On Wenlock Edge is a song cycle written in 1909, comparatively early in Vaughan Williams’ career. It is a group of six songs setting poems. The poems describe rural life and convey a nostalgic sense of lost innocence.
Wenlock Edge is a limestone escarpment in the Shropshire Hills covered by deciduous woodland. The poet imagines gales beating the trees on Wenlock Edge, and realises that these are the same storms that were experienced in the Roman times. The gales represent the struggles of man, which will soon pass.
Una corda – literally ‘one string’, i.e. use the left, ‘soft’ pedal. On a grand piano pressing this pedal moves all the ‘hammers’ to the left so that they only strike one of the 3 strings for the not
Ostinato accompaniments. There are rippling semiquaver ostinato figures from bar 5 of the first song, as well as at various other points in the songs.
Tremolo strings feature right from the start in combination with pizzicato cello
The music for tenor soloist is not particu
Modal style of the folk song-influenced melodic writing
The vocal music is mainly syllabic (one note to a syllable). There are only occasional melismas
There are frequent time signature changes in this song, combined with speed changes indicated by animando (more animated), etc.
One of the most important rhythmic features of the three songs is the careful attention Vaughan Williams gives to the accentuation of syllables and an attempt to reach as closely as possible the natural rhythms of speech. It would be possible to speak the words of the beginning of the first song using Vaughan Williams’ rhythms and it would sound perfectly natural.
The accentuation of the syllables is masterfully done. There is frequent use of anacrusis to fit the iambic nature of much of the poetry