After another season of achingly politically correct Proms from the BBC, directed for the last time by Nicholas Kenyon, there’s a slim hope for a return to the glory days of Sir Henry Wood and Sir Malcolm Sargent.

Royal Albert Hall

What should be an occasion for celebration of everything English — something like Burn’s Night is for Scotland — we are instead treated to a sickly soup of multiculturalism and tributes to the European Union.

Time, I think, to remove this festival of “classical” music from the BBC and hand it to some other body that will treat it with care for its origins.

The Last Night was, true to form, hopelessly out of focus. The famous sea song medley was ruined by the addition of Celtic airs which, Kenyon never seems to spot, is totally out of place.

Ah well, if the new Director doesn’t put this right, the Proms will probably be replaced by the Notting Hill Carnival as England’s premier musical event. Time to emigrate, I think.

Beware the man who hath no music in his soul…

Listening to Ralph Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music first performed in the 1930s as a tribute to the conductor Sir Henry Wood, I am again struck by RVW’s complete openness as a human being, and by his generosity and humanity of spirit - to listen to his music is to listen to the Earth turning.

It is also to listen to the man himself bestriding the landscape in giant musical steps as if some great static construction has freed itself and is on the move; just listen to his 3rd Symphony, the ‘Pastoral’ (1921) to hear what I mean. This symphony - which is as much an ironic statement about the First World War as it is a musical description of the English countryside - was a watershed in RVW’s career, marking him out as a composer who was going to plough a very distinctive and idiosyncratic furrow, and by so doing create a body of work that is always fresh to the ear and to the heart (a vital element), which renews itself and the listener each and every time.

Ralph (pronounced ‘Rafe’) Vaughan Williams, the second son and youngest child of Arthur Charles Vaughan Williams and Margaret Susan Wedgwood, was born on the 12th of October 1872 in Down Ambney, in Gloucestershire, where his father was vicar.

But with Arthur’s sudden death in 1875 Ralph’s mother moved the family back to her sister’s home at Leith Hill Place in Surrey, which her father, Josiah Wedgwood III, had bought in 1845, and where the old man continued to live until his death in 1880.

And as the name Wedgwood suggests Ralph Vaughan Williams came from good patrician stock. On his father’s side the family was of Welsh extraction, with John Williams, Ralph’s great-grandfather, born in Job’s Well in Carmarthenshire in 1757. And as James Day writes, in his 1961 biography of Vaughan Williams, John Williams, after leaving Carmarthen Grammar School went “…to Jesus College, Oxford, before becoming a scholar of Wadham in 1774 and a fellow in 1780. He enjoyed a distinguished career at the bar – notably as a special pleader – becoming a Serjeant-at-law in 1794 and a King’s Serjeant ten years later. As a legal scholar he was famous mainly for his edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries and the Reports and Pleadings in the Court of King’s Bench in the Reign of Charles II, [with] his highly valued, shrewd and lucid notes and references adding greatly to the appeal and value of the latter book in particular.”

John Williams had three sons and three daughters (one of whom, Mary, married the sixth Earl of Buckingham), with Edward Vaughan Williams, RVW’s grandfather (the addition of the name ‘Vaughan’ came from Edward’s mother), born in Bayswater in 1797. He was educated at Winchester and Westminster before winning a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1816, where, like his father before him, he studied law. After establishing himself as a lawyer he brought out a new edition of his father’s book, Note’s on Saunders’ Reports, which he followed with a treatise called On the Law of Executors and Administration which was published in 1832 and reprinted many times during Edward’s lifetime. In the year he became a judge,1847, he was also knighted and went on to become one of the most respected judges on the circuit.

