Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5 in D - Romanza

[MrWSherwood]

@wiganjim But . . . those final five or so minutes of the Passacaglia . . . they are a stunning feat! To create such simply beauty! Notice how VW ends with chords III, II, I not any of the conventional cadences! I suppose I won't ever like the Romanza as much. Just mine opinion in the end.

[Piebauld]

I'd have to say the romanza is my favorite because it presents three major components of thematic material (background at the beginning, the oboe at :30, the violin line at :50), and then plays off all three themes in succession, never forgetting either of the three, building on them and bringing them to fruition in such an emotional cycle that one can't help but be swept up in it. At least, that's my interpretation. :-)

[MrWSherwood]

@Piebauld Cor anglais.

[Piebauld]

@MrWSherwood Duh! Of course, it'd be that instead of oboe -- brain fart there.

[MrWSherwood]

I won't lie, my favourite movement is the Passacaglia. Could someone try and summerise (if possible) why the Romanza seems to be everyone elses favourite???

[thomassmile]

@MrWSherwood well i think it's just so refreashing its such a pure melody and simple too it fits to a lot of people but if your fav is the passacaglia no problem its a bloody good piece :) the entire symphony is so great if people love this movement in particular and not you there s no such big deal about it :p

[wiganjim]

@MrWSherwood Simple. It is the most beautiful music ever written. It comes from a place deep within the English psyche, it sings of rolling hills and old age, of spitfires and young love.

It hurts.

[TheVaughan5]

@MrWSherwood I think the Romanza has a more general appeal to those who do not fully know or understand the delvelopment of this symphony. I remember as a teenager playing my older brother's l.p. of this work (cond. Barbirolli) and being particularly taken by the lst and 3rd movements. I rarely played the last movement but now many years later I regard the finale as the pinnacle of this remarkable composition and one of the finest symphonic movements ever written.

[Leungy12252]

@MrWSherwood Due to the fact the symphony was written around the World War II, and in the Romanza its resembles the quality of lost. Despite the 2nd theme is in A Aeolian (natural minor, a key to illustrate landscape in film score), it is hard for most people not to 'dig' it. TBH I prefer to listen to the whole symphony, after all it has its story to tell, otherwise you're just looking at a small chapter of it.

[michael56d]

The energy

[babycmamasavant]

Of all the `fives` I think this is probably my favorite and I wish symphony admins

would program it regularly instead of sporadically...

[TheVaughan5]

@babycmamasavant Totally agree, instead of the endless repeats of Mahler, Tchaikovsky etc you would think programmers would be a bit more broad in their outlook. They are happy to include contemporary works, 9 time out of 10 so fucking awful that they are never heard of again!