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THE SKY SHALL BE OUR ROOF
When Vaughan Williams decided in 1909 that he wished to write an opera with a 'prize fight' at its heart he began an operatic journey that would last until the early 1950s. His boxing idea became Hugh the Drover, first performed in 1924. Five more operas were to follow: The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains (1922), Sir John in Love (1929), Riders to the Sea (1936), The Poisoned Kiss (1936) and his operatic masterpiece The Pilgrim's Progress (1951-2) Two problems were identified by the composer in 1910. Firstly he had very limited experience of the stage although, as he acknowledged, he had worked on the incidental music for two dramatisations: one in 1906 (Pilgrim's Progress at Reigate) and another in 1909 (Aristophanes's The Wasps at Cambridge). Secondly, Vaughan Williams was unconvinced anyone would want to hear an opera by an English composer. Perhaps the experience of his teacher, Stanford, was on his mind as none of Stanford's operas written up to 1910 had any run in England, despite success in Germany. There was some cause for optimism as Beecham was to perform Delius's A Village Romeo and Juliet, along with Ethel Smythe's The Wreckers, in London in 1910. His close friend Gustav Holst had also completed his second opera, Savitri, by early that same year. It was clearly always going to be a struggle to persuade impresarios to 'risk' English opera. To ensure wider accessibility to the music, Vaughan Williams knew he had the option of producing smaller scale versions of his works - he was to show this practical side to his thinking in, for example, the simplified alternative arrangement of the Fantasia on Christmas Carols in 1912. The songs from the operas on this CD arose from Vaughan Williams's desire to provide a performing option short of a full operatic staging. His cantatas A Cotswold Romance (1951) from Hugh the Drover and In Windsor Forest (1931) from Sir John in Love were arranged with a similar objective in mind. For his first opera, Hugh the Drover, Vaughan Williams had a clear concept of what he wanted to achieve. He wrote to his chosen librettist, The Times leader writer Harold Child, that 'I have an idea of an opera written to real English words, with a certain amount of real English music and also a real English subject ..... I think the whole thing might be folk song-y in character with a certain amount of real ballad stuff thrown in". His enthusiasm for an expressly English opera, 'folk song-y in character', derived from his thorough absorption in English folk song at the time. In the year from July 1909 alone he had visited Herefordshire, Devon and Suffolk many times to collect folk tunes and his music reflected the colours and contours of English traditional song. Called by the composer a 'Ballad Opera', Hugh the Drover was composed between 1911 and 1914 and revised and orchestrated after the war before its first performance at the Royal College of Music in 1924, conducted by Malcolm Sargent. The plot is straightforward. The action is set in a Cotswold village in 1812 – Napoleanic times and wartime anxieties seep into the opera. Mary is betrothed to John the Butcher, whom she dislikes. The day before her wedding she meets Hugh, a drover, and it is mutual love at first sight. A boxing match between John and Hugh becomes a fight for Mary's hand. Hugh wins but is accused of being a French spy. The soldiers are called and on their arrival they recognise Hugh as their friend. John is, instead, carried off to serve the King, leaving Hugh and Mary together to enjoy the open road, with the sky as their roof and the sun and stars as their friends. The Ten Songs were arranged by Vaughan Williams in 1924, as follows: [ 1 ] 1. Cold Blows the Wind on Cotsall: This is the Showman's song from Act I - a patriotic song, reduced here to two verses, capturing a folk song flavour whilst being original to the composer. [ 2] 2. Life must be full of care: Mary, alone with her Aunt, admits to her fear of John. Aunt Jane reassures her in this lovely, poignant lament. [ 3] 3. Sweet little linnet: Mary has told her Aunt that she feels 'caged' by her forthcoming marriage to John. Hugh overhears this and gently mocks Mary's sense of duty whilst she really longs for her freedom. Vaughan Williams told his librettist that he had written 'a nice little tune' for this song - how right he was! [ 4] 4. Hugh's Song of the Road: This song is Hugh's introduction to Mary during which he describes his life as a drover. It is a fine song, reminiscent of The Vagabond from the earlier Robert Louis Stevenson cycle, Songs of Travel. Despite criticisms of Harold Child, over the years, his libretto does contain passages such as this Song of the Road that Vaughan Williams admitted to being "splendid to set .... they run so easily and at the same time are so full of red meat". [ 5] 5. Ah! Love I've found you: Mary is entranced by Hugh who speaks her very thoughts. Hugh kisses her, prompting fresh doubts - 'who am I?' she asks. Then, with new confidence, Mary sings 'In the night-time' - one of the most expressive moments in an opera full of heartfelt melodies. [ 6] 6. The Devil and Bonyparty: A second song for the Showman who sings of the brave Cotswold men who frighten both the devil and 'Bonyparty!' This song opens the way to the boxing match. [ 7] 7. Alone and Friendless: The stake in the boxing match between John and Hugh was originally £20.00, but Hugh has a higher and more personal aim that would be worth dying for - Mary's hand. This is a beautiful, wistful song with a second verse here that was not included in the revised version of the opera. [ 8] 8. Gaily I go to die: At the opening of Act II, Hugh is in the stocks having been accused of being a French spy. Hugh, believing that he has known his last days of freedom, sings of his happiness in having known and loved 'my Mary'. [ 9] 9. Here on my throne: This song became 'Here, Queen Uncrowned' in the final version of the opera. The lovers have been found together in the stocks after Mary had tried to free Hugh. Mary is unrepentant and sings another warm, romantic melody of defiance. [10] 10. Hugh, my lover: This song links the earlier passage in Act II when Mary is trying to free Hugh from the stocks with the ardent closing scene from the opera after the soldiers have recognised Hugh and taken John away. 