Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending
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- Опубліковано 7 жов 2024
- HD version here: • Ralph Vaughan Williams...
Like Vaughan Williams' Tallis Fantasia, this is a pastoral work of transcendent beauty and power. The Lark Ascending was inspired by George Meredith's 122-line poem of the same name about the skylark (Alauda arvensis). He included this portion of Meredith's poem on the flyleaf of the published work:
He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.
For singing till his heaven fills,
'Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
to lift us with him as he goes.
Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.
This work is of course covered well on UA-cam and everywhere else for that matter. I make no apology for revisiting this music because I have just returned home to England after a lengthy absence, and England's landscapes here in late May are easily the equal of any other of our planet's outstanding places, both natural and man-made.
I took these photos during the past few weeks in the Peak District, Derbyshire, England. The opening skylark pic is courtesy of the Cambridgeshire Bird Club © Peter Beesley. I hope Peter will not mind my including his lovely photograph here.
Troublingly, this iconic bird is now on the danger list, of which more below. However, it was encouraging to witness only a few weeks ago no less than three of these beautiful larks singing their lofty song above the late Neolithic henge at Arbor Low (5:11).
From the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB):
Skylark populations are declining in almost all countries of northern and western Europe. In the UK, the population halved during the 1990s, and is still declining. In the preferred habitat of farmland, skylarks declined by 75% between 1972 and 1996.
The main cause of this decline is considered to be the widespread switch from spring to autumn-sown cereals, which has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of chicks raised each year.
For more information, including ways to help this endangered bird recover, you might want to visit www.rspb.org.uk
For more videos and other information about the Peak District please visit Let's Stay Peak District at www.peakdistric...
Conductor: Sir Neville Marriner
Academy of St. Martin-In-The-Fields
Violin: Iona Brown
Decca Argo Recording
HD version here: ua-cam.com/video/-mHgucSz1hs/v-deo.html
@@nimbus-over-gethsemane8666 q 11payattiannow
My mother told me of the day she heard this beautiful piece of music while driving. She was so moved she stopped her car to absorb its beauty. I played this song as she took her final breath and at her funeral. Today, I lay on the grass beside my mother's grave, as mother's day approaches. I play this music again and tell her, I got the best parts of her. I am grateful.
My father picked it to play at his funeral only 2 weeks ago. He passed this Sunday 30th Oct. I wish he was still here. God bless.
So moving...
Such a beautiful thought about your mother. Thank you for sharing it with us. Today I was given a compliment and thought 'my' beauty comes from her!
Beautiful piece of music..one of my favourites..along with Clair de Lune by Debussy.
It is so purely nostalgic for a childhood long gone but blessed with memories of bliss and joy in the natural world. Just prompted to revisit this piece while listening to a concert on TV.
I hope this is the sound that wakes me the day I open my eyes in heaven. The day I came home.
My Mums funeral is on Thursday 11th of April. I first heard this piece of music a few years ago, and it moved me to tears. This is going to played at My Mums funeral as we glance at a few of her pictures on the screen. I will break down I know it. It is just so beautiful.
My condolences. I know I would.
We played this as my mum slipped away. Where words fail, music begins. Much love
I remember the first time I heard this. It was on a classical music station in Philadelphia, PA, about 35 years ago. I had to pull the car over to the curb. I was in tears. It breaks your heart and lifts you up at the same time. It will be played at my funeral, as I leave the church.
I picture this as a wedding song... why would you play it at a funeral!? Shocked.
Glisten17 Glisten, my soul is ascending, as a lark. That is how I hear it.
This is one of the most beautiful and peaceful pieces of music ever conceived. It evokes (to me anyway) images of England in it's most rural guise. Green meadows, golden fields of wheat and huge swathes of rapeseed in bright yellow interspersed with village church spires. If you have ever visited Eastern England from the Humber to Newcastle, along the rolling hills of the Great Holderness Plains, you'll know exactly what I mean. This piece of music gave me great comfort whilst serving in Afghanistan. I'd listen to it whenever I could, just to be reminded of home. It was particularly moving at sunset.
