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Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Four Last Songs cycle is made up of four songs: "Procris," "Tired," "Hands, Eyes, and Heart," and "Menelaus. Ralph (reɪf Vaughan Williams OM (12 October 1872 &ndash 26 August 1958 was an English Composer of symphonies, Chamber music Song cycles in classical music The first generally accepted example of a song cycle is Ludwig van Beethoven 's An die ferne Geliebte (1816 A song is a Musical composition. Songs contain vocal parts that are performed 'sung' and generally feature Words ( Lyrics) commonly followed In Greek mythology, Procris was the daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens and his wife Praxithea. In Greek mythology, Menelaus ( Ancient Greek:) was a king of Ancient Sparta, the husband of Helen, and a central figure in the " All of the songs were composed between 1954 and 1958[1]. The cycle is best suited for mezzo-soprano, although, the original program note from the cycle’s 1959 premiere acknowledges that all of the songs may be song by a baritone, except for “Hands, Eyes, and Heart” “which is a woman’s song[2]. This article is related to a series of articles under the main article Voice type. This article is related to a series of articles under the main article Voice type. ” It is suggested that the four songs were originally intended to be two separate song cycles with “Menelaus” and “Procris” belonging to one cycle and “Tired” and “Hands, Eyes, and Heart” belonging to another[3]. However, there is debate in the scholarly community about this proposed song cycle grouping. Renée Chérie Clark in her essay, “A Critical Appraisal of Four Last Songs” suggests, citing a letter from the composer to a friend at Cornell University, that Vaughan Williams actually intended for “Menelaus” and “Hands, Eyes, and Heart” to be grouped together. The composer’s death in 1958 left both cycles unfinished, and in 1960, they were assembled by the composer’s widow, Ursula Vaughan Williams, and published as set by Oxford University Press[4]. Ursula Vaughan Williams née Joan Ursula Penton Lock ( March 15 1911 &ndash October 23 2007) was an English poet and author and biographer The texts of all four songs are poems written by Vaughan Williams’ wife Ursula who penned several books of poetry throughout her lifetime as well as a biography of her late husband. “Procris” and “Menelaus” deal with figures from ancient Greek and Roman mythology and epic poetry while “Tired” and “Hands, Eyes, and Heart” depict images of love between a husband and wife. Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and Heroes the nature of the world and the origins and significance Roman mythology, or more appropriately Latin mythology, refers to the mythological beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation

Contents

I. Procris

Piero di Cosimo’s painting A Satyr Mourning Over a Nymph or The Death of Procris stirred Ursula Vaughan Williams to write her poem “Procris[5]. ” In ancient mythology, Procris, suspecting her husband Cephalus of having a secret lover, sneaks up on him while he hunts in the woods. In Greek mythology, Procris was the daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens and his wife Praxithea. Startled by noises behind him, he turns and shoots Procris with his bow. The song is written in a duple meter (6/8) and contains many shifts in tonality. Tonality is a system of Music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center" or tonic. While written in the key of G Major, the two beginning eleven-note descending motifs are more reminiscent of a g minor scale. G major (or the key of G) is a Major scale based on G with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and Also see G major, or G-sharp minor. G minor is a Minor scale based on G consisting of the pitches G The song also contains many hemiola rhythms and chromaticisms. In modern Musical parlance a hemiola is a metrical pattern in which two bars in simple triple time (3/2 or 3/4 for example are articulated as if they

