Ralph Vaughan Williams may have been the son of a clergyman – his father was a vicar who died when he was three – but he was also the great nephew of Charles Darwin. Let’s just say, liberal social and philosophical opinions ran in the family.
While Darwin was never an outright atheist, he did hold his own unconventional ideas on religion. When young Ralph inquired of his mother after his great uncle’s “On the Origin of the Species,” she replied, “The Bible says God made the world in six days. Great Uncle Charles thinks it took longer: but we need not worry about it, for it is equally wonderful either way.”
By college, Vaughan Williams branded himself an atheist, but later he settled into a lifetime of “cheerful agnosticism.” He may have embraced some rather progressive ideals, but Vaughan Williams was no rebel angel. He was invariably respectful and well-behaved, in a distinctly English kind of way.
Also, he loved Christmas. It’s possible that no other major composer wrote as much music influenced by the birth of Christ than did Vaughan Williams. In particular, he loved both the pageantry and simple joys of the season.
It will be with comparative ease, then, that I will fill the bulk of my afternoon program today with selections from Vaughan Williams’ Christmas music, which is as varied as it is plentiful. We’ll enjoy the massive cantata “Hodie,” the rarely-heard “masque,” or ballet, “On Christmas Night” (after Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”), and even the Suite for Viola and Orchestra, which includes movements titled “carol” and “Christmas Dance.”
First, our Noontime Concert will be a unique and thoughtfully constructed Christmas program presented by the Philadelphia-based choir, The Crossing. The Crossing has built a reputation as one of the foremost interpreters of contemporary choral music. The group was the recipient of a 2018 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance, for its recent recording of Gavin Bryars’ “The Fifth Century.”
Bryars’ “The Open Road” will be included on today’s concert, which will feature twelve works by living composers, organized around the theme of motherhood. Poignant reflections on the Nativity are set against apposite musical meditations by contemporary artists, including the world premiere of music by Michael Gilbertson – his setting Nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska’s poem, “Born.”
This program, recorded last year, was presented on two Jeffrey Dinsmore Memorial Concerts. Dinsmore, who was the ensemble’s co-founder, died suddenly in 2014 at the age of 42. The Crossing’s Christmas concerts are made possible in part through contributions to the Jeffrey Dinsmore Memorial Fund. The fund also underwrites the commissioning of new works. You can learn more about it and the “Jeff Quartets,” a project that incorporated music by fifteen composers whose lives Dinsmore touched, at the organization’s website, crossingchoir.org. Search to the right of the homepage, under “Projects.”
I hope you’ll join me for The Crossing@Christmas, on today’s Noontime Concert. A Vaughan Williams Christmas will follow. It’s music of reflection, rejoicing, and good cheer, from 12 to 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