Yes, this is one of the most essentially British pieces, also rather melancholy - it suggests to me the human condition, emerging with energy and joy, then slipping off into infinity. But I agree about the countryside images - as an 'expat' Brit it reminds me of home also.
Thank you Paul. I must learn more about the Great Holderness Plains! And may I say I'm happy you survived your tour of duty.
AntPDC Thank you for your kind words AntPDC. Peace.
Paul Desborough very well articulated Paul, oh did you mention stunning rural Yorshire; God own County ! you certainly can paint a picture with your eloquent words. will visit those places one fine day .
It was concieved as a musical representation of a lost rural idyl, lost because of the industrial revolution and the movement of people from rural to urban living. It is deliberate nostalgia, a rural nationalism and therefore more beautiful in its symbolism.
I was going to hospital when i heard this beautiful music. I sat in my car and listened to the end until i entered the hospital it blew me away xx
My favorite song .
Greeting from Tokyo in Japan .
I was being held in mother,s bosom and was listening to this song around a child .
In remembrance of late my mother .
The beginning just reminded me of traditional Oriental music.
I've heard of this piece, but realise now I've never actually heard it. It is stunningly beautiful. It has a tinge of sadness amongst the beauty.
@@lo1079
Thankyou
wonderful your comment
From
A corner of Tokyo
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@shin-i-chikozima lovely that such beautiful music reminds you of you late Mum.
From a corner of Liverpool UK 🖐🏽🙂
@@lo1079
Thankyou
so much your heartfelt wonderful comment
We know deeply your wonderful and beautiful Liverpool
and we love and respect UK
Thankyou
From
A corner of Tokyo
🍂🌹🍡🍲🍜🗼🍥🥋🍚🍙🍢🎑🎴🎎🎋⛩️🌲🍣💐🏵️🇯🇵
@@lo1079
Heartfelt Hospitality and overwhelming delicious foods unique to Japan wait for you🎑
My late husband's favourite piece of insitrumental music. Memories of his childhood days in Kent, England. RIP Phil.
I heard this for the first time in the early 1980s. I had a tinny little clock radio beside my bed, and it was tuned to the local classical station as a morning alarm. Even with the poor sound quality, I couldn't move. I had to listen. It took my breath away. I didn't leave the room until I learned what the title was and who composed it. Such a magnificent piece of music.
Lovely comment, thank you BCC.
I love how this is slightly slower than most performances. So many rush this beautiful, mystical piece of music. This version is truly sublime and keeps the sway of emotion and freedom within it. Absolutely gorgeous.
I had a very personal and amazing reaction to this when I was four. I lay in my bed and my parents had this playing on their old record player and it was so intensely beautiful to me, so indescribably beautiful that it hurt. I was lying in bed sobbing with the enormity of it. I felt as though it killed me and I lay dead there in my bed and then it made me brand new, washed all my cells fresh and clean and brand new. When my parents came in to see why I was crying I explained it was because the music was so beautiful and they did not believe that was the reason. I didn't know how to share how special a moment it was, how to make words that would share it with them. For the longest time I looked for that music and couldn't find it until many years later.
You were very lucky, i had a similar experience when i was very young, it changes you forever. I had many moments in my childhood when i would just stop and sit in quiet contemplation, watch an ant going about its day or see a raindrop trickle down a pane of glass, and contemplate the mysteries of the universe.... I just never see this in today's modern generation of children, everything is so fast, no appreciation for things that take time,... watch the Lord of the rings? "No way, its boring, to slow" It is so sad that the modern generation of children simply dont have the attention span to 'stop and smell the roses' so to speak.... so very sad.
So beautiful. Brings so many memories of my father back to me and the life he lived in Ireland 😢❤
I lost my dear husband six years ago this weekend. The Lark Ascending was his favorite piece of music and I can't thank you enough for posting this gorgeous performance of it, together with the beautiful photos of the English countryside.
