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The Power and the Passion: The Neorenaissance in Britain |
| Section: THE ARTS / MUSIC |
| Author: Robert R. Reilly |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 9/1/1991 |
| Size: 1,876 Words, 11,451 Characters |
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If Edward Elgar was the foundation stone of the English neorenaissance, his contemporary, Frederick Delius (1862-1934), was the mortar. Delius created a type of highly lyrical, close to diaphanous music that exists as a kind of halo around the more substantial and substantive compositions of Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Delius, an atheist with a strong dose of English eccentricity, spent most of his adult life in France. There he produced a series of works close to, but not quite like, that of the French musical impressionists. His best pieces are evanescent, fragile, and serene. Delius said, "A sense of flow is the main thing, and it doesn't matter how you do it so long as you master it."
Far more important musically was Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), the major figure in the first wave of composers to follow Elgar. Vaughan Williams came to typify the anomalies and achievements of English twentieth-century music. One of his first major successes was Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis for double string orchestra. Vaughan Williams was immersed in English folk song and hymnody. For the Fantasia, he took a melody ...
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...ge. It is nocturnal, more reflective and brooding, yet again, finally affirmative and deliciously scored. Mathias succeeds in creating his own unique world of magic, rite, and song, with that distinctive stamp of genius that lets the listener know within a few bars that this is by Mathias. Other notable works include his Harp Concerto, Dance Overture, Laudi, Invocation and Dance, and Ave Rex.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
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Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
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