On Wenlock Edge - Vaughan Williams

Question 1

Describe the English pastoral style.

Answer 1

‘The melodic content of the English pastoral style is often founded on folk-music;

the harmonic content is largely traditional, but gains a distinctive sound from the use of Church and Renaissance modes that arose from the re-appreciation of English Tudor music.

The most distinctive aspect of the idiom is its uncanny evocation of the varied English landscape, with a joy and wonder in its contemplation intertwined with a nostalgia for its history and heritage’.

Question 2

Who was Vaughan Williams?

Answer 2

Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was an English composer who wrote symphonies, operas, vocal music and a variety of other forms.

Question 3

How did Vaughan Williams use French impressionistic composers style in his music?

Answer 3

Vaughan Williams studied with Ravel in Paris shortly before writing On Wenlock Edge. The influence of the impressionist style can be heard right through the cycle, e.g. the bell effects in Bredon Hill are similar too

Question 4

How does ‘On Wenlock Edge’ show English folk song influence?

Answer 4

Use of modality and the use of English poems and countryside writing.

Question 5

When was ‘On Wenlock Edge’ written?

Answer 5

1909

Question 6

What is On Wenlock Edge?

Answer 6

It is a song cycle composed of six songs that set poems from A.E. Houseman’s collection of poems ‘A Shropshire Lad.

Question 7

When was A Shropshire Lad written?

Answer 7

1896

Question 8

What songs do our ‘On Wenlock Edge’ set works consist of?

Answer 8

Songs 1, 3 and 5 of the song cycle.
- On Wenlock Edge
- Is my team ploughing?
- Bredon Hill

Question 9

What does On Wenlock Edge song cycle represent’?

Answer 9

They describe rural life and carry a sense of nostalgia and lost innocence.
Very relevant at the start of the 20th century and remained so as the world became immersed in the darkness of the first word war a decade later.

Question 10

What is the song ‘On Wenlock Edge’ about?

Answer 10

A blustery gale blowing on Wenlock Edge.

Question 11

What instruments is the score composed for?

Answer 11

Rare orchestration of a piano quintet (piano and a string quartet).

Question 12

‘On Wenlock Edge’ Melody influence.

Answer 12

Melodic style is modal and folk influenced.
Shown in opening vocal line has a very restricted note range, with only four pitches, before the seventh on the word ‘wrekin’ introduces a fifth note; this is a type of pentatonic outline.

Question 13

How does Vaughan Williams emphasise the power of the gale and drama of the storm in ‘On Wenlock Edge’ in the melody?

Answer 13

There are repeated notes to emphasise the power of the gale.
The style changes dramatically after the forte climax on the top G in bar 13, as the voice descends chromatically. This sudden change adds to the drama of the storm.
(all repeated in the course of the second verse)

Question 14

What are features of the melody in the second section in ‘On Wenlock Edge’?

Answer 14

Repeated notes and chromaticism are features of the next section from bar 34.

Question 15

How is the melody line put together in ‘Is My Team Ploughing?’ and what style is the melodic line in?

Answer 15

The recitative style (free rhythm) melodic line at the beginning of ‘Is My Team Ploughing?’ bars 5-9 Is Dorian in character .
The standard transposed Dorian mode is D to D with a distinctive flattened thirds and seventh.

Question 16

How does the diatonic melody at the beginning develop in ‘Is My Team Ploughing?’?

Answer 16

As in the first song, the simple diatonic beginning leads to a more chromatic style bars 45-51.

Question 17

Is the melody conjunct or disjunct in ‘Is My Team Ploughing?’?

Answer 17

The beginning of the song is mainly conjunct, but later there are larger leaps including a tri-tone bar 15 and 8ve bar 42

Question 18

Describe the arrangement of melody throughout ‘On Wenlock Edge’.

Answer 18

The vocal line is mainly syllabic, and with the exception of the opening phrases of the first two stanzas, there is mainly stepwise movement.

Question 19

What is used to emphasise the stress and turmoil of the poem in ‘On Wenlock Edge’?

Answer 19

There are notes written in the top register of the singer and the melody has risen by a 7th from the G (bar 10).
and chromatic descent in bar 13 to 16.

Question 20

What is the opening two stanzas of the melody in ‘On Wenlock Edge’?

Answer 20

It is mainly pentatonic, however, there is a chromatic descent and brings the listener to a more melancholy place.

Question 21

Use of word painting in ‘On Wenlock Edge’ and effect of final phrase.

Answer 21

Final phrase does not have such a chromatic descent.

bar 63 - The tenor sings ‘twill soon be gone’, the melody falls from a D to a G, bringing the melody to its home note, and confirming the statement being sung.

Verse 3 - word painting - ‘heaving hill’ - heaving chromatic line vocal line goes up and down like a hill

Question 22

When does an identifiable melody come in at in Bredon Hill?

Answer 22

There is a simple melody dominated homophony as the voice enters over sustained chords

Question 23

Describe the melody: organisation of pitch in Bredon Hill

Answer 23

The vocal line uses a mainly conjunct stepwise movement.
Vaughan reserves the highest registers of the voice for moment of drama and distress especially in bar 128 as the singer succumbs to the bells.

Question 24

What note does stanza one and two revolve around and what does this create. Bredon Hill

Answer 24

Much of the melody of stanzas 1 and 2 revolves around G, and while the music departs from here the tension increases through the stanza, the single repeated G melody at the end of the movement on ‘I will come’, provides a stark ending, as well as making the fate of the lovers clear with the home note.

