It’s Christmas, so I’ll try to keep this brief. Nobody will be around to read it anyway! After all the gifts have been exchanged and all the guests entertained and all the dishes cleaned and put away, if you’re still able to keep your eyes open, consider unwinding with me tonight on “The Lost Chord,” when I‘ll be presenting a couple of works by English composers inspired by the Nativity.
Alongside Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Hubert Parry was one of the key figures of the so-called English “musical Renaissance.” He influenced a whole generation of much better known composers, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, John Ireland and Frank Bridge. His “Ode on the Nativity” was given its first performance on the same concert, at the Hereford Three Choirs Festival in 1912, as Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Christmas Carols.”
Vaughan Williams, the great-nephew of Charles Darwin and an atheist in his youth, later softened into a kind of cheerful agnosticism. He dearly loved the King James Bible, and he especially enjoyed Christmas. Of course, he wrote much music on the subject. In fact, his very last composition was “The First Nowell.” He worked diligently at the piece, inspired by medieval pageants, during his final month, but died suddenly before its completion.
However, even at 85 years-old, RVW retained a remarkable concentration. He managed to pound out the whole thing in short score in only a few weeks. Furthermore, he had actually orchestrated the first two-thirds. The finishing touches were applied by his assistant, Roy Douglas – he of “Les Sylphides” fame.
If you like the “Fantasia on Christmas Carols,” I think you’ll really enjoy this. It’s the star atop the Christmas tree of special holiday programs being shared all day on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org. Merry Christmas to you!
