Page 40 - October.indd

Lesser-Known or Infrequently-Performed Choral Works of

together with A Song of Thanksgiving, the Fifth Symphony, days before the fifty-third birthday of the composer.

and Flos Campi, in a special eightieth birthday concert, Dedicated to Lionel Tertis, it is a suite (20 minutes) for
for which he had chosen the program, given for him solo viola, small wordless mixed chorus, and small or-
by the London County Council in the Festival Hall. chestra in six movements, each of which is headed by
The text supplied by Ursula consists of three po- a Latin Vulgate quotation, with an English translation,
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ems, the fi rst of which takes as its basis the Greek from the Song of Songs. From the moment of its pre-
story of the sun being a chariot driven across the sky miere, Flos Campi has been explored in the Vaughan
by Apollo and his horses; it is about the creation of the Williams literature by a number of authors, who at-
world, the light and the darkness that were separated tempted to understand and elucidate its meaning, eval-
at the beginning of time, the moon that follows the uate its compositional features, and debate its place in
sun across the sky, and the stars that man has named the canon of the composer. Successive commentators
and by which he will live “till Time is done.” The of the work were bewildered by the wordless chorus,
subject matter of the second poem is the signs of the the extra-musical quotations, in Latin (without, at fi rst,
Zodiac, representing groups of stars prominent for a an English translation), its classifi cation—generically
month at a time, which divide the year between their (choral or instrumental essay) and textually (pagan
twelve houses; each of them—the Ram, the Bull, the or religious). Already Howes (in 1937) had theorized
Twins, the Crab, the Lion, the Virgin, the Scales, the about the compositional design (evolutionary or or-
Scorpion, the Archer, the Goat, the Water Bearer, and ganic) when he wrote about the suite: “The actual stuff
the Fishes—is portrayed within a “tale that the Ram of the music is a progress from a keyless, rhythmless,
begins.” The last poem returns to the creation myths, arabesque-like melody signifying desire and longing
one of which tells “of man’s dominion and majesty,” for the beloved (amore langueo)—to a diatonic, rhyth-
and another which explains that there “came winged mic, almost march-like, theme, worked contrapuntally
messengers to be man’s speech,” for nothing could ex- in canon and imitation expressive of fulfi llment (Pone
ist until it was named by him; and, finally, it culminates me ut signaculum super cor tuum, ‘Set me as a seal upon thy

in rejoicing—“Rejoice, man stands among the sons of heart’)” and “[It] is an example of a piece of music
light”—for there is a story that on the final morning of that relies for its unity, not on structural devices, but

creation “all living creatures [took] delight” because on kinship of themes which grow one out of the other,
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the world was at last completed. These beautiful and and on identity of mood.” Others pinpointed certain
imaginative poems, adapted freely by Vaughan Wil- palpable moments in Flos Campi, especially the begin-
liams, provided the three-movement design for the ning and end.
cantata. Several of the commentators addressed the sound
The first movement, “Darkness and Light,” com- qua sound of Flos Campi, which they found to be a

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mences with a melodic fi gure (B -G-B -C-F) that gen- compelling feature. According to Howes, “[I]t is in
erates the pitch resources for the ensuing music, that is fact the most sensual work [Vaughan Williams] has
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to say the intervals of a third (B -G), a second (B -C), written, and the sensuous beauty of sound is of prime
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and a fourth (C-F). Combined vertically these translate importance.” This conviction was echoed by Foss—
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immediately into the initial chord of the accompani- “Flos Campi is an exquisite study in pure sound” —
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ment (C to E = a third, E to F = a second, and F to B ! and Kennedy—“Of all the works by Vaughan Wil-
= a fourth) whose expansion and contraction, linearly liams I think this is the most beautiful considered in
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via its outer notes (C and B ), emphasize the interval terms only of sound.” Day preferred to couch his
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of the semitone (C -B descending, B -C ascending) comments about the aesthetic quality of the sound in
which, exhaustively and richly explored by Vaughan the context of palette, scoring, and tonality: “Vaughan
Williams, will pervade the work in its entirety. 14 Williams’s harsh, bright orchestral and vocal palette
Flos Campi (the Vulgate equivalent of “Rose of Sha- overwhelms the listener by its sheer intensity as well
ron”) was first performed on October 10, 1925, two as by the work’s sumptuous tonal complexity and am-

38 CHORAL JOURNAL October 2022 Volume 63 Number 3