Editing Ralph Vaughan Williams (section)

===Symphonies===
It is as a symphonist that Vaughan Williams is best known.<ref name=archive/> The composer and academic [[Elliott Schwartz]] wrote (1964), "It may be said with truth that Vaughan Williams, [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]] and [[Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofieff]] are the symphonists of this century".<ref name=s201>Schwartz, p. 201</ref> Although Vaughan Williams did not complete the first of them until he was thirty-eight years old, the nine symphonies span nearly half a century of his creative life. In his 1964 analysis of the nine, Schwartz found it striking that no two of the symphonies are alike, either in structure or in mood.<ref>Schwartz, p. 17</ref> Commentators have found it useful to consider the nine in three groups of three—early, middle and late.<ref name=s18/>
{{external media|width=180px|audio1 =[https://archive.org/details/uso20090601/uso20090601-008-vaughan-williams-sea-symphony-mvtIV.wav ''A Sea Symphony'']}}

====''Sea'', ''London'' and ''Pastoral'' Symphonies (1910–1922)====
The first three symphonies, to which Vaughan Williams assigned titles rather than numbers,{{refn|Vaughan Williams did not assign numbers to any of his symphonies before No 8, but Nos 4–6 have generally been referred to by number nevertheless.<ref>Cox, p. 115</ref>|group= n}} form a sub-group within the nine, having [[programme music|programmatic]] elements absent from the later six.<ref name=s18>Schwartz, p. 18</ref>

''[[A Sea Symphony]]'' (1910), the only one of the series to include a part for full choir, differs from most earlier [[Choral symphony|choral symphonies]] in that the choir sings in all the movements.<ref name=archive/><ref name=f93/> The extent to which it is a true symphony has been debated; in a 2013 study, Alain Frogley describes it as a hybrid work, with elements of symphony, oratorio and cantata.<ref name=f93>Frogley, p. 93</ref> Its sheer length—about eighty minutes—was unprecedented for an English symphonic work, and within its thoroughly tonal construction it contains harmonic dissonances that pre-echo the early works of [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] which were soon to follow.<ref>Frogley, pp. 93–94</ref>
''[[A London Symphony]]'' (1911–1913) which the composer later observed might more accurately be called a "symphony by a Londoner",<ref>Thomson, p. 73</ref> is for the most part not overtly pictorial in its presentation of London. Vaughan Williams insisted that it is "self-expressive, and must stand or fall as 'absolute' music".<ref>McVeagh, p. 115</ref> There are some references to the urban soundscape: brief impressions of street music, with the sound of the [[barrel organ]] mimicked by the orchestra; the characteristic [[Street cries|chant]] of the lavender-seller; the jingle of [[hansom cab]]s; and the chimes of [[Big Ben]] played by harp and clarinet.<ref>Frogley, p. 97</ref> But commentators have heard—and the composer never denied or confirmed—some social comment in sinister echoes at the end of the scherzo and an orchestral outburst of pain and despair at the opening of the finale.<ref>Kennedy (1980), p. 139</ref> Schwartz comments that the symphony, in its "unified presentation of widely heterogeneous elements", is "very much like the city itself".<ref>Schwartz, p. 57</ref> Vaughan Williams said in his later years that this was his favourite of the symphonies.{{refn|This was in 1951, when the last three symphonies were yet to be written.<ref>Cobbe, p. 487</ref>|group= n}}

The last of the first group is ''[[Pastoral Symphony (Vaughan Williams)|A Pastoral Symphony]]'' (1921). The first three movements are for orchestra alone; a wordless solo soprano or tenor voice is added in the finale. Despite the title the symphony draws little on the folk-songs beloved of the composer, and the pastoral landscape evoked is not a tranquil English scene, but the French countryside ravaged by war.<ref>Kennedy (2008), p. 36</ref> Some English musicians who had not fought in the First World War misunderstood the work and heard only the slow tempi and quiet tone, failing to notice the character of a requiem in the music and mistaking the piece for a rustic idyll.{{refn|[[Peter Warlock]] commented that the symphony was "like a cow looking over a gate", though he added, "but after all, it's a very great work"<ref name=t318/> and Sir Hugh Allen said the work conjured up "VW rolling over and over in a ploughed field on a wet day".<ref name=k278>Kennedy (2013), p. 278</ref>|group= n}} Kennedy comments that it was not until after the Second World War that "the spectral 'Last Post' in the second movement and the girl's lamenting voice in the finale" were widely noticed and understood.<ref name=k278/>