Sublime. This work always brings tears to my eyes. It is so soulful and beautiful. So descriptive.
my car radio self tunes to ClassicFM by itself every once in a while, randomly ... it did this yesterday just as this song came on. Anne Maries said that every violinist shes interviewed who has played this says it takes them to another place... my heart feels like it is being shaken / awaken so that it can open itself up and let itself release. such a wonderful thoughtful and inspiring piece of magic
This is the music I will die with at my funeral...happy & fulfilled. Thank you x
When the last white people disappear from brazil.
I want this song playing in my country fields than a black hole destroy every inch of it.
The glory of life comes after 7mins - playful,cheeky 7 loving. The thing that gets me with Vaughan is that it is folk English & Oriental music .... all at the same time. The scales.. yes we know..but thank you Vaughan for this. We are blessed for what has given us all.
The first time I heard this piece was on a United Airlines jet leaving London for New York as the sun rose.
I instantly fell in love with it, and it led to my discovery of the rest of Ralph Vaughan Williams' works.
It is my "desert island tune," one I could listen to happily for the rest of my life over and over again - as long as it's this version.
Despite the myriad versions I have heard, Iona Brown's performance is the most soulful and most beautiful. Perfect.
Possibly one of the most beautiful pieces of music that I have ever heard.
One of the purest examples of creativity in the known universe. Absolutely beautiful.
The Skylark of Meredith's poem ,which is given an immortal life with the incomparable composition of Vaughan Williams and this wonderful performance ,
soar high in the sky with the soul of my late beloved mother and the memories on my mother on your wings .
This masterpiece touched the heartstrings of my late beloved mother , and she was deeply impressed with and shed tears ,
Inspired by this wonderful performance ,
I might have a dream of nostalgic my late beloved mother who deeply loved me .
This dream is the ultimate in bliss for me
From Tokyo of the Land of the Rising Sun 🇯🇵
So glad I found this song! Downright one of the most beautiful, peaceful, and majestic tunes I've ever heard.
Music to take you somewhere else , a beautiful place, of course of the glories of the English countryside come to mind , but for me can also be of the quiet spots in London's parks. Reminds me there is so much to appreciate in our world...... Music for your quiet sitting spot, a time to be......... thank you for the video and sharing this
Yes, I quite agree Sarah.
sarah olley 本当に素晴らしい曲だよね‼️利根川の土手ではこれからひばりが空高く舞い上がって声高々に鳴くんです。初夏の利根川や江戸川はそれは素晴らしい。緑豊かな素晴らしい季節です。さようなら。長いお別れです。さようなら。Greetings from Japan .
Makes me think of someones soul ascending, so beautiful.
Upon reflection, yes it does Kevin. Thank you for your comment.
One if not the only best pieces of music ever written................................
Sorrow and nostalgia touch my heart. Sayonara！
Beautiful images to accompany the score. "Merry England" which can still be found in abundance if one cares to look. Thank you again.
A primary school in London at the end of the sixties. A teacher nearing retirement age is attempting to convince a group of nine year olds of the beauty of this and other works of RVW as well as of Holst, Elgar and other composers. It must have seemed an impossible task, but it eventually worked for me as i listen to this with tears in my eyes
I Love the Skylark's song. Thank you Vaughan Williams for celebrating it in this wonderful tone poem.
I WAS 69 ,when I first heard this at a funeral,,i came home and had to find it !!why wasn,t I told about this before BEAUTIFUL,this should be played all over America ,nth korea ,to calm everyone down we don't need a ww3 poor VW had ww1 to contend with.....
I completely agree William. Heck, our entire planet is at risk at the hands of men - men who couldn't identify a single wildflower even if they were presented a thousand, still less a tree. I want Treebeard to sort them all out!
william faulkner Cheer up ！ Do outlive‼️So long . Good bye Greetings from Japan
today being played at the funeral of an old Mid Sussex Times colleague and photographer. RIP Colin Payne. Always fun to be around. Phil Dennett.
That last note is a sweetness that cuts deep and echoes in eternity
For me this is heaven. When the world news & politics gets ever uglier each day, it's my escape, my sanctuary.
