A symposium to consider the influences of literature and poetry on Sir Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams


Jointly presented by the Elgar Society and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, at the British Library, London, on 22-23 November 2008 as part of the commemorations to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of RVW in 1958

In preparation for this symposium, I re-read Elgar & Literature, the volume edited by Raymond Monk, and I wondered what new might be said about the subject.  Well, I soon learnt!  Isn't it curious how a single approach opens up new vistas of perception?  It's as if the light of a candle is placed before a range of concave mirrors and the consequent beam is many times stronger than the original light source. 

HUGH COBBE's full-juiced apple and ROGER SAVAGE's funny and frenetically full fruit bowl illustrated for us the sheer range of Vaughan Williams's literary influences, especially the Bible, Shakespeare and the Tudors, Blake and, indeed, Ursula.  Roger's careful ordering of the telephone directory of writers into three circles of influence, his consequent identification of the writers of 1890 to 1905 who chiefly engaged Vaughan Williams's imagination, and his acute observation of how the figures of the traveller, the wordsmith and their consequent books led to Vaughan Williams's synthesis of, and equipoise between, Voice and Verse, was particularly helpful.


Above: Hugh Cobbe


Above: Roger Savage and Em Marshall

BYRON ADAMS then concentrated on Vaughan Williams and Shakespeare, providing us with aperçus such as Vaughan Williams's hatred of "Merrie England".  (I could not help thinking of Jim Dixon's lecture of the same name in Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim, where his drunken debunkings in a range of inappropriate accents put paid to Merrie England and his own career.)  I particularly liked Byron's showing us the paradox of music pervading and civilising all strata of Renaissance Italian and English society in the midst of amazing cruelty, and also showing us how Vaughan Williams transformed Shakespeare just as Shakespeare transformed his own sources.

Above: Byron Adams

STEPHEN JOHNSON, in his enthusiastic erudition, described how Elgar, in contrast to Vaughan Williams, chose verse in which he could (as he did in the Violin Concerto) "show himself".  Such verse was so often, at generous best, second rate, but Stephen then illustrated how Elgar could add to it and transform words and music into great art - and JULIETTE POCHIN neatly reinforced the example of Sea Pictures later, during the splendid concert.

Above: Stephen Johnson

ANDREW NEILL, with Anna Neill and the recorded voice of Laurence Binyon, reminded us of the poignancy of Elgar's and Vaughan Williams's response to the World Wars.  The example of what I term "literature under pressure" in Spirit of England showed Elgar, in my opinion, on top form.  Meanwhile, the trumpet solo over hushed strings sounding the Last Post for the Dead in the Trenches in the Pastoral Symphony amply illustrated Michael Kennedy's description of Vaughan Williams's "humanity, curiosity and ability to affect all he met".


Above: Andrew and Anna Neill

MICHAEL POPE performed the feat for me of neatly linking Walt Whitman with the differing generations of Stanford and Parry, Elgar and Vaughan Williams. Beginning with Parry's view of "the artist's loyalty to his art", Michael drew together Parry's fusing of the spiritual with the secular, Stanford's setting of Whitman in his Elegiac Ode of 1884, the poet's underlying theme of democracy, Parry's notion that one "cannot prolong a man's life but one can widen and deepen it through art", and his influence by Elgar's music and on Vaughan Williams's thinking.


Above: Michael Pope

STEPHEN CONNOCK then led RICHARD HICKOX to entertain us with a good-humoured drawing on a lifetime of conducting to reflect across a whole range of musical interests.  I particularly liked Richard's comment, having studied the score of Elgar's Third Symphony, that he subsequently found that all the bits he thought were by Anthony Payne were by Elgar, and all the bits by Elgar were by Anthony Payne!


Above: Stephen Connock and Richard Hickox

And how delightful to end the day of such riches with a special concert that, concluding with RODERICK WILLIAMS and IAIN BURNSIDE performing one of my favourite song cycles, the Songs of Travel, was for me, very heaven.


