The
Symphony No. 4 in F minor by
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores...
was dedicated by the composer to
Arnold BaxSir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of Romanticism and Impressionism, always with a strong Celtic influence. His orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colourful instrumentation...
.
Unlike Vaughan Williams's first three symphonies it was not given a title, the composer stating that it was to be understood as
pure music, without any incidental or external inspiration.
In contrast to Vaughan Williams's previous compositions, the symphony is characterised by a severity of tone.
The
Symphony No. 4 in F minor by
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores...
was dedicated by the composer to
Arnold BaxSir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of Romanticism and Impressionism, always with a strong Celtic influence. His orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colourful instrumentation...
.
Unlike Vaughan Williams's first three symphonies it was not given a title, the composer stating that it was to be understood as
pure music, without any incidental or external inspiration.
In contrast to Vaughan Williams's previous compositions, the symphony is characterised by a severity of tone. The British composer
William WaltonSir William Turner Walton OM was a British composer and conductor.His style was influenced by the works of Stravinsky and Prokofiev as well as jazz music, and is characterized by rhythmic vitality, bittersweet harmony, sweeping Romantic melody and brilliant orchestration...
admired the work greatly, speaking of it as "the greatest symphony since
BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...
", and the
scoreSheet music is a hand-written or printed form of musical notation; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
certainly contains many innovations. Speaking about this work, Vaughan Williams said, "I don't know whether I like it, but it's what I meant."
The work was first performed on April 10, 1935 by the
BBC Symphony OrchestraThe BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
, conducted by
Adrian BoultSir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor.-Biography:Boult was born in Chester and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. As a schoolboy, he attended Sir Henry Wood's Saturday afternoon and Sunday concert series, seeing Debussy and Arthur Nikisch conduct...
.
The work is in four
movementsA movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession.Often a composer attempts to...
(the third and fourth are linked).
- Allegro
- Andante moderato
- Scherzo : allegro molto
- Finale con epilogo fugato : allegro molto
A typical performance takes about 30 minutes.
Work Inspired by the Symphony
Jerry GoldsmithJerrald King "Jerry" Goldsmith was an American film score composer from Los Angeles, California. Goldsmith was nominated for eighteen Academy Awards , and also won four Emmy Awards...
, when composing the score to
Star Trek: The Motion PictureStar Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. When a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'ger approaches Earth, destroying everything in its path, Admiral James T...
, took the Scherzo from William's symphony as an inspiration for his Klingon Theme. Though later Star Trek films had other Klingon themes, Goldsmith's may be considered the definitive one and was used again in
The Next Generation series of movies.
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