Without Vaughan Williams' 「The Lark Ascending 」
I would have been very lonely and feel insipid ,
and my enjoyment and pleasures of the music would have been less
Japanese Association of 「 the Ascending Lark 」 .
From
Tokyo of the Land of the Rising Sun 🇯🇵
Wonderful piece childhood memories of flower strewn meadows...
I was listening to the radio this afternoon and I suddenly got to a station where this was being played. I fell in some kind of spell. I just couldn't stop listening... I was fascinated by its powerful beauty and nostalgia. I hoped I could find it somewhere on the Internet... And here it is. Thank you so much for sharing. I fell in love with it and you gave me the opportunity to listen again. Thank you!
Absolutely Beautiful Music. It completely stirs the soul....Very emotional reminds me of my mum who first played it for me...GOD Bless World 🌹🌹🌹🌹
Most beautiful performance, the violist has put the perfect soul in this music.
Can never have enough of this.....
Beautiful! It makes me cry....but with joy. 😊
I will play this beautiful music whilst spreading my dear friends ashes.
Makes me think of Greenhill in Romsey, overlooking the Abbey and the town in deep thought.
Fascinating how some pieces of music .................... never get old .........
what I would like to know is who are the 4 people who clicked "no"? When in fact this is the original and best rendition of the piece out there!
I hope we never loose this England completely
Spectacularly beautiful music and imagery! A delight to the soul.
It's always a privilege and delight to receive comments like yours, and I thank you for them. Warm wishes, Anthony.
It is beautiful. And thankfully still there.
Thank you for your energies in producing this video - transcendent music.
My pleasure indeed Peter. And I agree.
Today, September 15, 2023 watching and listening this amazing video. Ant, are you still around?? I just love this video, it never gets old ...............................
Such a sweet, captivating piece of music. I could listen to it for hours.
so beautiful! Thank you for sharing and for the beautiful pictures!
I am suddenly speechless with the thought of sharing my thoughts as to this music right now.
This is one of the most beautiful UA-cams I've seen AND about one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever composed.
Thank you for sharing this piece. It's one of my favorites and always makes me cry.
Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful images with us. These are akin to the scenes evoked in my minds eye whenever I listen to what is, in my opinion, the greatest piece of music ever conceived. It brings me to tears every time and the photographs are from an area on my doorstep. Bless you.
Thank you Steve. Like myself, you are fortunate to live in close proximity to such a beautiful part of England. Despite the dark utterings of many to the contrary, these places and landscapes have remained unchanged since I was a small boy. Thank goodness for the UK National Parks, and those who campaigned to create them for all to enjoy in perpetuity.
I listen to this every day - thank you x
When life gets me down and the city chokes my lungs, i listen to this work because it lifts me into the clouds along with that Lark and from which i can look down on an England that once was a green and pleasant land
You know one thing that struck me when I returned to England after departing in 1970 - in 1999 I noticed the countryside is still there - and there are huge areas of wild landscape in the 'Peak district' and other such places-so it is still a green and pleasant land - it is just people forget that this is there for them - they somehow focus on the towns and cities, take a visit to North Wales, or Derbyshire, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset you will be refreshed ...it's still there.
Yes, you are right Michael Gorman. Fortunately there are still many beautiful parts of Britain. I would love to get out of London for good - soon.
Thanks dsk. I didn't make these photos up :) They are recent.
digitalsketchguy It's still beautiful! I went to hear this piece at the Cadogan Hall last Sunday and was utterly enraptured - it was the first time I had heard it live - so when I returned to the wilds of Suffolk, it still echoed in my mind. Glorious aural images of beautiful England.Next weekend I shall be walking on the South Downs and I expect to hear larks along the way.
Nick Wyatt Suffolk is still beautiful and plenty of unspoilt countryside to explore. Have a good weekend and here's hoping you get to hear a Lark or two.
Transcendent, beautiful...a masterpiece.
This version is simply Beautiful !!! Thanks for sharing. I heard it on my favorite radio station for the first time. It really touched my soul... And thanks for posting the complete poem with the amazing pics. Have a lovely night :-)
Thank you Perla (rather late, I know).
