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Showing posts with the label Vaughan Williams

The Songs & The Plays - Kean on Shakespeare

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The Songs & The Plays Listen on Youtube Love’s Labours Lost (1593-94) A revised and polished version of this play was presented for Queen Elizabeth I and her court at Christmas 1598. However the elevated language and subject matter of the drama suggests it was always intended for a sophisticated and highly literate audience. There are two parallel plots – one ‘high’ comedy and one ‘low’ comedy. In the high comedy the King of Navarre and his friends make a pact to ‘fast and study’ and to have no contact with women for three years. No sooner have they agreed than the Princess of Aquitaine and her ladies in waiting arrive to discuss ‘state matters’. Inevitably the King falls in love with the Princess and his friends with the French ladies in waiting. The Gentlemen find loophole in their vows and woo and win women with a dance. The Ladies become aware of their broken vows and treat the noblemen with scorn. In the low comedy the page Moth and the clown Costard ridicule the exaggerated m...
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Ralph Vaughan Williams - Biography - The Quintessential English Composer

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  Ralph Vaughan Williams  1872 - 1958 My recordings: click to listen Tired -  The Sky Above the Roof -  Three Songs From Shakespeare   When Icicles Hang by the Wal l    Take Oh Take       Orpheus with his Lute This great English composer, teacher, writer and conductor was a key figure in the 20 th century revival of British music. He was born in the heart of the English countryside at Down Ampney in Gloucester on the 12 th of October 1872. The youngest of three children, he grew up at his mother’s family home, at Leith Hill in Surrey, where he would spend most of his life. His father the Reverend Arthur Vaughan Williams was the Vicar of Down Ampney. Arthur’s family was lawyers and judges of Welsh ancestry. After gaining his BA and MA from Christ Church, Oxford, Arthur went to minister the parish of Halsall near Ormskirk, in Lancashire between 1863 and 1865. He moved to Tanhurst near Leith Hill that year, where he met his wife. ...
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A Garland for Christmas - A Recital of Classical Christmas Songs by 20th Century British Composers

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A Garland of 20 th  Century Composers This album was reviewed and featured on Classic FM radio. “It is an unusual programme of songs and should prove most rewarding.” The British Music Society Helena took 4 years to research and curate 16 songs that would evoke the spirit of Christmas in a different way. Her studies were sponsored by The Vaughan Williams Society, The Rawsthorne Trust and The Ivor Gurney Society, with additional support from The Peter Warlock Society and Women In Music. With her accompanist Graham Jackson, she has performed these songs to great acclaim at many venues across the North West UK. Although not overtly religious, each song is a unique approach to the Christmas message. For example, in ‘The First Mercy’ you have the story of the animals that witnessed the birth of Jesus, describing how they experienced the event. ‘Carol of the Skiddaw Yowes’ draws a comparison between the shepherds and the sheep of Cumbria to those of Bethlehem. ‘Twelfth Night’ evokes th...
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