Five Mystical Songs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Five Mystical Songs, composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1911, are settings of four poems by George Herbert, from his 1633 collection The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. While Herbert was a priest, Vaughan Williams himself was an agnostic - but this did not prevent his setting of verse of an overtly religious inspiration. They were first performed in their year of composition at the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester.
Several possibilities of performance were offered: for baritone, optional chorus and orchestra, for baritone and piano or baritone, piano and string quintet. Their first performance used the first, fuller option. Like Herbert's relatively simple verse, the songs are fairly direct, but have the same intrinsic spirituality as the original text. They were supposed to be performed together - as one piece - but the styles of each varies quite significantly; the first four songs are quite personal meditations in which the soloist takes a key role, particularly in the third - Easter - where the chorus has a wholly supporting role, and the fourth - The Call - in which the chorus does not feature at all. The final Antiphon is probably the most different of all: a triumphant hymn of praise sung only by the chorus.
[edit] Song Listing
- Easter - from Herbert's Easter
- I Got Me Flowers - from the second half of Easter
- Love Bade Me Welcome - from Love (III)
- The Call - from The Call
- Antiphon - from Antiphon (I)
 |
This article about a classical composition is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