Sir Edward Vaughan Williams married in 1828, and like his father had three sons and three daughters, with the earlier mentioned, Arthur Charles Vaughan Williams (RVW’s father), born in London in 1834. He was educated at Westminster and later at Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained his BA in 1857. With a house already full of lawyers Arthur decided on a career in the church, and in 1860 was ordained deacon and sent to Bemerton, near Salisbury, where he served as a curate before becoming a fully-fledged vicar in 1865. He married the aforementioned Margaret Susan Wedgwood (who was also a niece of Charles Darwin) in February 1868, which takes us right back to the birth of RVW in 1872 and perhaps a larger understanding of the origins of his music - music that can, I feel, clearly be traced back to the Age of Enlightenment, and the newer, more caring, more liberal, and more tolerant - humanistic if you like - attitudes that his lawyer grandfather and great-grandfather brought to an almost moribund profession. Mix all of this together with the revolutionary theories of Charles Darwin (theories that must surely have permeated every corner of Leith Hill Place), plus the hugely influential creations of the Wedgwood family – and their own liberal attitudes to their workers - and you have an anvil of creativity, and not least care for your fellow human beings - that comes shining through every piece of music RVW wrote.

To Be Continued…

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Talking about celtic new age music, and not featuring Enya, has to be almost a crime. Ireland’s best selling solo musician was born Eithne Ní Bhraonáin - her name has been translated to English - in 1961. Once with Clannad, her solo career took off with the single, “Orinoco Flow,” also known as “Sail Away.” This song crossed from the new age charts into popular music, and sold eight million CDs. Her next album, “Shepherds Moons,” in 1991, won Enya her first Grammy.

Like many neoclassical or new age artists, Enya does not embrace the label. This seems to be a trend with many artists that have fallen into the genre, perhaps because of the spirituality attached to the genre’s name. Regardless of the label, 1995 brought Enya another Grammy with “Memory of Trees.”

Some controversy has surrounded Enya and the use of her music shortly after the September 11th attacks on New York City. Television and radio stations nationwide began using her song, “Only Time,” as background to news reports and documentaries of the attacks and resulting tragedies. As altering the music (dubbing in other sounds relevant to the attack) was not approved by Enya, she had mixed feelings about the music’s use. However, she did produce a version of “Only Time,” that had all proceeds go to the families of 9-11 victims. Her fans have had some negative reaction to the association of the Irish singers music to the war on terrorism that began shortly after the attacks on New York City.

Fans of “Lord of the Rings,” recognize Enya’s voice on the soundtrack from “Fellowship of the Ring,” in which she sang, “May It Be.” She has done other songs that relate to “Lord of the Rings,” as far back as 1991.

Enya’s songs are sung in Irish, Latin, Japanese, English, or an language known as Loxian. Loxian is a language created by Roma Ryan, who describes it as “futuristic from a distant planet.” Ryan, who works closely with Enya, also worked with Tolkien’s languages, particularly Elvish, in writing music for Enya which was inspired by “Lord of the Rings.”

Enya’s latest album is “Amarantine,” released in November of 2005. Her official Web site has a beautiful presentation of a beautiful album.

Enya - The Official Web Site
This site was a little confusing to navigate at first, but once you get the hang of it you won’t have any problems. Click on the album cover, click on the key of the snowglobe and if you want to go back or change page, right click and take the first option, which will take you to the beginning. The site is well worth the time to investigate. It is beautifully done.

Out Of The Blue

 

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
And the highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding,
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
From “The Highwayman” - A Classic Poem Set To Music

One of the most beautiful voices in the neoclassical genre, is Loreena McKennitt. Her albums are more than music, although more beautiful songs you would be hard pressed to find. The Canadian artist, “…continues a process of cultural excavation of the pan-Celtic heritage, serving as a creative springboard and a passport to eras past.” (WBR)

Warner Brothers Records, calls McKennitt’s music, “translucent, subliminal and sensual.” McKennitt says about her music:

“I feel extraordinarily lucky to be able to marry the vehicle of my talents with the fuel of my curiosity and imagination. This process has allowed me to explore the greater depths of our humanity and the human condition in a way that is tangible and full of meaning. It has taught me that indeed we are a culmination of our collective histories and that at the end of the day, not only are we and have been more or less the same, but also there is probably more to bind us together than tear us apart. It is a force of faith I must believe in.”

Loreena McKennitt Song Samples

Loreena McKennitt Biography

Loreena McKennitt Official Web Site

Loreena McKennitt - WBR Official Site