On Wenlocks Edge - Vaughan Williams

Question 1

On Wenlock Edge - Context?

Answer 1

> Celebrated in English music for his revival of folk music - travelled the countryside ensuring folk songs weren’t lost (folk song collections in Essex’s, Norfolk + Sussex’s)

> Work reflected gradual shift away from basic Romanticism, incorporating styles:

• Folk influences - modality
• Tudor music (Fantasia on a theme- Tallis)
• Influences from Debussy and Ravel - harmonic parallelism, whole tone harmonies + colouristically sonorities

> Ravel -principle teacher

> On Wenlock edge is a song cycle - 6 poems - tenor, string quartet + piano
- draws on verses from ‘A Shropshire Lad’ - A.E Houseman - melancholy tone , subject matter concerning mortality + the fleeting nature of life + thwarted love

Question 2

On Wenlock Edge (All) - Notation ?

Answer 2

> Open score

• separate staves for the vocalists + each member of the string quartet
• conventional 2 staves for the piano

> Allows for piece to be just accompanied by piano providing alternative part in small type

> 1923 - orchestral version drawn up

> Generally uses Italian tempo directions- Resorts to English in Brendon Hill b.24= sung freely

Question 3

No.1 On Wenlock Edge - Sonority ?

Answer 3

> Vocal tessitura - noted in treble clef but sounds an octave lower - D()

> String instruments avoid extreme ranges

> Effects: Strings

• Pizzicato = Cello (both single notes + triple- stopped chords)
• Multiple stopping in cello
• Tremolo = representing the gale
• Lengthy trills with coloristic effect b.31
• Sul Ponticello (bowing near the bridge)= produces a thin harsh quality

Piano:

• conventional chords
• broken chord passages
• piano occasionally carries melody - b.7 doubles the tenor and at b.64 where it is independent

> Despite the songs subject dynamics never go past f (pppp-f) + LH accented in piano b.3

Question 4

No.1 On Wenlock Edge - Texture ?

Answer 4

> Homophonic throughout with considerable variety of instruments and use of voice

> Opens Chordal with tremolo effects—— Stings double at octave with RH piano broken chords which are reinforced with block chords in LH

> Middle section - String lengthy trills over 3 octaves with impressionist washes of sound in piano

> Towards the end of the piece - Tenor accompanied by tremolo in 3 upper string parts - sul ponticello

Question 5

No.1 On Wenlock Edge - Tempo, Metre + Rhythm ?

Answer 5

> Tempo = Allegro moderato, effect of gale is indicated by agitato, and its subsidy by the tranquillo

> Metre = 4/4 through out

> Rhythm = Important role in establishing stormy atmosphere

• prominent triplets and sextuplets (opening)
• Forcefully articulated rhythm + dotted rhythms in which the dot is prefaced with a semiquaver rest b.3-5
• Demisemiquaver scale b.12
• Hemidemisemiquavers in piano by.31
• Off beat entries in the strings

Question 6

No.1 On Wenlock edge - Melody ?

Answer 6

> Word setting predominantly syllabic - exceptions being 2 slurred notes on the 1st syllable of Wrekin b.10 and 3 notes slurred on heavy b.37 and gale b.48

> Pentatonic vocal line b.6-10 - “on wenlock edge the wood’s in trouble his forest fleece the wreckin heaves”

> Monotone passages

> Chromatic passages B.13-16 “and thick on Severn snow the leaves”

> Diminished 5th leap “ashes under Uricon”

> Instrumentalists occasionally share vocalists material , but their most important motif is father recurring figure heard in the opening - ascending then descending through 5th and is harmonised in 1st inversion chords

Question 7

No.1 On wenlock Edge - Harmony?

Answer 7

> Largely devoid of functional chord progressions (impressionist influences) - but repeated dominant tonic notes in bass to bring there song to a close

> Parallel 1st inversion chords at the opening

> False relation at close of opening motif Db-d(Nat)

> Parallel root position chords without 5ths b.35

> Whole tone figuration in piano b.43

> Closes with a dissonant passage with clashing G + Ab before fading out with open 5ths and dominant to tonic octaves

Question 8

No.1 On Wenlock Edge - Tonality + Sonority ?

Answer 8

> Song opens strophic with repeated verses but introduces new material and eventually fuses various thematic elements

> G (modal) minor , though the basic key isn’t established through functional progressions

> Structure

• Introduction = motif ( sounds like its in Eb Major rather than G)
• Stanza 1 = on wenlock edge (G pentatonic closing on Eb7 with Db in bass + some bitonality with Ab in bass melody)
• Link 1 = repeated intro
• Stanza 2 = Twould blow like this (G pentatonic ending Eb7 )
• Link 2 = trills and whole tone flourishes
• Stanza 3 = Then ‘twas before my time (unstable area : starts and ends on Eb7 - chromatic descending 1st inversion chords in between)
• Link 2
• Stanza 4 = There like the wind
• Link 1
• Stanza 5 = The gale it plies the saplings double (G pentatonic, biotonal Ab in bass, Uricon harmonised with whole tone chord)
• Coda = G pentatonic closing with open 5ths

Question 9

No.3 ‘Is my Team Ploughing?’ - Sonority ?

Answer 9

> ranges

• Tenor: D ()
• Violin I goes to b natural 3 octaves above mid c
• cello - 2 octaves - hugest pitch played at climax

> String Techniques:

• Pizzicato in cello
• Mutes (con sord) all instruments various points
• Tremolo

> Piano

• silent at opening
• Triplett chords (Typical romantic idiom)