Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

dedicated his Symphony No. 4 in F minor to

Arnold Bax Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax (8 November 1883 – 3 October 1953) was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music ...

. Unlike Vaughan Williams's first three symphonies, it was not given a title, the composer stating that it was to be understood as ''pure music'', without any incidental or external inspiration. In contrast to many of Vaughan Williams's previous compositions, the symphony displays a severity of tone. The composer himself once observed of it, "I'm not at all sure that I like it myself now. All I know is that it's what I wanted to do at the time." According to the letter written by

Arthur Benjamin Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 1893 in Sydney – 10 April 1960 in London) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of ''Jamaican Rumba'' (1938) and of the '' Storm Clouds Cantata'', fea ...

to Vaughan Williams on 21 April 1935 (BL MS Mus 1714/1/9, ff. 113–14), the British composer Sir

William Walton Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the cantat ...

admired the work greatly. Benjamin wrote: "I met Willy Walton on the way to the Hall and he said — having been to the rehearsals — that we were going to hear the greatest symphony since Beethoven. Arnold, too, agreed." An alternative source states that Walton heard

Constant Lambert Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founding music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Dame Ninette de Valois and Sir Frederick Ashton) he was a major figu ...

saying it to Benjamin. Only two symphonies of Vaughan Williams end loudly: No. 4 and No. 8. The work was first performed on 10 April 1935 by the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The ...

conducted by

Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was a British conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...

. Its first recording, made two years later, featured the composer himself conducting the same orchestra in what proved to be his only commercial recording of any of his symphonies. It was released on

78-rpm A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog signal, analog sound Recording medium, storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, ...

discs in the UK by

His Master's Voice His Master's Voice is an entertainment trademark featuring a dog named Nipper, curiously peering into the horn of a wind-up gramophone. Painted by Francis Barraud in 1898, the image has since become a global symbol used across consumer elect ...

and in the US by

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

, and has been reissued on LP and CD. The United States premiere was given on 19 December 1935 by

Artur Rodziński Artur Rodziński (2 January 1892 – 27 November 1958) was a Polish and American conductor of orchestral music and opera. He began his career after World War I in Poland, where he was discovered by Leopold Stokowski, who invited him to be his ass ...

and the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". T ...

. The earliest American performance to have survived in recorded form was the broadcast of 21 May 1938 by

, guest conducting the

NBC Symphony Orchestra The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra conceived by David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America, the parent corporation of the National Broadcasting Company especially for the conductor Arturo Toscanini. The NBC ...

, released by Pristine Classical. This was followed on 14 March 1943 by another performance by the

under

Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British-born American conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. H ...

. It was the only time he ever conducted the work and his performance has been issued on CD by Cala Records.

Structure

The work is in four

movements Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger c ...

with the third and fourth linked: #

Allegro Allegro may refer to: Common meanings * Allegro (music), a tempo marking that indicates to playing quickly and brightly (from Italian meaning ''cheerful'') * Allegro (ballet), brisk and lively movement Artistic works * L'Allegro (1645), a poem b ...

# Andante moderato #

Scherzo A scherzo (, , ; plural scherzos or scherzi), in western classical music, is a short composition – sometimes a movement from a larger work such as a symphony or a sonata. The precise definition has varied over the years, but scherzo often r ...

: Allegro molto #Finale con epilogo fugato: Allegro molto A typical performance takes about 32 minutes. Opening dissonance of the first movement: \relative c'' Germinal motive that develops out of the opening dissonance: \relative c'' Motive built of fourths (measure 14–15):

Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for a large orchestra including: 2 or 3

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

s (2nd doubling on

piccolo The piccolo ( ; ) is a smaller version of the western concert flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" or piccolo flute, the modern piccolo has the same type of fingerings as the ...

), 2 or 3 oboes (2nd doubling on

cor anglais The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn (mainly North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially ...

), 2 clarinets (in B),

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common Soprano clarinet, soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays no ...

(in B) ('' ad lib.''), 2 bassoons,

contrabassoon The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences. Differences from the bassoon The Reed (mouthpie ...

(''ad lib.''), 4

horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

s (in F), 2 trumpets (in C), 3 trombones, tuba,

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

side drum The snare drum (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often ...

cymbals A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sou ...

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter usually greater than its depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. The head ...

, strings.

Peggy Glanville-Hicks’ claim

His student, the Australian composer

Peggy Glanville-Hicks Peggy Winsome Glanville-Hicks (29 December 191225 June 1990) was an Australian composer and music critic. Biography Peggy Glanville Hicks, born in Melbourne, first studied composition with Fritz Hart at the Albert Street Conservatorium in M ...