Question 25

Describe the tonality in the beginning of ‘Is My Team Ploughing’?

Answer 25

The tonality of the opening introduction and dead man’s voice (stanzas 1 and 3) can be described as D minor with Dorian influences or simply Dorian mode itself.

Question 26

Describe the use of sonority in On Wenlock Edge

Answer 26

third verse - Rapid hemidemisemiquavers arpeggios in the piano and the strings have trills, darker sound following the darker text/words. Also includes chromatic slips.
Bar 51 - instrumentation and texture thins to just Voice, cello and piano - cello pushed to top of its range.
Bar 56-end - shimmering sound created as accompanying strings through sul ponticello (bow near the bridge creates a eerie, glassy sound

Question 27

Describe the structure of On Wenlock Edge.

Answer 27

It is made of 5 verses -

Verse 1+2 are similar create an impressionist effect and set the scene of the gale.

Verse 3+4 are similar and create a darker sound through greater dynamic variation and a more ambiguous tonality and more chromatic harmony to reflect the darker text/words. texture thins and the gale dies down. Cello pushed to top of its range to emphasise dying gale.

Verse five - Then shimmering sul ponticello introduced to imitate the calm winds.

Structure could be described as:
A A B B A+B

Question 28

Describe the texture in On Wenlock Edge.

Answer 28

Bar 51 - instrumentation and texture thins to just Voice, cello and piano - cello pushed to top of its range.

Question 29

Give two examples of word painting in On Wenlock Edge

Answer 29

Dissonance on the word Gale - dangerous nature - word painting Chromaticism used to end phrase.

Verse 3 - word painting - ‘heaving hill’ - heaving chromatic line goes up and down like a hill

Question 30

Why is the use of Dorian mode important?

Answer 30

Dorian mode is the scale of D to D without flats or sharp. This was a common mode in British folk music.

Question 31

What is ‘is my team ploughing?’ about?

Answer 31

A conversation about a Ghost and a living man

Question 32

What is the structure of ‘Is my team ploughing?’

Answer 32

Strophic - 6 verse Ghost, man, Ghost, man, Ghost, man, Ghost.

Question 33

What is the Rhythm, metre and tempo of ‘Is my team ploughing?’

Answer 33

First four bars strings play in unison - they are homorhythmic

Question 34

What is the tonality of ‘Is my team ploughing?’

Answer 34

It’s tonality is modal and starts in the mode of Dorian

Question 35

Describe the sonority of ‘Is my team ploughing?’

Answer 35

The strings are instructed to play with mutes which creates a distant far away sound.

Question 36

How does Vaughan Williams easily distinguish the two voices through tonality in ‘Is my team ploughing’?

Answer 36

The setting of the living man’s stanzas begin clearly in D minor with insistent triplet quavers.

Question 37

What happens to the tonality in stanzas 2 and 4 of ‘Is my team ploughing’?

Answer 37

The tonality of stanzas 2 and 4 becomes less clear as the appearances of A flats in the melody line and the accompaniment draw us away from the home key.

Question 38

Describe the tonality of the final stanza of ‘Is my team ploughing’?

Answer 38

The tonality of the final stanza (‘Yes, lad’) is unclear, with the harmony under these cries being non-functional. Towards the end of the stanza, the tonality remains unclear, with the A flat becoming its enharmonic equivalent, G sharp, and settling on this note before the final blow from the singer.

Question 39

What is Bredon Hill about?

Answer 39

It is about bells calling people to church and the singer thinking about marrying his love.

But things take a tragic turn when the lover dies and the bells reflect this.

Question 40

Describe the tonality in Bredon Hill.

Answer 40

The tonality is uncertain throughout.

Use of 7th chords that open the song become a distinctive feature, and serve to blur the tonality.

Dissonances occur to emphasise drama for example bar 85 as the mood of the text darkens

G is the tonal centre of much of the melody - based around the pentatonic scale on G.

Suggestions of Mixolydian mode with apprearance of F naturals.

However, bars 33 to 34 B flat and F natural suggest an Aeolian mode on G.

Question 41

Describe the beginning texture of Is my team ploughing. And of the two voices.

Answer 41

Beginning instrumental parts move together homo rhythmically.

Ghost - recitative, thin texture, mostly soft and distant, strings

Living man - Agitated, piano, loud, thick texture.

Question 42

Describe the overall texture in ‘Is my team ploughing?’

Answer 42

Vaughan Williams contrasts the different voices by changing the texture between sections.

Both use melody-dominated homophony, by having contrasting sonorities and rhythms.

Dead man stanzas are accompanied by long sustained triads in the strings,

whereas the living man’s initial stanzas are accompanied by repeated chords in the piano and cello melody.

Question 43

Describe the texture in the last stanza of ‘Is my team ploughing?’

Answer 43

Final Stanza from bar 45 both string quartet and piano join the voice, bringing together existing melodic ideas from the accompaniment, as well as a new syncopated idea in the violins.

Question 44

Describe the texture of Bredon Hill.

Answer 44

This song features solemn sustained chords imitating the sound of tolling bells (combination of piano and strings and the mood varies) supporting the changing significance of the bells within the poem.

Simple melody dominated homophony as the voice enters over sustained chords (bar 24).

Question 45

Describe the ending texture of Bredon Hill

Answer 45

A monophonic vocal line, deals an equally devastating ending to the song as there was in my team ploughing.