'Love that has set me free' is wonderfully lyrical whilst the passage in unison - 'O the sky shall be our roof and my arms your fire' - has rightly been compared to Puccini in its warmth and expressiveness. These songs from Hugh the Drover were not amended by Vaughan Williams even though he revised the opera itself many times between 1924 and 1956. They are therefore a fascinating reminder of the earlier version as well as a distillation of the beauty and freshness of the opera itself. Vaughan Williams began composing Sir John in Love in 1924 and it was first performed in 1929. He had written incidental music for Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor when he was Music Director for Frank Benson's company in Stratford in 1911-12. Holst may have, again, provided the stimulus as he had written his own Falstaff opera, At the Boar's Head, in 1924. Vaughan Williams wrote his own libretto, adding a number of lyrics from Elizabethan poets as well as other Shakespeare plays. One such lyric is Ben Jonson's See the Chariot at hand from The Triumph. Sir John in Love presents a picture of various facets of Elizabethan England centred around the amorous escapades of Sir John Falstaff, especially his courting of two married women. A romantic sub-plot concerns the love between Anne and Fenton. All ends happily in this life-enhancing opera that in its wit and richness of emotion marks an advance on Hugh the Drover. Vaughan Williams's gift for writing lovely music remains common to both works. The composer arranged two solo songs from his opera: [11] 1. Greensleeves: One of many traditional tunes included in the opera, this sad, sweet song is used by Mistress Ford - one of the married women coveted by Falstaff - to beguile the amorous knight in Act III. Alas for Falstaff, it is all a ruse but whilst Greensleeves is playing, he is unaware of the trick. [12] 2. See the Chariot at hand: A gorgeous setting of a quite beautiful poem, sung in Act IV by Fenton to the veiled Anne. Words and music are so superbly matched that, once heard, it is impossible to read the poem without hearing Vaughan Williams's ravishing music. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress held a lifelong fascination for Vaughan Williams. He knew the story as a child and never tired of the sturdy prose and robust beauty of this powerful allegory. The opera itself can be traced back to that Reigate dramatisation of 1906 but much of Act I was written between 1925 and 1936. For a BBC radio adaptation of 1942, Vaughan Williams composed 38 sections and the opera was finally performed at Covent Garden in April 1951. Some revisions were to follow and the work was finished by 1952. If Hugh the Drover and Sir John in Love capture the romantic side of Vaughan Williams, The Pilgrim's Progress shows his remarkable ability to write music which is both noble and spiritual. The story concerns Pilgrim's journey to the Celestial City and salvation, overcoming many obstacles on the way including, as the composer said, 'physical force, temptation and half-hearted sympathy'. The Seven Songs from The Pilgrim's Progress were adapted by the composer in 1952, as follows: [13] 1. Watchful's Song (Nocturne). Composed to cover a scene change between Acts I and II. Christ's words from the cross, from Psalm 121, are conveyed with remarkable nobility. It is contemplative with an inner strength; the passage 'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills' is moving in its understated simplicity. [14] 2. The Song of the Pilgrims: Vaughan Williams had included Bunyan's He who would valiant be in the English Hymnal of 1906, adapting the Sussex folk song Our Captain Calls. In the opera it opens Act II. [15] 3. The Pilgrim's Psalm: Also from Act II, it covers the arming of Pilgrim as he prepares for his fight to the death with Apollyon in the Valley of Humiliation. Its call to 'stand-fast' meant much to the soldiers in World War I. [16] 4. The Song of the Leaves of Life and the Water of Life: After Pilgrim has defeated Apollyon he grows weak by reason of his wounds. Two Heavenly Beings, one bearing a branch of the Tree of Life and another bringing a cup of the Water of Life, together soothe Pilgrim. [17] 5. The Song of Vanity Fair: This setting by Ursula Wood, soon to be the composer's second wife, was added after the first performance. It well captures the materialistic, greedy, nasty aspects of Vanity Fair. [18] 6. The Woodcutter's Song: This beautiful song opens Act IV of the opera. Simona Pakenham referred to it as 'one of the simplest and most perfect tunes that Vaughan Williams ever invented'. [19] 7. The Bird's Song: The invisible voice of a bird quietly sings the 23rd Psalm - The Lord is my Shepherd - as the Messenger prepares Pilgrim for His presence with the clothes of immortality. Pilgrim is close to the end of his journey, an episode once again marked by restraint and deep contemplation. If these rare songs from the operas of Vaughan Williams
cannot replace the fullness of the operas themselves, they remind
us of the melodic strengths of these works whilst providing alternative
musical settings. Hopefully they will send us, with new love and
admiration, back to the originals. |