Above: Iain Burnside and Roderick Williams

And this brought us to the second day.  I could think of no better epigram for the day than Vaughan Williams's aspiration "to stretch out to the ultimate realities through the medium of art ... to see past facts to the essence of things". 

We began with DAVID OWEN NORRIS, in characteristically witty and erudite style, taking us first through the approach to making playable and more effective Karg-Elert's transcription of Falstaff.  There followed a fascinating exposition of the debate between abstract and programme music, with the penetrating observation that the latter might invoke characters, but all music should achieve character.  Clearly there were three masterly musicians to admire in the talk, KE, EE and David himself.


Above: David Owen Norris

PHILIP LANCASTER talked of A. E. Housman's influence on Vaughan Williams and added new insights to familiar material that amply confirmed the view that, early in his career, RVW was raised to genuine inspiration in setting Housman's verse (despite the poet's disapproval of the cuts made!).  On questioning the erudite audience, I was relieved to find that I was not the only person not to know Along the field, RVW's 1927 cycle for voice and violin, and the brief extract played convinced me I should get better acquainted with it.


Above: Philip Lancaster

ALAIN FROGLEY took up one of the themes of the previous day and examined even further the influence Walt Whitman had on Vaughan Williams, arguing that the poet had a more wide-ranging influence on him than on any other composer.  Certainly the compositions and sketches covered in the talk added weight to the view that the optimistic, inspirational Whitman opened RVW's creative floodgates, even if he ended after World War I more in sympathy with Thomas Hardy than Whitman.


Above: Alain Frogley

The final part of the day began with JOHN BRIDCUT's introduction to the screening of his BBC film on Vaughan Williams.  Any reservations that those who had seen it before might be disappointed by its repetition were swept away by the power and dignified emotion of the film, leaving the whole room visibly moved.


Above: John Bridcut

This mood persisted with the keynote address:  The light we sought is shining still: Elgar, VW and the inspiration of literature given by MICHAEL KENNEDY.  We had in the film seen the young Kennedy with his friend RVW and there he was before us, the living link between then and now, the critic who had done so much to further scholarship and appreciation of so many aspects of 20th century music.  On top of the content of his talk, who better than he to chart for us the changes in reputation of two of our greatest composers, having lived through the years since their deaths?  Like we, he had been moved by the film and the memories it evoked, and I was struck as his talk progressed by the humanity and wisdom he clearly shared with Vaughan Williams. 


Above: Michael Kennedy

Finally, Michael was joined on the stage by PHILIP LANCASTER, ALAIN FROGLEY and BYRON ADAMS for a panel discussion that brought questions and comment over a wide range of topics, and the whole was fittingly concluded with Byron Adams' moving salute to Michael Kennedy's lifetime devotion to music and his expert preparation of the ground for subsequent scholars both of Elgar and Vaughan Williams.  A spontaneous and noisy wave of agreement, affection, respect and gratitude swept over the auditorium.


Above: Michael Kennedy, Byron Adams, Alain Frogley, Philip Lancaster, Steven Halls

I was privileged to have the last words.  "How can one possibly sum up such a day, indeed such a weekend?  I have continually had a sense of so much knowledge and wisdom behind the half an hour or so allotted to each speaker.  I know I could have listened to each one for much longer and therefore concluded that that must be the essence of a good symposium.


Above: Em Marshall

We shall each go away with our own separate thoughts but I know you will all want me to offer thanks.  First, to Richard Chesser and Rupert Ridgewell and all their technical, catering and box office colleagues at the British Library;  to Stephen Connock and Andrew Neill for organising such an inspiring programme;  to today's and indeed all our speakers and performers - all deserve our thanks and applause.  Finally, ladies and gentlemen, thank you.  Em, I sensed a palpable comradeship between our two societies as we journeyed through these two days, and I hope our rather more prosaic journeys home will not only be safe but enriched by the enjoyment we have shared this weekend.  On behalf of Em Marshall and of both societies, thank you for coming and I look forward very much to our next meeting.  Goodbye to you all."

Steven Halls
Chairman, the Elgar Society