====Symphonies 4–6 (1935–1948)====
The middle three symphonies are purely orchestral, and generally conventional in form, with [[sonata form]] (modified in places), specified [[Tonic (music)|home keys]], and four-movement structure.<ref>Schwartz, pp. 75, 78, 80, 84, 90, 93, 97, 100, 106, 110, 114 and 117</ref> The orchestral forces required are not large by the standards of the first half of the 20th century, although the Fourth calls for an augmented woodwind section and the Sixth includes a part for [[tenor saxophone]].<ref>[http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.4_in_F_minor_(Vaughan_Williams,_Ralph) "Symphony No.4 in F minor (Vaughan Williams, Ralph)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024222532/http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.4_in_F_minor_(Vaughan_Williams,_Ralph) |date=24 October 2015 }}; and [http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.6_in_E_minor_(Vaughan_Williams,_Ralph) "Symphony No.6 in E minor (Vaughan Williams, Ralph)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005201143/http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.6_in_E_minor_(Vaughan_Williams,_Ralph) |date=5 October 2015 }}, International Music Score Library Project, retrieved 11 October 2015</ref> The [[Symphony No. 4 (Vaughan Williams)|Fourth Symphony]] (1935) astonished listeners with its striking dissonance, far removed from the prevailing quiet tone of the previous symphony.<ref>Schwartz, p. 88</ref> The composer firmly contradicted any notions that the work was programmatical in any respect, and Kennedy calls attempts to give the work "a meretricious programme&nbsp;... a poor compliment to its musical vitality and self-sufficiency".<ref>Kennedy (1980), p. 268</ref>

The [[Symphony No. 5 (Vaughan Williams)|Fifth Symphony]] (1943) was in complete contrast to its predecessor. Vaughan Williams had been working on and off for many years on his operatic version of Bunyan's ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. Fearing—wrongly as it turned out—that the opera would never be completed, Vaughan Williams reworked some of the music already written for it into a new symphony. Despite the internal tensions caused by the deliberate conflict of modality in places, the work is generally serene in character, and was particularly well received for the comfort it gave at a time of all-out war.<ref>Cox, pp. 122–123; and Schwartz. p. 104</ref> [[Neville Cardus]] later wrote, "The Fifth Symphony contains the most benedictory and consoling music of our time."<ref>Cardus, Neville, "The Measure of Vaughan Williams", ''[[Saturday Review (U.S. magazine)|The Saturday Review]]'', 31 July 1954, p. 45</ref>

With the [[Symphony No. 6 (Vaughan Williams)|Sixth Symphony]] (1948) Vaughan Williams once again confounded expectations. Many had seen the Fifth, composed when he was seventy, as a valedictory work, and the turbulent, troubled Sixth came as a shock. After violent orchestral clashes in the first movement, the obsessive ''[[ostinato]]'' of the second and the "diabolic" scherzo, the finale perplexed many listeners. Described as "one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken in music",<ref>Cox, p. 111</ref> it is marked ''pianissimo'' throughout its 10–12-minute duration.{{refn|In 1956 the composer said in a letter to Michael Kennedy that the nearest that words could get to what he intended in the finale were Prospero's in ''[[The Tempest]]'': "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."<ref name=k302/>|group= n}}

====''Sinfonia antartica'', Symphonies 8 and 9 (1952–1957)====
The seventh symphony, the ''[[Sinfonia antartica]]'' (1952), a by-product of the composer's score for ''Scott of the Antarctic'', has consistently divided critical opinion on whether it can be properly classed as a symphony.<ref name=s135>Schwartz, p. 135</ref> Alain Frogley in ''Grove'' argues that though the work can make a deep impression on the listener, it is neither a true symphony in the understood sense of the term nor a tone poem and is consequently the least successful of the mature symphonies. The work is in five movements, with wordless vocal lines for female chorus and solo soprano in the first and last movements.<ref name=grove>Ottaway, Hugh and Alain Frogley. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/42507 "Vaughan Williams, Ralph"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, retrieved 10 October 2015 {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref> In addition to large woodwind and percussion sections the score features a prominent part for [[wind machine]].<ref>Schwartz, p. 121</ref>

The [[Symphony No. 8 (Vaughan Williams)|Eighth Symphony]] (1956) in D minor is noticeably different from its seven predecessors by virtue of its brevity and, despite its minor key, its general light-heartedness. The orchestra is smaller than for most of the symphonies, with the exception of the percussion section, which is particularly large, with, as Vaughan Williams put it, "all the 'phones' and 'spiels' known to the composer".<ref name=k293>Kennedy (2013), p. 293</ref> The work was enthusiastically received at its early performances, and has remained among Vaughan Williams's most popular works.<ref name=k293/><ref>Schwartz, p. 150</ref>

The final symphony, the [[Symphony No. 9 (Vaughan Williams)|Ninth]], was completed in late 1957 and premiered in April 1958, four months before the composer's death. It is scored for a large orchestra, including three saxophones, a [[flugelhorn]], and an enlarged percussion section. The mood is more sombre than that of the Eighth; ''Grove'' calls its mood "at once heroic and contemplative, defiant and wistfully absorbed".<ref name=grove/> The work received an ovation at its premiere,<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E06E7DF1E3FE43BBC4B53DFB2668383649EDE "Ninth Symphony by Vaughan Williams Cheered at World Premiere in London"], ''The New York Times'', 3 April 1958, p. 22 {{subscription}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305205906/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E06E7DF1E3FE43BBC4B53DFB2668383649EDE |date=5 March 2016 }}</ref> but at first the critics were not sure what to make of it, and it took some years for it to be generally ranked alongside its eight predecessors.<ref>Kennedy (2013), pp. 296–297</ref>