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A COMPARATIVE STUDY of the COMPOSITIONAL STYLE of RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: the FIFTH SYMPHONY and the OBOE CONCERTO a Thesis Pr

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A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE COMPOSITIONAL STYLE OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: THE FIFTH SYMPHONY AND THE OBOE CONCERTO A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of the University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Music Andrew Gresham May 2019 A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE COMPOSITIONAL STYLE OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: THE FIFTH SYMPHONY AND THE OBOE CONCERTO Andrew Gresham Thesis Approved: Accepted: _________________________________ _________________________________ Advisor Dean of College of Arts and Sciences Mr. Jack Harel Dr. Linda Subich, Ph.D. _________________________________ _________________________________ Co-Advisor Executive Dean, Graduate School Dr. Brooks Toliver Dr. Chand Midha, Ph.D. ________________________________ _________________________________ Co-Chair of Theory and Composition Date Dr. Robert Brownlow ii ABSTRACT In the span of his career, English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote works for a wide array of genres, including songs, choral works, and large ensemble works. In addition to these works, Vaughan Williams also wrote a number of concertos, including one for tuba, piano, violin and a Romance for harmonica. Among his most prized concertos is the Concerto for Oboe & Strings. While completing this concerto, Vaughan Williams was also in the process of composing his fifth symphony. The Fifth Symphony, in contrast, is an expansive and virtuous work. Throughout this study, I will focus on Vaughan Williams’s particular compositional style as well as providing examples of these stylistic features. The goal is also to draw comparisons between the two works, and how they are related to each other in many interesting ways. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES…........................................................................................................iv CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………...1 II. HISTORY AND BACKGROUND……………………………………………………4 III. VAUGHAN WILLIAMS’S COMPOSITIONAL STYLE…………………………...7 Sound and Origins…………………………………………………………………7 The Fifth Symphony………………………………………………………………9 The Concerto…………………………………………………………………….11 The Connection…………………………………………………………………..12 IV. ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATIONS……………………………………………...13 Melody and Motives……………………………………………………………..17 Rhythmic Devices & Counterpoint………………………………………......…..20 Modality and Pandiatonicism…………………………………………………....20 Pentatonicism……………………………………………………………………22 Counterpoint……………………………………………………………………..25 Key Center and Form……………………………………………………………25 Orchestration and Other Special Features……………………………………….27 V. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………….32 VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………...33 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1.1 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: I. Rondo Pastorale, mm. 2 – 4 15 1.2 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: I. Rondo Pastorale, mm. 4 15 1.3 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: I. Rondo Pastorale, mm. 5 15 2.1 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, mm. 1 – 3 16 2.2 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, mm. 9 – 11 16 2.3 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, mm. 10 – 11 16 2.4 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, 3 – 5 16 2.5 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, 6 – 9 16 3.1 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: I. Rondo Pastorale, mm. 23 19 3.2 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: I. Rondo Pastorale, mm. 24 – 25 19 3.3 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: I. Rondo Pastorale, mm. 25 – 26 19 3.4 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: I. Rondo Pastorale, mm. 25 19 3.5 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: I. Rondo Pastorale, mm. 27 19 4.1 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: III. Finale, mm. 178 – 186 22 5.1 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, mm. 40 – 41 24 5.2 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, mm. 40 – 42 24 5.3 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, mm. 40 – 42 24 5.4 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, mm. 43 – 45 24 v 5.5 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, mm. 43 – 44 24 5.6 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, mm. 40 – 41 24 5.7 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: I. Preludio, mm. 40 – 41 24 6 Key signature diagram for III. Finale of Concerto for Oboe and Strings 25 7 Key signature diagram for II. Scherzo of Symphony no. 5 in D Major 26 8.1 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: III. Finale, mm. 37 – 39 28 8.2 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: III. Finale, mm. 40 – 42 28 9.1 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: III. Finale, mm. 45 – 47 29 9.2 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: III. Finale, mm. 45 – 47 29 9.3 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: