Description
Challenging residual doubts about Vaughan Williams's role and significance within twentieth-century music and culture, this book places and explores his life and music in their broad musical, cultural, social, and political contexts. Chapters by scholars from a range of disciplines re-evaluate the composer's life and career within a world marked by both rapid change and refigured traditions. Building on scholarship that has established Vaughan Williams as aesthetically and politically progressive, the book furthers a revisionist perspective by broadening understandings of the nature of his responses to the twentieth century. This portrait of a modern composer emerges not merely by focusing on under-represented interests and pursuits, but also by contextualizing those activities that have been misrepresented as conservative or backward-looking.
Table of Contents
Introduction Ceri Owen and Julian Onderdonk; Part I. Biography, People, Places: 1. London and the modern City Alain Frogley; 2. Personality David Manning; 3. Correspondents Hugh Cobbe; 4. Women Erica Siegel; 5. Friends outside music Roger Savage; 6.Cambridge Karen Arrandale; Part II. Inspiration and Expression: 7. Early development Jeremy Dibble; 8. Romanticism Benedict Taylor; 9. Amateur music and musicians Julian Onderdonk; 10. Performance Jonathan Clinch; 11. Modalities of landscape Daniel M. Grimley; Part III. Culture and Society: 12. Politics J. P. E. Harper-Scott; 13. Liberalism and landscape Sarah Collins; 14. The English folk revival Georgina Boyes; 15. Christian socialism and the English hymnal Katie Palmer Heathman; 16. Pageantry Alexander Hutton and Paul Readman; 17. History and the spirit of revivalism Deborah Heckert; 18. War Eric Saylor; Part IV. Arts: 19. Literature Matthew Ingleby and Ceri Owen; 20. Visual art Tim Barringer; 21. Theatre, 1895–1914 Roger Savage; 22. Dance Rishona Zimring; 23. Film Peter Franklin; Part V. Institutions: 24. 'Wanting' the home-grown composer: opportunities and encouragement after the First World War David C. H. Wright; 25. Concert life and programming Simon McVeigh; 26. The arts council and evolving public policy Andrew Pinnock and Julian Onderdonk; 27. The Second World War: a national figure Heather Wiebe; 28. Working with the BBC Duncan Hinnells; Part VI. Reception: 29. Reception outside England, 1901–1914 Allan W. Atlas; 30. Interwar continental reception Aidan J. Thomson; 31. Early recordings Ryan Ross; 32. Reception in the USA: a special relationship Alain Frogley.
