Vaughan Williams

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0:00:07 > 0:00:10So, you might want to stick some Bach on your playlist

0:00:10 > 0:00:11if life seems pretty good,

0:00:11 > 0:00:14or maybe some Wagner if you need an energy boost.

0:00:16 > 0:00:20And then there's other music that can give us time to breathe,

0:00:20 > 0:00:24some space to think and stop the world for a while.

0:00:24 > 0:00:28MUSIC: The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams

0:00:28 > 0:00:31Do you have those days that have gone wrong?

0:00:31 > 0:00:35When you lie back on your bed, put some music on - any music -

0:00:35 > 0:00:38and imagine you're just floating away from it all?

0:00:44 > 0:00:46On those days, I want to be that lark up there,

0:00:46 > 0:00:49belting out a beautiful song high up in the sky.

0:00:51 > 0:00:54And up there, just like when you look down from a plane

0:00:54 > 0:00:57or tall building, the world seems different.

0:00:57 > 0:00:59We become smaller.

0:00:59 > 0:01:01Maybe our worries do, too.

0:01:06 > 0:01:09An English composer called Ralph Vaughan Williams

0:01:09 > 0:01:11was walking along the coast near Margate

0:01:11 > 0:01:15when he imagined a violin melody that would capture this feeling

0:01:15 > 0:01:18of a bird singing as it makes its steep vertical flight.

0:01:20 > 0:01:23And he called it The Lark Ascending.

0:01:35 > 0:01:39It was September 1914...

0:01:39 > 0:01:40GUNFIRE ..Britain had just entered

0:01:40 > 0:01:44the First World War, and soon, Vaughan Williams joined the Army

0:01:44 > 0:01:47and left for France.

0:01:47 > 0:01:49In the trenches during that war,

0:01:49 > 0:01:52some of the few birds the soldiers ever saw or heard

0:01:52 > 0:01:55were skylarks flying high over their heads.

0:01:56 > 0:02:00That birdsong must have sounded like an escape, freedom,

0:02:00 > 0:02:03like a different world they had left behind.

0:02:06 > 0:02:07When he came back from the war,

0:02:07 > 0:02:11Vaughan Williams returned to his violin piece with its melody -

0:02:11 > 0:02:16fragile, peaceful, out of reach, like the bird.

0:02:17 > 0:02:19And he created this music -

0:02:19 > 0:02:23music that, for me, really CAN take you to another place,

0:02:23 > 0:02:25wherever you want that to be.