III. Finale, mm. 50 – 54 29 9.4 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: III. Finale, mm. 50 – 54 29 9.5 Concerto for Oboe and Strings: III. Finale, mm. 50 – 54 29 10.1 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: II. Scherzo, mm. 92 – 98 30 10.2 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: II. Scherzo, mm. 92 – 98 30 10.3 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: II. Scherzo, mm. 93 – 98 30 10.4 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: II. Scherzo, mm. 93 – 97 30 10.5 Symphony no. 5 in D Major: II. Scherzo, mm. 89 – 92 30 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In the span of his career, English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote works for a wide array of genres, including songs, choral works, and large ensemble works. In addition to these works, Vaughan Williams also wrote a number of concertos, including one for tuba, piano, violin and a Romance for harmonica.1 Among his most prized concertos is the Concerto for Oboe & Strings. Completed and first performed in September 1944, Hubert Foss comments in his book on Ralph Vaughan Williams that it is “terse and direct, with a good measure of humor”.2 In Frank Howes’s book, The Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Howes describes the “pastoral” quality that it displays. Describing the final movement of the piece, he states that “here is once more the English landscape with the thoughts and visions which it always elicits from the composer”.3 While completing this concerto, Vaughan Williams was also in the process of composing his fifth symphony. The Fifth Symphony, in contrast, is an expansive and virtuous work. Howes posits it carries a “serene, almost religious character”.4 1 Howes, Frank. The Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1977), 117. 2 Foss, Hubert. Ralph Vaughan Williams. (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1974), 170-171. 3 Howes, 120. 4 Howes, 41. 1 Additionally, in Foss’s book on the works of Vaughan Williams, he explains that Vaughan Williams’s music has a strong sense of “Englishry”, or English heritage.5 In this way, the Concerto for Oboe and Strings and the Fifth Symphony are a sound testament. The Concerto for Oboe and Strings (which he began writing in 1943) was written for British oboist Léon Goossens, a musician and virtuoso from the Royal College of Music, and it would become a hallmark concerto in the musical canon today largely because of the performance abilities of Goossens.6 Meanwhile, the Fifth Symphony is a profound work that exhibits a similar quality to the concerto of a sense of peace and reverence. From a purely compositional standpoint, there are noticeable similarities among the two pieces. This is not by accident, and it has been noted by Howes that with its “soaring melody and diatonic harmony and cross-rhythm”, the concerto exhibits “something of the feeling of the Fifth Symphony”.7 In fact, the second movement of the symphony was repurposed as the finale of the oboe concerto. It can even be said, according to Emily Kupitz, that the finale is intrinsically tied to portions of the Fifth Symphony thematically and motivically.8 Among scholars, there is consensus that the concerto is a “satellite work”, since the original Scherzo movement from the Symphony was turned into the Finale third 5 Foss, 49 6 Howes, 117. 7 Howes, 120 8 Kupitz, Emily. English Folk Song Influences on the Vaughan Williams Concerto for Oboe and Strings . (Doctoral Dissertation, Arizona State University, 2013), pp. 9. 2 movement of the Concerto. Vaughan Williams then wrote a new second movement for the Fifth Symphony.9 Compositionally, these movements – and the concerto as a whole – are very similar to each other. In light of this, it is not surprising that resemblances can be drawn. By virtue of this apparent compositional connection, I will show the similarities between Vaughan Williams’s Fifth Symphony and his Oboe Concerto. Through careful analysis, I will provide an in-depth review of a variety of the theoretical elements found in the Concerto, as well as an investigation of segments of the Fifth Symphony. The primary focus of this paper is to illustrate and comment on Vaughan Williams’s compositional techniques displayed in these two works, to show how the music is connected on several musical levels, and how the concerto is indeed a “satellite work”. 9 Kupitz, 11. 3 CHAPTER II HISTORY AND BACKGROUND There are very few composers that can create the sound and mood that Ralph Vaughan Williams’s music exhibits. Some of this is due to his studies with Bruch in Germany and Ravel in France. In this way, Vaughan Williams’s music contains some elements of the current ideologies of the music of Germany and France.10 In addition, he also attempted to study with Edward Elgar, a famous English composer of pieces like the Enigma Variations. Vaughan Williams commented in his autobiography “…though Elgar would not teach me personally he could not help teaching me through his music”.11 Early on Vaughan Williams was struggling to find his own path, but it was clear to him that his abilities in composition could be honed and perfected.12 Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in Down Ampney, England on October 12, 1872. He lived in his mother’s home, Leith Hill Place., in Surrey.
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