The Lark Ascending - Ralph Vaughan Williams

[apollonmusagete]

Such masterpieces redeem the twentieth century and imbue us with hope for the twenty-first.

[ballet416]

For Kay Goddard, who reminds me of this beautiful music.

[nikwik2]

It is so beautiful....

[sallyfromourally149]

this takes me back to my childhood, warm summer days in field of long grass, wish it was so simple now, but i go back for a while when this is playing. thanks R V W.

[tarcybabe]

I'm in the fortunate situation to hear larks when walking on the cliff tops at Barton on sea near where i live, when I walk the dogs.

this music is the nearest you'll get to perfection anywhere, I am torn between having this played at my funeral or the 3rd movement of Scheherazade, as I feel maybe this is maybe a bit too emotional for my family to handle. I'm sitting here with a lump in my throat listening to it, I pity the person who doesn't like it, I feel maybe he or she has no soul.

[Eddieismybaby]

This is our ENGLAND!!!

[TheMomadot]

you should hear the wasps overture such triumph such joy

[TheMomadot]

just watched on tv makes me want to know more !

[island29]

Beautiful, on BBC4 this Friday evening.

[palmbaymick]

A wonderfully "English Countryside" piece of music, check out the poem too here: youtube.com/watch?v=wKg1-VuEO5­4&feature=related

[britflik]

As up he wings the spiral stair.

A song of light, and pierces air

With fountain ardour, fountain play

To reach the shining tops of day

[benalbanach]

Lying in the long grass on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh as a small boy I remember the lark singing as it made its way up and into the sun.

[TK42138]

Heard this played at Snape Maltings, years ago as part of an RSPB concert. Achingly beautiful.

[windstorm1000]

beautifully paced and shaped--orchestra, conductor and soloist...I think the best I've ever heard...not rushed as sometimes happens...but enfolds with sensitive understanding of the timeless space it evokes....

[windstorm1000]

VW has seemed to absorb some of his friend Butterworth into his work! This tender, pastoral, quiet musical arrow to the heart...a love of the green land called England. The main theme could have only been written by an Englishman. Heart breaking.

[imbackyay009]

Beautiful. The music flows through my body and swirls inside me

[arenadri7]

Wonderful music poem! - Reminding us today - at his birthday - on eternal beauty of gift - given to us from great Ralph V. Williams!!

[Pipixcan69]

I have been priveledged to play classical guitar for 35 years but this is still my favorite piece of music of all time.....and no guitar in sight ??

[azrielseclements]

A few months ago I had Classic FM on while I was working on an art project, and then this song came on and I ended up stopping everything for some minutes to listen. It was the first time I had heard it, and if I wasn't listening to it online, I wouldn't have caught the name, and I wouldn't be here :) For me...this song would start playing when somebody, who has been away from home for a long time, returned, and found that he had lost nothing since leaving. No family & no friends.

[ButterKnife1337]

Best classic song ive ever heard in my life

[Melissamelization]

I have never forgotten this song... I first heard it when I was about 16 or so.. Been looking for it ever since... very glad to hear it again.

[Melissamelization]

I have never forgotten this song... I first heard it when I was about 16 or so.. Been looking for it ever since... very glad to hear it again.

[sammartin0000]

I had the privilege of witnessing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform this piece last night. An experience I think very few would ever forget. Simply breathtaking in its astounding beauty.

[25195407]

An excellent masterpiece

[25195407]

An excellent masterpiece

[yackulb1]

fantastic######

[ascendingkral]

I still remember the first time I heard this song too. It made an unforgettable impression of beauty in my heart. There is such a sense of solitude and peace in it.

[RichardE6000]

how could anyone possible DISLIKE this??? i'm convinced; the world is full of STRANGE inhabitants!

[Zomg17]

@RichardE6000

I was just wondering what kind of freak that one guy that disliked this is.

[Alandalus105]

this song really makes you reflex on your pass with some sorrow, but then strangely relaxes you with hope of tomorrow. I guess the best way to describe it would that of a good cry...Painful Bliss

[windstorm1000]

@Alandalus105 oh, my gosh....so perceptive of you, and I mean that most sincerely....this music takes one to a land of smiles and tears--they run like two quiet currents in a evocative landscape called England--or any quiet space with green meadows--perhaps Iowa or Vermount...where one has time to think, weep, or smile. I lost both my parents this past 2 years, so I am on that hill with VW's music as tender consolation. It helps.

