RVW: The Wasps Overture (1909)
Ralph Vaughan Williams studied in Paris with composer Maurice Ravel for eight months from 1907 into 1908. Soon after his return to England, Vaughan Williams was invited to write incidental music for a Cambridge University performance of Aristophanes’ play The Wasps. The resulting suite of incidental music bears obvious influence from Ravel, while remaining very much Vaughan Williams’s own. English humor is evident in the menacing buzz of violins and the active cheerfulness of the melody.
The distinctive opening of this very popular overture is delightfully waspish. You can listen to all of Vaughan Williams’s incidental music for the play at YouTube HERE and HERE,
Historical Note: The Wasps is an ancient Greek comedy—considered one of the world’s greatest comedies—by the famous playwright Aristophanes. The play was a rich satire on corruption in Athenian law courts of the time, and the title refers to the jury, a chorus dressed as wasps. The plot centers on Philocleon, an old man addicted to the proceedings of the Athenian court, and the efforts of his son Bdelycleon to cure him of this strange and troublesome obsession.
Photograph: A bust of Aristophanes.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012