incorporate some of its ideas and themes into other works, most notably the Fifth Symphony.[4]

The symphony was complete enough by the end of 1942 for the composer to prepare a two-piano transcription, which two friends played for him in late January 1943. Any doubts he had about the piece were allayed when he heard the first orchestral run-through on 25 May.[n 3] He found that the symphony said what he meant it to.[6]

Vaughan Williams dedicated the symphony to Jean Sibelius. The musicologist J. P. E. Harper-Scott has called Sibelius "the influence of choice" among British symphonists in the years between the two World Wars, citing Walton's First Symphony, all seven of Bax's and the first five of Havergal Brian.[7] The published ascription reads "Dedicated without permission to Jean Sibelius".[8][n 4] Sir Adrian Boult subsequently secured permission. After listening to a broadcast of the work, Sibelius wrote to him, "I heard Dr. Ralph Vaughan Williams' new Symphony from Stockholm under the excellent leadership of Malcolm Sargent ... This Symphony is a marvellous work ... the dedication made me feel proud and grateful ... I wonder if Dr. Williams has any idea of the pleasure he has given me?"[9]

The first movement, in Frank Howes's analysis (1954), can be seen either as "an elaborate ternary form with coda" or "an exposition of two big groups of themes succeeded without development by a condensed recapitulation".[17] This movement owes something to sonata form, but does not display all its characteristics; the second subject has been derived from the first subject. The movement opens with a pedal C in the bass, answered by a horn call outlining a D major chord in a dotted rhythm, which implies mixolydian D.

The violins use the notes of the pentatonic scale, making the key ambiguous. Wilfrid Mellers believes this is why Vaughan Williams billed the movement as a Preludio, "which suggests an emergent state".[18] The horn call motif fluctuates from major to minor, outlining the tonal ambiguity, moving between the mixolydian and dorian modes, which becomes a characteristic of the movement. The bass's C pedal becomes the tonic when the key changes to either the aeolian or dorian modes. The modality then moves to E, with a new melody in the violins, which, although it does not include a sharpened seventh, outlines E major. The bass, now played pizzicato, supports the melody both melodically and harmonically and the texture incorporates suspensions and passing notes, making the harmony richer. A sudden descent of a semitone, an idea previously used in Vaughan Williams's works Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Job, marks a key change to three flats and also the development section.[19]

The tempo accelerates to allegro for the development.[20] The strings are used to imply the winds of nature, in a similar vein to that of Sibelius. This is punctuated by the brass and woodwind with the falling semitone motif, which gets larger intervallically to a major second and then a minor third. This section is a canon; the polyphony of which Mellers believes shows the randomness of nature. The key shifts down mediants, until it reaches D minor, when the strings imitate Sibelius again, this time using tremolo effects.[21]

For the recapitulation the tempo slows and the dynamics are reduced. The C pedal is reintroduced, but this time in a more melodic fashion. There is more development in the recapitulation. The movement ends in a similar way to the opening, with the horn call, but the key signature of two flats rather than one sharp is used. The bases descend to C via E♭, leaving the tonality of the movement still in question.[22]

Arnold Whittall argues that "With respect to D Major, the Preludio might be regarded as a clear case of Schoenbergian 'Schwebende Tonalität' ('fluctuating: suspended, not yet decided' tonality)",[23] although Vaughan Williams stated that Schoenberg's music meant nothing to him.[24]

Vaughan Williams uses rhythm in the Scherzo to convey different effects. The focus of the movement is centred on the rhythm rather than the ambiguous tonality of the Preludio. Lionel Pike comments that "at times it seems more like a counterpoint of rhythms than of pitches." The movement begins with three dotted minims in a fast 3/4 time (dotted minim = 120),[25] and then minims for four bars, which create hemiolas and then crotchets. This gives the illusion that the music is accelerating, and so the pulse does not settle. When the melodic line begins, the music is divided into five bar phrases. A sense of stability is established when the theme is repeated by the viola and double bass in stable two bar phrases. However the violins enter with phrasing that does not conform to either pattern, thus adding more confusion. Using this rhythmic phrasing, the dorian line played on the violins and the aeolian woodwind line are differentiated rhythmically, as well as tonally. The rhythmical confusion is halted when the wind and strings alternate downward runs antiphonally.[26]