[Alandalus105]

@windstorm1000 Sorry for your lost. I am glad that you commented on this because it has brought me back here and I haven't listen to it in a while.

[uptongrey1]

Simply sublime - stunning!

[janeczek16]

It seems like an asian theme..very subtile and gentle. I recommand! :)

[AphoticCosmos]

Such a beautiful version. I'm not sure what's more amazing - actual skylarks or RVW's interpretation of them.

Forget all the pomp and circumstance, this should be England's national anthem. Just close your eyes and listen to a thousand years of history . . . green fields and church bells ringing and cricket on the village green and cows chewing lazily under an Elm or Oak . . . a skylark soaring overhead . . . eternal and timeless.

[bombitza]

@AphoticCosmos i just pictured all that and i never want to snap out of it.

[windstorm1000]

@AphoticCosmos Yes!!

[saxismyaxe]

One of my absolute favorite pieces. Who is the one plebeian who voted this down?

[ausheila]

the year my voice broke

[WeLessThanThreeYou]

This song reminds me of my childhood. Every night before I went to sleep I would listen to Classic FM. This was my favourite song. It is the only classical song I have ever loved, and is still the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.

[windstorm1000]

@WeLessThanThreeYou Yes.

[PetertBill]

Bravo

[hamasburi]

Score and Orchestral parts for The Lark Ascending can be found at SheetMusicX [dot] com

[abbimeg]

amazing amazing amazing!

[KataAnimata]

Brings tears to my ears. It's almost painfully beautiful.

[vriend1]

you should listen to janine jansens version....

[kevinquevem]

I agree with all the superlatives! Stunning, heart tugging. It seems to resonate within us sympathetically tuning in to our emotions!

[JimmyV2009]

Great piece of music, but it finishes right at the crecendo!

[j98765432123]

Played this song at my Grandmothers funeral, very moving.

[uptongrey1]

This beautiful music reminds me of walking the dogs in the Hampshire countryside in the stillness of the early morning and hearing the larks ascending. Stunning music!

[raeypan]

This song makes me cry like a baby. So beautiful.

[PizzatheHutt78]

@raeypan this song helps me stop crying after life takes its toll, but then makes me want to cry again.

[Nanomachinist]

So quintessentially English, and yet, there's something almost Chinese about some of the high evocative lines.

[zanyzoo6767]

this is england, my hope, my love, my country, I will never leave

[juliefogs]

It was played at my Dad's too, so beautiful. He also had Bruch's Kol Nidrei another one that brings tears to my eyes.

[felixcatify]

My Mom used to love this. It was played at her funeral.

[scottwebb]

@felixcatify Sounds like she was a classy lady :)

[grahaus]

@felixcatify It's in my will to be played @ mine

[pepakake27]

@felixcatify your Mom had excellent taste!

[wbreeden75]

@felixcatify This played at my Grandmother's funeral, there is something so reassuring and warming about rest of the string section joining at 2.12min

[MayJoCat]

Thank you...

[MayJoCat]

Who are the musicians?

The soloist.

[prasadboddupalli]

@MayJoCat: Soloist - Barry Griffiths, Orchestra - Royal Philharmonic, Conductor - Andre Previn

[1958debs]

An eight line poem? He wrote this from eight lines of poetry?  Wow.

[peachmelba16]

I just heard a version of this violin solo played by Nigel Kennedy on WQXR as part of their gratitude project for Thanksgiving weekend.

Words fall short.

[trippybluesgirl1]

This is beautiful place to go. It is the beautiful person that I love most and a world that seems just out of reach right now but somewhere I hope to fly to again.

[dewarfinch1]

It reminds me of when I used to lie in a cornfield in summer and watch and hear a lark ascending from the corn field right up into a clear blue sky. Good days. There is a bypass there now.

[rightmoment]

@dewarfinch1

The saddest message but it sums up everything we are losing

Thankyou

[fred5399]

@rightmoment Or may yet find.

[windstorm1000]

@dewarfinch1 Hold onto the memory.

[ragacoke]

I fell in love with this song when I was 14 my mother would play it in her art studio. it reminds me off being young and the dreams I had then

[VizionOn]

Soulful and gently elegant.

One of many of Vaughan Williams superb pieces

[pylgrym]

I passed all the other postings of this piece until I came to your descriptive terms . . . "sublime . . . . emotive" to which i would merely add "evocative"

[Salmocymraeg]

Lovely! Thanks for posting!