II. Menelaus

Vaughan Williams and his wife Ursula enjoyed reading aloud. One day, after they had been reading from T.E. Lawrence’s translation of Homer’s The Odyssey, Ursula felt compelled to write some verse. Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the The Odyssey ( Greek: Ὀδύσσεια or Odússeia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. The resulting poem and song became the fourth song of the cycle “Menelaus. ” The character Menelaus appears both in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey. The Iliad ( Greek: Ἰλιάς (Ancient Ιλιάδα (Modern is together with the Odyssey, one of two ancient Menelaus is the King of Sparta whose wife, Helen, was taken from him by Paris to Troy. The city of Sparta ( Doric Σπάρτα Attic Σπάρτη This article is about the mythological figure Helen of Troy For other uses see Helen (disambiguation and Helen of Troy (disambiguation. Together with his brother Agamemnon, fellow ruler Odysseus, and other warriors, Menelaus launched the Trojan War to regain his wife and return her to Sparta. In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (very resolute / ( ancient Greek:) is a hero, the son of King Atreus of Mycenae grc-Latn Odysseus or la Ulysses ( Greek grc-Latn Odysseus; Latin: la Ulixes or more commonly Ulysses) oʊˈdɪsiəs In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her In The Odyssey, Odysseus’ son Telemachus visits Menelaus in attempts to obtain news of his father who has not yet returned from the war. This article is about the figure in greek mythology For the Christian saint see Saint Telemachus, and for the South African cricketer, see Roger The Vaughan Williams’ drew inspiration from Menelaus’ description to Telemachus of the things Odysseus must do in order to return home. This is evident in the text of the song in which the phrase "you will come home" returns both as a lyrical and musical refrain[6]. “Menelaus” is similar to “Procris” in that they both contain many hemiola rhythms and a wavering tonal center. “Menelaus” is written in triple meter, but contains many metric changes throughout the piece usually going back and forth between triple and duple meter. Triple metre (or triple meter, also known as triple time) is a musical metre characterized by a primary division of 3 beats to the bar usually Meter or metre is a concept related to an underlying division of time characteristic of western music The opening measure contains three groups of descending and ascending 32nd notes that suggest the playing of a harp or lyre, which evokes an image of ancient story telling and music-making. The harp is a Stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. The lyre is a stringed musical instrument well known for its use in Classical Antiquity and later This pattern repeats wherever the words “you will come home” occur as well as the statement, “stretch out your hand” creating a short, refrain-like section.

III. Tired

Textually, as well as musically, “Tired” and “Hands, Eyes, and Heart” are the most closely related of the set. Both texts describe a state of self-abandonment in favor of a life devoted to another. “Tired” can be divided into an ABA format consisting of a refrain in b-flat minor with a verse section in the dominant minor, f-minor. B or B-flat minor is a Minor scale based on B-flat consisting of the pitches B{{music|flat}}, C, D{{music|flat}}, E{{music|flat}} In the A section of “Tired” the singer implores her lover to “Sleep, and I’ll be still as another sleeper, holding you in my arms. ” The singer is content to simply be lying near her beloved “at last. ” In the f-minor section, emotion builds as the speaker describes how the “sheltering midnight” is the only place where they can be alone together where “no passion or despair or hope” can separate the two from each other. At the return of the A section, we return to b-flat minor, and the speaker states the things that she will remember about her beloved “as the fire fell to ashes, and the minutes passed. ” It is important to note that while the song is entitled “Tired,” there is little sleeping going on within the piece as the bass line moves up a fourth and down a fourth, churning the song onward, and the lyrics show little intention of the speaker ever going to sleep.

IV. Hands, Eyes, and Heart

“Hands, Eyes, and Heart” begins in c-minor and ends in the relative major of E-flat major. Also see C major, or C-sharp minor. C minor (abbreviated c or cm) is a Minor scale based E major or E-flat major is a Major scale based on E-flat consisting of the pitches E{{music|flat}}, F, G, A{{music|flat}} The text is a list of commands. The speaker implores her hands to “give him all the measure of my love,” her eyes to “be deep pools of truth,” and her heart to “in his keeping, be at rest and live. ” Thus, the musical structure begins with a simple melody we can call A, then elaborates on it in the next command (A’), and next elaborates on the melody further (A”), and finally concludes on an E-flat major chord.

Sources

References

  1. ^ Vaughan Williams Collected Songs in Three Volumes: Vol. 1 Oxford University Press, Great Britain. 1993.
  2. ^ Adams, Byron and Robin Wells, eds. Vaughan Williams Essays Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, 2003. p. 157-171
  3. ^ 'Ralph Vaughan Williams', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed [12 February 2008]), <http://www.grovemusic.com>
  4. ^ Adams, Byron and Robin Wells, eds. Vaughan Williams Essays Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, 2003. p. 157-171
  5. ^ Adams, Byron and Robin Wells, eds. Vaughan Williams Essays Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, 2003. p. 157-171
  6. ^ Adams, Byron and Robin Wells, eds. Vaughan Williams Essays Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, 2003. p. 157-171
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