In the manuscript score Vaughan Williams headed this movement with words taken from Bunyan:

The third and fourth lines were later sung in the opera by Pilgrim.[28] The inscription was omitted from the published score in accordance with the composer's wish that the symphony should be regarded as absolute music.[29] The movement may be considered the spiritual core of the work: Frank Howes calls it "the heart of the symphony"[30] and David Cox calls it "a profound meditation on the three main musical elements presented at the outset".[31] It is not clear why the composer called it "Romanza".[31] Howes comments that with its spiritual, meditative nature there is nothing "romantic" about this movement;[32] Michael Kennedy observes that with Vaughan Williams the term "is always a signal that the music was of special significance to him".[33]

The opening cor anglais solo is taken virtually without change.

Rising fourths again appear as connecting passages.

Although this movement begins with the repetitive bass line characteristic of the passacaglia form, Vaughan Williams eventually abandons it. The triumphant primary melody of the passacaglia is used as Pilgrim's dialogue with Interpreter in the second half of "The House Beautiful" scene, while the fanfare motif recalls of "The Arming of the Pilgrim" in Act II Scene 1. This ushers in a return of the themes from the first movement of the symphony, which are resolved into a quiet valediction played first by the woodwind and then by the upper strings.

• Atlas, Allan (Autumn 2011). "On the proportions of the passacaglia (fourth movement) of Vaughan Williams's Fifth Symphony". The Musical Times. 152 (1916): 19–32. JSTOR 23037971. (subscription required)
• Bunyan, John (1904) [1678]. The Pilgrim's Progress. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 1060352.
• Cox, David (1967). "Ralph Vaughan Williams". In Robert Simpson (ed.). The Symphony: Elgar to the Present Day. Harmondsworth: Pelican Books. OCLC 221594461.
• Culshaw, John (1981). Putting the Record Straight. London: Secker and Warburg. ISBN 978-0-436-11802-9.
• Douglas, Roy (1988). Working with Vaughan Williams. London: The British Library. ISBN 978-0-7123-0148-0.
• Foss, Hubert (1950). Ralph Vaughan Williams: a study. London: Harrap. OCLC 1106175387.
• Horton, Julian (2014). "The later symphonies". In Alain Frogley and Aidan J. Thomson (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Vaughan Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-16290-6.
• Howes, Frank (1954). The Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 459433504.
• Kennedy, Michael (2013). "Fluctuations in the response to the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams". In Alain Frogley and Aidan J. Thomson (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Vaughan Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-19768-7.
• Mellers, Wilfrid (1989). Vaughan Williams and the Vision of Albion. London: Barrie & Jenkins. ISBN 0-7126-2117-2.
• Moore, Jerrold Northrop (1979). Music and Friends – Letters to Adrian Boult. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-10178-6.
• Pike, Lionel (1996). Frogley, Alain (ed.). Vaughan Williams Studies. Rhythm in the symphonies: a preliminary investigation. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 166–186. ISBN 978-0-521-08864-0.
• Pike, Lionel (2003). Vaughan Williams and the Symphony. London: Toccata Press. ISBN 0-907689-54-X.
• Schwartz, Elliott (1982) [1964]. The Symphonies of Ralph Vaughan Williams. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-76137-9.
• Vaughan Williams, Ralph (1969) [1946]. Symphony No. 5. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-369415-6.
• Vaughan Williams, Ursula (1964). RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-315411-7.
• Whittall, Arnold (1996). Frogley, Alain (ed.). Vaughan Williams Studies. 'Symphony in D major': models and mutations. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 187–212. ISBN 978-0-521-08864-0.