On wenlock edge -Vaughan Williams

• Set Works by Vaughan Williams

  • Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
  • Symphony No. 2 (the 'London' Symphony)
• Areas of Study in Vocal Music

  • Static or slow moving progressions
  • Tension heightened at bar 84 onwards
  • Bitonal structures based on Ab and G dominate the funeral music section
  • Tonality largely in/on G with varying modal inflections and an avoidance of cadential harmony
  • Structure is strophic in the early stages, eventually becoming more through-composed
• Colouristic overlapping parallel 4ths heard against a prolonged 11th chord
• Use of 7th chords which, when superimposed, result in chords of an 11th
• Further Listening Recommendations

  • Elgar's Sea Pictures
  • Ravel's Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé
  • Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire
  • Britten's Les Illuminations and Serenade for tenor, horn and strings
• The harmony of the piece is the least traditional of the three songs prescribed for study, showing Vaughan Williams's debt to Ravel
• Range of melody narrows for the funeral music, with a prominent secondary motive spanning a 3rd
• Instrumental motifs include a foreshadowing of the vocal line at bars 9-10
• Melody is in G pentatonic major at the outset, but the wider range
• Tempo, metre and rhythm

  1. Tempo is flexible with frequent changes to underline the course of the narrative

  2. Metre varies between simple duple with occasional departures

  3. Rhythmic features include long, spacious time-values, triplet quaver groups in vocal melody, persistent triplets, cross-rhythms between piano and vocal line, ponderous dotted rhythms, off-beat 'tolling' effect, urgency of the bells' summons underlined by quaver motor rhythms, aleatoric effect in vocal line at bar 128, and melisma for special emphasis
• Narrow range motif treated chromatically, e.g. bars 96-100
• Stringed instruments exploit relatively high ranges through the use of harmonics
• 'Bredon Hill' is the fifth of the six songs making up On Wenlock Edge, set in the borders of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire
• Texture

  Homophonic or melody-dominated homophonic textures predominate, with considerable variety in their handling
• Melisma


  • Special emphasis, e.g. the hectoring quality on 'pray' at bars 62-63
• Lovers lie on Bredon Hill, ignoring the bells calling them to church on a summer Sunday morning. They will go when the bells call them to their wedding. Alas, the girl dies in winter and goes to church alone, summoned by a single tolling bell
• Melody


  • In G pentatonic major at the outset, wider range of notes from bar 29 results in mixolydian mode, and at bar 33, aeolian mode
• String techniques include pizzicato, mutes, double stopping, tremolo, and harmonics
• Word-setting


  • Mainly syllabic, with occasional slurrings (e.g. first syllable of 'Bredon' at bar 26)
• Texture variations

  • Block chords (homophony/homo-rhythm)
  • Sustained chord combined with parallel 4ths in imitation
  • Sustained chord as backdrop to freely moving vocal melody
  • Piano only: sustained LH chords, some widely spaced (up to a span of a 10th); RH in parallel octaves and 5ths, or else 4ths
  • Funeral march with tolling bell represented by a combination of pizzicato octave in violin I, arco octave in violin II, piano octave in middle range; remainder of texture made up of parallel 5ths and octave chords in RH supported by LH 7th chords
  • Bass line in cello and viola with LH piano added above
  • Harmonics in three upper strings with broken (7th) chords in piano
  • Staccato quavers in violins I and II combined with tremolo viola, reinforced by broken chords figuration in piano
  • 'Wild bells' effect with tremolo strings, RH broken chords, LH chord, heavily accented octaves descending by step in violin II, viola and middle range of piano, supporting the rhythmically independent vocal line
• Extensive passage for piano alone accompanies the voice from bars 52-83
• Vaughan Williams's debt to Ravel is clear in this song, particularly in terms of piano sonorities which recall similar bell effects in Ravel's Miroirs, No. 5 ('La vallée des cloches'), dating from 1904-05
• Melody

