"Symphonic Rhapsody" [Ralph Vaughan Williams]

"Symphonic Rhapsody" [Ralph Vaughan Williams]

Vaughan Williams, Ralph; music (English, 1872-1958)

Rossetti, Christina Georgina; text (English, 1830-1894)

1901-1903 [composition]

genre: instrumental

instrumentation: orchestra

origin: United Kingdom

male composer

Rossetti poem(s): "Echo"

Composition history: The programme note from the Bournemouth performance states that this work was inspired by Rossetti's poem “Echo” and includes a quotation of the first stanza of that poem (Kennedy, pp. 21-22). Kennedy comments that the "Symphonic Rhapsody" was “complementary to the Rossetti songs and probably summed up this period of the composer’s development” (p. 22). In a 1903 letter to Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst writes of copying the rhapsody parts (Letter XI in "Heirs and Rebels," p. 19) (cited in Kennedy, p. 22). Kennedy notes that the composition remains unpublished and that the manuscript was destroyed (p. 21).

Performance history: "First performance. Bournemouth, Winter Gardens, 7 March 1904, Municipal Orchestra conducted by Dan Godfrey" (Kennedy, p. 21).

In reference to the published works below: Gooch and Thatcher 4386

Reference: Gooch, Bryan N.S. and David S. Thatcher. Musical Settings of Early and Mid-Victorian Literature: A Catalogue. New York: Garland, 1979.

Reference: Ezust, Emily. The LiederNet Archive. http://www.lieder.net/lieder/index.html

Other data reference(s): Kennedy, Michael. A Catalogue of the Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 21-22. Scholars Portal, https://books-scholarsportal-info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/uri/ebooks/ebooks0/oxford/2009-11-30/3/0198165846.

Cataloguer: Diana Bishara, Roxanne Lafleur and Mary Arseneau, University of Ottawa

Record: CRM-echo-vaughan

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