VAUGHAN WILLIAMS - SYMPHONY No. 6 IN E MINOR. SIR ADRIAN BOULT/LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (1 OF 4)

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS - SYMPHONY No. 6 IN E MINOR. SIR ADRIAN BOULT CONDUCTING THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (1 OF 4)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• VAUGHAN
• WILLIAMS
• SYMPHONY
• No.
• IN
• MINOR.
• SIR
• ADRIAN
• BOULT
• CONDUCTING
• THE
• LONDON
• ORCHESTRA
• (1
• OF
• 4)

[MaestroTJS]

I think Vaughan Williams was in love the idea of writing music for an elephant parade (the second theme). That type of material seems to recur more than once in his music.

[xwsftassell]

Hah-hah, I always thing that part sounds like something by The Skatalites.

[MaestroTJS]

Never heard of the Skatalites, myself, but should check something out for fun.

As to the recording, is it really worn out or do you just need a new stylus? I wouldn't want to see you destroy the record because of a bad stylus! I am no VW expert, but from what I have heard, I think this is much better than the live version that has been uploaded to YT with the youth orchestra.

[xwsftassell]

Yes, it's a very old recording. Funny how, despite battle-scars, a lot these old records still sound about 1000% better than CD's, even when converted to digital. I'm going to send you something by The Skatalites.

[dlamiss]

i was only about 6 when family at war first started but the image of the sandcastle with the union flag is one of the first things i remember from watching tv. so so haunting

its stuck in my mind for the last 40 years.

channel 4 repeated the first series about 20 years ago but sadly not series two or three

[donno54]

oh the sound at 05-40 just love it I remember it well as a kid watching Family At War

[BigBillie01]

The 6th Symphony evokes no release. No redemption, No hope and No better tomorrow. Utter confinement in Hell. Or lost in an eternal fathomless sea. The complete futility of life and a pointless journey into oblivion. Taking an all round view, a most entertaining piece 

[sydshrimp]

I love this. The sheer intensity of the 1st movement in my view has not been matched since by Boult or anyone else except perhaps for Andrew Davis with the BBC SO. I like the faster tempo he adopts in the opening bars. I agree with comments made about the sound of vinyl records; there's that extra "bloom" which seemed to disappear on digital recordings.

[donno54]

@MajellaRS yes Its very haunting  soo British

[MajellaRS]

@donno54 I remember seeing A Family at War when I was little...never forgot this music and took years to find it!!

[MaestroTJS]

@bpwaddell I think you're taking my joke a little too seriously.

But I also can't help what image is created in my mind when I hear passages like that.

What the composer may have in mind doesn't necessarily mean the person listening to it will have the same thing in mind--which is often a good argument against using titles or programmes.

[stickwagger]

My God tis is so vital. I've not heard this before. VW was a true visionary.

[stickwagger]

My God tis is so vital. I've not heard this before. VW was a true visionary.

[TheAlexTsander]

Never mind "Family at war" This is the music of the beginning of the Cold War. 1946. Cant you just see the bomb tests, the bombers on stand-by, the Thor missiles fuelled for immediate launch readiness up the East coast of England. This was the zeigeist that Vaughan Williams captures in this music, the feeling of Englands "Green and Pleasant Land" sitting on the very brink of apocalypse.

[Urbie4]

Vaughan Williams always denied that there was any direct message in this music, as far as the wars were concerned. I can certainly see how the last movement came to be viewed as depicting the quiet after a nuclear war -- but the composer insisted that it was abstract music.