  1. Word-setting is predominantly syllabic, with exceptions of two slurred notes on specific words

  2. Opening melody is in dorian mode

  3. Higher tessitura used in final stanzas, rising to A above middle C

  4. Final note in vocal part clashes with the tonic triad which follows
• Bars


  • 1-4
  • 5-9
  • 9-19
  • 19-22
  • 23-27
  • 27-37
  • 37-38
  • 45-55
  • 39-44
• Structure and tonality

  1. The structure is a sort of expanded strophic, with substantial repetitions of material

  2. Tonality starts and closes in D dorian minor, moving into a more Romantic chromatic language which clouds the key at some points
• Tonality

  1. D dorian

  2. D dorian

  3. D minor, chromatic progressions lead to G# half-diminished before voice closes on A

  4. D dorian, with added G in bass

  5. D dorian

  6. D minor, as in bars 9-19

  7. D dorian

  8. D dorian - F minor

  9. Indeterminate, but moves towards E

  10. D dorian
• Harmony

  1. Introductory music draws on root and first inversion chords only, and features some parallelism

  2. More complex harmony includes augmented triad, half-diminished chord, 'Neapolitan' chord, augmented (French) 6th, and fourths chord
• Structure

  1. Introduction

  2. Stanza 1 ('Is my team')

  3. Stanza 2 ('Ay, the horses')

  4. Link (repeat of opening)

  5. Stanza 3 ('Is my girl')

  6. Stanza 4 ('Ay, she lies')

  7. Link shortened

  8. Stanza 5 ('Is my friend')

  9. Stanza 6 ('Yes, lad')

  10. Coda (based on intro)
• Sounds

  • Tremolo (e.g. bars 123-130)
  • Succession of down bows for emphasis (violin II and viola, bars 128-133)
  • Harmonics applied at various points, e.g. bar 114
  • Use of piano: Extensive passage for piano alone accompanying voice (bars 52-83)
  • Triplet parallel 5th and octave chords for pealing bell effects (e.g. bars 52-79); elsewhere parallel 4ths (bar 20)
  • Extensive use of both una corda and sustaining pedal simultaneously (e.g. opening)
  • Limited use of tremolo (see bar 123)
  • Dynamics range from pppp (bar 20) to ff in all parts (bar 127)
• Use of piano

  • Silent at opening, bars 19-26 and 57-62
  • Triplet chords (typical 'Romantic' idiom) e.g. at bars 9-16
  • Tremolo (e.g. bar 39)
• String techniques

  • Pizzicato in cello only (bars 37 and 41)
  • Mutes used in all instruments at various points
  • Tremolo (e.g. bar 37)
• Voice accompanied by just piano in octaves

  Tempo, metre and rhythm
• Chords in three upper strings (muted)

  Sustained three-note D minor chord supports freely moving tenor melody
• The metre is basically quadruple time (4), with some and bars inserted. Rhythm is relatively free, sometimes to the extent that pulse is disguised, e.g. the introduction with its mix of dotted rhythm, tied notes, triplets, syncopations and long sustained notes. Elsewhere, notice the lengthening of note-values at the ends of phrases (e.g. bar 8 - see example below), leading to a change of time signature. Triplet quavers in piano accompaniment (bar 9), Quintuplets (e.g. cello in bar 12), Septuplets (e.g. cello in bar 45)
• Piano doubles string chords; tremolo applied in all parts


  Piano triplet chords and string octaves accompany tenor
• Ranges

  • Tenor: D below middle C to A above middle C
  • Violin 1: highest note is B, almost three octaves above middle C
  • Cello: B just over an octave below middle C to the B above middle C, the highest pitch being deployed at the climax
• The number uses various homophonic and melody-dominated homophonic textures
• The number is in G (modal) with functional progressions
• Harmony


  Introductory music and features some
• A flexible scheme is used regarding tempo, with movement from Andante sostenuto ma non troppo lento to animando and poco animato for the replies. As the number approaches the climax, the direction is Poco più mosso with an allargando at 'dead man's sweet-heart'. Additional terms include misterioso, quasi da lontano, agitato and affretando