, claimed that he had borrowed the opening theme of the first movement from her Sinfonietta for Small Orchestra in D minor (1935), and that she in turn borrowed it back for her opera ''The Transposed Heads'' (1953). Glanville-Hicks did not complete her Sinfonietta until three months after the premiere of Vaughan Williams's symphony, but she was writing it at the same time as the composition of the symphony.Victoria Rogers
''The Music of Peggy Glanville-Hicks'', p. 30
Retrieved 11 May 2016

Recordings

*Vaughan Williams—BBC Symphony Orchestra. His Master's Voice Red Seal 78s DB 3367–3370 (Abbey Road, 11 October 1937) *Boult—NBC Symphony Orchestra. (plus music by Beethoven, Busoni, Butterworth, Copland, Elgar, Holst, and Walton). Pristine Classical PASC 626 (Studio 8-H, 21 May 1938) *Stokowski—NBC Symphony Orchestra. (+ music by Butterworth + Antheil). Cala Records CACD 0528 (14 March 1943) *Barbirolli—BBC Symphony Orchestra (+ music by Benjamin-A). Barbirolli Society SJB 1064 (1950) *Mitropoulos—Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York (+ music by several others). Music & Arts CD 1214 (Carnegie Hall, 5 April 1953) *Boult—London Philharmonic Orchestra. Decca LXT 2909 (Kingsway Hall, 2–4 December 1953) *Mitropoulos—Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York. Columbia Masterworks ML 5158 (Columbia 30th Street Studios, 9 January 1956) *Sargent—BBC Symphony Orchestra (+ Stokowski's recording of Symphony No. 8). Carlton BBC Radio Classics 15656 91312 (Royal Albert Hall, 16 August 1963) *Bernstein—New York Philharmonic (+ ''Serenade to Music''). Columbia MS 7177 (Philharmonic Hall, 21 October 1965) *Boult—New Philharmonia (+ Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 in E minor). His Master's Voice ASD 2375 (Abbey Road, 22–23 Jan. and 12 February 1968) *Previn—London Symphony Orchestra (+ ''Concerto accademico''). RCA Red Seal SB 6801 (Kingsway Hall, 10–11 March 1969) *Del Mar—BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (+ music by Elgar + Bliss). BBC Music Magazine MM 80 (BBC Studios, Glasgow, 24 August 1973) *Davis-C—Boston Symphony Orchestra (+ music by many others). BSO CB 100 (Symphony Hall, 26 October 1973) *Berglund—Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (+ ''The Lark Ascending''). EMI ASD 3904 (Abbey Road, 29–30 October 1979) *Thomson—London Symphony Orchestra (+ ''Concerto accademico''). Chandos CHAN 8633 (St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead, 27–28 November 1987) *Rozhdestvensky— USSR State Symphony Orchestra (+ ''A Pastoral Symphony''). Melodiya CD 10-02170-3 (Philharmonia Building, Leningrad, 28 October 1988) *Handley—Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (+ ''A Pastoral Symphony''). EMI Eminence CD EMX 2192 (Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 8–9 March 1991) *Slatkin—Philharmonia (+ ''A Pastoral Symphony'' + Fantasia on "Greensleeves"). RCA Victor Red Seal 09026-61194-2 (Watford Town Hall, 29 November 1991) *Davis-A—BBC Symphony Orchestra (+ Symphony No. 5). Teldec 4509-90844-2 (St Augustine's Church, London, December 1992) *Haitink—London Philharmonic Orchestra (+ ''A Pastoral Symphony''). EMI CD 5 56564 2 (Colosseum, Watford, December 1996) *Norrington—London Philharmonic Orchestra (+ Symphony No. 6). Decca 458 658–2 (Colosseum, Watford, February 1997) *Hickox—London Symphony Orchestra (+ Mass in G minor + Six Choral Songs). Chandos CHAN 9984 (All Saints Church, Tooting, January 2001) *Daniel—Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (+ Norfolk Rhapsody 1 in E minor + Suite "Flos campi"). Naxos 8.557276 (Lighthouse, Poole, 6–7 March 2003) *Botstein—American Symphony Orchestra. ASO download 091 (Avery Fisher Hall, 7 April 2006) *Davis-C—London Symphony Orchestra (+ music by many others). LSO Live 0766 (Barbican Hall, 24 September 2008) *Oundjian—Toronto Symphony Orchestra (+ Symphony No. 5). TSO Live 0311 (Thomson Hall, March 2011) *Kalmar—Oregon Symphony Orchestra (+ music by Ives + Adams + Britten). PentaTone PTC 5186 393 (Schnitzer Hall, Portland, 7–8 May 2011) *Wigglesworth—London Philharmonic Orchestra (+ Jurowski's recording of Symphony No. 8). LPO CD 0082 (Royal Festival Hall, 1 May 2013) *Spano—Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (+ Cantata "Dona nobis pacem" + ''The Lark Ascending''). ASO Media CD-1005 (Woodruff Center, Atlanta, 21–22 February 2014) *Elder—Hallé Orchestra (+ Symphony No. 6). Hallé CD HLL 7547 (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 7 April 2016) *Manze—Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (+ ''A Pastoral Symphony''). Onyx 4161 (Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 5–7 May 2016) *Pappano—London Symphony Orchestra (+ Symphony No. 6). LSO Live LSO0867D (Barbican Hall, London, 15 March 2020)

References

External links