My favorite piece of music, from my favorite composer (along with Dvorak)...
To attempt to convey the natural articulation a singing bird in a composition is ambitious to say the least. That RVW succeeded with the violin AND place it in the countryside it belongs in with the orchestra is astounding. It is a piece that makes me stop and listen in much the same way that a real bird can.
Some years ago I took a radio to do some work in the garden when a Wren started singing on the roof above me. Some 20 minutes later the radio was still off and I hadn't done a stroke of work. Almost impossible to do work with this on either.
thank you for sharing this divine piece of music x
Thank so you very much for your moving, sensitive, comment. I sometimes contemplate your loss in the context of my own personal life. How hard, and how painful each anniversary must be. If I could embrace you at this time, I most certainly would. Warmest regards, Anthony
Hail to thee, blithe spirit;
Bird thou never wert,
As from heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
With profuse strain of unpremeditated art.
A wonderful video to one of my all time favourites. Thank you !
One of the most beautiful pieces of music ❤
Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac Fame) told me he was inspired to compose Albatross after hearing Vaughan Williams Lark ascending
Albatross is a beautiful tune.
Thank you, and how fascinating. I must go to the place you mention as I make my new home on the Derbyshire-Staffordshire border! Best wishes :)
Dear Anthony ...How kind of you. I appreciate your comment. It is so marvelous how music can bring
people together and transcend all barriers. Betty
How good of you to find time to comment so beautifully. Warm wishes, Anthony
Gorgeous piece and very fitting photos to accompany it
“Somewhere a bird sang, its chant hanging plaintive and melancholy in the still air...I think it's a sort of lark or something. Our tradition has it that they sing with the voices of lost lovers. If the stars are smiling on them, you will hear its mate call back in a moment.”
Jane Johnson, The Tenth Gift
What feeling heart does not beat in hope of this fated coupling? Will
Lovely words
Il " conoscere" per le persone che per diversissimi motivi non possono viaggiare, devono " accontentarsi" di cercare, osservare, ascoltare, e pur con i comprensibili limiti apprezzare la bellezza della " scoperta"... . Luoghi e Musica da sogno...grazie!
14.49 minutes of Splendor and Joy.........mixed with smooth and delightful transitions........Ant, ya done good on this one......
I agree with you completely. Iona Brown's performance here struck me to the ground as a teenager; there isn't another performance which comes even close in my opinion. Best wishes.
Hello again. I've taken the liberty of making a video response to this lovely film of 'The Lark' which I hope people like. I'm so old that my first introduction to this work was Hugh Bean's version with Boult and the LPO. Still very lovely. My vid. response, by the way, is the Second Norfolk Rhapsody, which I thought might interest those who haven't come across it yet.
I've been down for a while now. This song JUST captivated me and now my spirits have risen. It truly is "LOVE at first Height!"
I have never heard this piece before-it is both beautiful and relaxing; the video is very nice also.
Although this great piece of music is about the song of the skylark, it was first performed in 1913 and whether RVW knew it or not I also feel that it was a farewell to a world that was soon to disappear for ever in the catastrophe of WW1.
Ww1 seriously harmed european civilization
Ah. St Martin-in-the-Fields. Perfect.
Really nicely put together. Thank you.
This is really a beautiful version
I never found this till I was 69 this is England! to a tee
Fabulous
Beautiful presentation. :)
simply beautiful
Preciosa musica
forget England forget Trumps faux pas this song does not and will never evoke a single country. it evokes in every single heart and Soul what is Dear to Them!! no physical country. only a landscape of feelings that are memories truly cherished for them for all Time!
