Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 8 in D Minor: Scherzo Alla Marcia

Symphony No. 8 in D Minor: Scherzo Alla Marcia

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

As with the Russians, the symphony became a “big statement” for 20^th century English composers, who, following a long period of relative musical eclipse (following the age of William Boyce), were bringing about the revival of English music, producing a rich harvest of symphonies by such composers as Elgar, Bax, Brian, Walton, Bliss, Britten, and Tippett. Most impressive of all were the nine symphonies of Vaughan Williams, extending from the massive choral “Sea Symphony” of 1910 to the haunting Ninth Symphony of 1958. The Eight (1956) is the most youthful and relaxed of the set, amazingly inventive in its exploration of instrumental colour for a composer nearly 84 years of age. Opening with a variations movement for full orchestra, there follows an a Scherzo movement for winds and brass, a slow movement for strings alone, and a rambunctious concluding Toccata for full orchestra using (as the composer put it) “all the spiels and gongs” of the percussion section.

Marked “Alla Marcia,” the Scherzo opens with spiky little tune coiling through the bassoons against a prickly muted brass background, soon leading to a contrasting trumpet solo, which in its vinegary way seems evocative of well-remembered music heard on Sundays afternoons by a brass band playing in a park. The main tune rounds out the Scherzo section, with the winds skirling away with great energy, the music full of sharply-etched contours, bright colours and rhythmic swagger. The Trio is a brief, loping, folksong-like melody, the winds taking the lead against soft punctuation in the trumpets. The Scherzo section returns, boiled down to an echo of its earlier form, sinking into a hush, ending with a fingersnap.

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