Ralph Vaughan Williams

‘When on a sudden, “Crickley,” he said. How I started
At that old darling name of home, and turned,
Fell into a torrent of words warm hearted
Till clear above the stars of summer burned
In velvety smooth skies.
We shared memories,
And the old raptures from each other learned.’

CRICKLEY HILL, Ivor Gurney, Lord Derby’s Military Hospital, Warrington, July 1918

 

Vaughan Williams’ ‘Fantasia on a Theme

by Thomas Tallis’ was first performed

in 1910 at the Three Choirs Festival,

held annually in the cathedrals

of the three great cities of the Welsh Marches,

Worcester, Hereford and, that year, Gloucester.

 

The composer himself conducted the piece

for double string orchestra. Applause

in church then was unfashionable

so the last long attenuated chord – that

moves from fortissimo to pianissimo,

from slight discord to silent harmony –

hung untroubled in the Nave’s towering air.

 

In the audience were two close friends, sons

of local tradesmen, musically gifted,

articled pupils of the organist –

who had said of the Fantasia, “a queer,

mad work by an odd fellow from Chelsea.”

 

Ivor Gurney and Herbert Howells both

became composers, and one a poet.

The friends, so rapt by the music, walked

all night through the city’s gas-lit, summer streets –

north past the Cattle Market’s pens and sheds,

west to the Severn, south to the Docks

and the ship canal, east, as the sun rose,

along the London Road – their young voices

inspired, impervious. Herbert will die

revered in a nursing home, mourning his son.

Ivor will die alone in a madhouse.