The Lark Ascending

SHE PLAYS "The Lark Ascending" by Ralph Vaughan Williams

You've only got to listen to it and you're listening to England.

You've got to maintain this control over your bow at a point

when you're feeling really quite moved by everything.

It is, I think, the most wonderful piece of music I've ever heard

in my life and I doubt if I'll hear anything better.

The Lark ascending, an iconic piece of music that appeals

to myriads of people of every walk of life.

What's its secret?

MUSIC: "Desert Island Discs" THEME

For 70 years,

the BBC has invited castaways to choose their desert island discs.

The Lark Ascending, by Ralph Vaughan Williams,

has been chosen by a surprisingly eclectic group,

from the late Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie,

to Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts and comedian Vic Reeves,

who liked it so much, he chose to play it at his wedding.

Well, when I first heard The Lark Ascending, it sent shivers...

It still does send shivers through me.

I'm having a shiver now, even thinking about it.

There are two points in it, there are the two big crescendos

and that was the first time, I think, I got a physical feeling

from a bit of music.

'Today is the day when the nation is castaway.

'This is your Desert Island Discs...'

Recently, the Radio Four programme invited its audience

to make their own choice.

And top of the listeners' list...

'At number one, the Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams.'

I once saw the man who wrote it.

I just stared at him and I thought, "Yes,

"this man has written one piece of music called the Lark Ascending.

"And that piece of music... speaks for England."

And when I'm buried, if they'd like to bury me with a copy

of The Lark Ascending, I could play it all the time and really have a good time.

Despite its quintessential Englishness, Vaughan Williams'

most popular work has transcended any nationalistic overtones.

For the 10th anniversary of 9/11, for instance,

New York Public Radio listeners chose the Lark

as one of the pieces of music to commemorate the day.

Although probably less well known than his contemporaries,

Elgar and Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams is for many

one of the greatest English composers.

MUSIC: "Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis"

In a career that spanned two world wars,

he produced a prolific canon of work,

from nine symphonies, including the Tallis Fantasia,

to countless choral pieces and his legendary hymn tunes.

In much of his music, his influences are clear.

Vaughan Williams had a special fascination with traditional English folk songs.

One of his great interpreters,

the British violinist, Tasmin Little,

says it's the echoes of these old country tunes which imbue his work

with the essence of Englishness.

Vaughan Williams was very interested in folk music.

Is there anywhere in this piece where you're aware

of that influence?

Yes, a lot of old folk music you get a lot of parallel fifths. So...

SHE PLAYS PARALLEL FIFTHS

Things like that and even the opening,

he chooses to choose these fifths in the opening.

SHE PLAYS OPENING CHORDS

In a lot of very ancient music that monks used to chant,

it uses again these parallel motions.

I am wondering if there is something that evokes spiritual

or religious feelings within us

when we get taken back to that ancient form of music making.

The deep connection with traditional folk music certainly resonates

with the time the Lark Ascending was written.

It was 1914, the war was just beginning and the threat loomed

that the old ways of England might change for ever.

The story goes that Vaughan Williams was composing whilst looking out

over the Channel where the English fleet was gathering.

A boy scout, suspecting he was spying for the enemy, arrested him,

leading to a caution from the local police.

Work on the piece, however, was soon curtailed.

Vaughan Williams went off to war as an ambulance driver.

It would be six years before he picked up the music again.

In 1920, Vaughan Williams was invited to a house party here,

at Kings Weston in Bristol.

Among the guests was a woman to whom he dedicated the Lark,

violinist Marie Hall.

Marie was from a very poor but musical family.

Spotted busking on the streets,

their talents later brought her worldwide acclaim.

Here, at Kings Weston,

she worked with Vaughan Williams on the score of the Lark.

Together, they prepared for its first public performance

in the local hall at Shirehampton on the outskirts of Bristol.

Just how much influence did such an extraordinary woman

bring to bear on this iconic music?

I've come to the British library to see the original handwritten score.

Sandra, it's always a pleasure to meet experts in a field that

I'm not very knowledgeable about.

You're the curator of music here at the British Library.

You have, wonder of wonders, the original manuscript.

Yes, this is the original of Vaughan Williams' the Lark Ascending.

He dedicated it to Marie Hall. You see her name at the top here.