The Lark Ascending
George Meredith 1828- 1909
He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake,
All intervolv’d and spreading wide,
Like water-dimples down a tide
Where ripple ripple overcurls
And eddy into eddy whirls;
A press of hurried notes that run
So fleet they scarce are more than one,
Yet changingly the trills repeat
And linger ringing while they fleet,
Sweet to the quick o’ the ear, and dear
To her beyond the handmaid ear,
Who sits beside our inner springs,
Too often dry for this he brings,
Which seems the very jet of earth
At sight of sun, her music’s mirth,
As up he wings the spiral stair,
A song of light, and pierces air
With fountain ardor, fountain play,
To reach the shining tops of day,
And drink in everything discern’d
An ecstasy to music turn’d,
Impell’d by what his happy bill
Disperses; drinking, showering still,
Unthinking save that he may give
His voice the outlet, there to live
Renew’d in endless notes of glee,
So thirsty of his voice is he,
For all to hear and all to know
That he is joy, awake, aglow,
The tumult of the heart to hear
Through pureness filter’d crystal-clear,
And know the pleasure sprinkled bright
By simple singing of delight,
Shrill, irreflective, unrestrain’d,
Rapt, ringing, on the jet sustain’d
Without a break, without a fall,
Sweet-silvery, sheer lyrical,
Perennial, quavering up the chord
Like myriad dews of sunny sward
That trembling into fulness shine,
And sparkle dropping argentine;
Such wooing as the ear receives
From zephyr caught in choric leaves
Of aspens when their chattering net
Is flush’d to white with shivers wet;
And such the water-spirit’s chime
On mountain heights in morning’s prime,
Too freshly sweet to seem excess,
Too animate to need a stress;
But wider over many heads
The starry voice ascending spreads,
Awakening, as it waxes thin,
The best in us to him akin;
And every face to watch him rais’d,
Puts on the light of children prais’d,
So rich our human pleasure ripes
When sweetness on sincereness pipes,
Though nought be promis’d from the seas,
But only a soft-ruffling breeze
Sweep glittering on a still content,
Serenity in ravishment.
For singing till his heaven fills,
’T is love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup,
And he the wine which overflows
To lift us with him as he goes:
The woods and brooks, the sheep and kine
He is, the hills, the human line,
The meadows green, the fallows brown,
The dreams of labor in the town;
He sings the sap, the quicken’d veins;
The wedding song of sun and rains
He is, the dance of children, thanks
Of sowers, shout of primrose-banks,
And eye of violets while they breathe;
All these the circling song will wreathe,
And you shall hear the herb and tree,
The better heart of men shall see,
Shall feel celestially, as long
As you crave nothing save the song.
Was never voice of ours could say
Our inmost in the sweetest way,
Like yonder voice aloft, and link
All hearers in the song they drink:
Our wisdom speaks from failing blood,
Our passion is too full in flood,
We want the key of his wild note
Of truthful in a tuneful throat,
The song seraphically free
Of taint of personality,
So pure that it salutes the suns
The voice of one for millions,
In whom the millions rejoice
For giving their one spirit voice.
Yet men have we, whom we revere,
Now names, and men still housing here,
Whose lives, by many a battle-dint
Defaced, and grinding wheels on flint,
Yield substance, though they sing not, sweet
For song our highest heaven to greet:
Whom heavenly singing gives us new,
Enspheres them brilliant in our blue,
From firmest base to farthest leap,
Because their love of Earth is deep,
And they are warriors in accord
With life to serve and pass reward,
So touching purest and so heard
In the brain’s reflex of yon bird;
Wherefore their soul in me, or mine,
Through self-forgetfulness divine,
In them, that song aloft maintains,
To fill the sky and thrill the plains
With showerings drawn from human stores,
As he to silence nearer soars,
Extends the world at wings and dome,
More spacious making more our home,
Till lost on his aërial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.
Barry Dennen's book brought me here.
Stunning! super like!
Enchanting Bravo Bravo.
Sublime
太美了。
Isn't it. Thank you.
Five people didn't like this ,how is that possible Anthony ? hows England treating you ?
+Felix Bloxham Transcendently Felix! Gosh, I'm blessed I'm home. No idea about the dislikes - probably my photography! Couldn't be the music!
What a piece of history.....(Unlike me).
Love the Video editing.......what software do you use?
Thank you Roger. I use ProShow Gold.
Have you heard the King Crimson Reference?