There's a poem here, the Lark Ascending, words by George Meredith,

which he used as the inspiration for his piece.

You can see that it's written for violin and piano.

This was the version that was performed first.

And he met Marie Hall and they went through the score together

and made quite a lot of changes

so that it really showed off her talents to best advantage.

-Do you think he accepted her suggestions?

-I think he did.

I think they worked together on it so it was designed to fit her talents

and you can see here, whole sections have been rewritten

and new bits of paper have been pasted over the top of the originals.

-And there are lots of crossings out.

-My goodness.

He was quite adamant about this, wasn't he?

Absolutely, that bit had to go.

And right at the end here, you can see that he's completely

rewritten the end, pasted another piece of paper on with a very

extravagant flourish for the violinist to finish on.

Has anybody tried to find out what he wrote under that?

Unfortunately we can't take that off without damaging it

and so we haven't as yet been able to study what was underneath.

It would be very interesting to see his original thoughts

before Marie Hall started having an influence on it.

Because she had must of had ideas of her own

and decided that she wanted it this way or that way.

It would be nice to see what his first thoughts were.

The enormous influence exerted by Marie Hall

and her prodigious talents has created a work loved

and found challenging in equal measure by her counterparts today.

SHE PLAYS THE CADENZA

I'm just going to stop there because what I want

to draw your attention to is the way that we've gone from the lower

area of the instrument, almost as low as you can go on the violin,

and certainly very low chords in the harmony.

And he's taken us bit by bit, gradually,

it's almost as if the bird has gradually opened the wings

and expanded and expanded so I've gone right from here... to up here,

which is pretty much the length and breadth of the scope of the violin as well.

The funny thing is that it sounds like it's so easy

and it's one of the hardest pieces to play

because it calls for the most immense amount of control.

I've got lots of notes to do, string crossings, all sorts of things

and yet it's just got to feel like the bird is just swooping down and up again.

And it's just got to feel incredibly natural

but that's actually really difficult.

When you're playing,

are you aware of the effect that it has on the audience?

It does have an immensely strong effect.

Actually it has quite a strong effect on me.

In fact I can't probably think of a single time

when I haven't felt very moved at the end

and that's one of the hardest places to play as well because it gets

higher and higher, yet the challenge is just to keep it getting softer

and softer until literally it just vanishes into thin air.

There are so many times when music is such a force to elevate people

and The Lark Ascending is definitely one of the most supreme examples

of a piece of music that can really draw people together.

I wonder what the great man himself would have made of the Lark's current popularity.

I've arranged to meet someone who knew him well.

As a young music critic, Michael Kennedy wrote a fan letter

to the composer which sparked a warm friendship.

What do you think made this piece so very popular?

Probably the advent of a lot of rather good young soloists

like Tasmin Little, Nicola Benedetti and others, who've picked it up,

then people realise what a beautiful work it is.

I've always thought that it was a masterpiece because it says

so much with so little.

What do you think Vaughan Williams would have made of the popularity of this piece?

I think he'd have been slightly amazed, very pleased, why not?

He'd properly have said, "What, that old thing?"

He always used to say that he didn't like his own music.

When his Fourth Symphony and the piano concerto came out

he said, "I wish I liked my stuff more than I do."

How fascinating. That wasn't modesty?

No, it wasn't modesty at all.

He was the despair of his publishers because he wouldn't push anything.

He said once he had written it,

it had to make its own way in the world like a child.

So, time for the Lark to stand on its own merits.

It was here, in the Shirehampton Public Hall close to Bristol,

that the Lark Ascending was first performed to the public.

Tonight, we're recreating that first performance by Marie Hall,

not with a full orchestra, but as it was originally heard,

for violin and piano.

APPLAUSE

Performing tonight are pianist Charles Matthews

and rising star, 15-year-old Julia Hwang.

Was Vaughan Williams here to witness the birth of this music

that would come to symbolise all he loved about his country?

We don't know.

But he did usually attend his premieres,

so I'd rather like to think he was.

MUSIC: "The Lark Ascending" by Ralph Vaughan Williams

PIANO JOINS IN

Listening to that performance, I've decided

what makes this piece of music so universally loved.

In a world that's riven with discord -

wars across the globe and violence in our streets -

for the 14 minutes that this piece lasts,

Vaughan Williams has given us a world of perfect simplicity and harmony.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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