English Folk Song Suite

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Vaughan Williams

•From Down Ampney, Gloucester

Who was Ralph?

-Related to Charles Darwin, who frequently visited his childhood home

-Had a musical family-wrote his first piece at age 6

-Loved Shakespeare and architecture

Schooling and Early Life

• Attended the Royal College of Music• Became good friends with Gustav Holst while there!• Collected English folk tunes• Studied and wrote hymn tunes• Helped with medical aspects in WWI

• All of these things impacted his music!

Vaughan Williams and Holst

Notice Any Similarities?

(play Holst 2 2nd movement, English Folk Song Suite 2nd movement from spotify)

Who has influenced you most?

Form

Form is important to understand so you are ready for transitions, know the piece well by memory, can do style changes, etc.

Each movement of the suite has a different form Raise your hands when you think there is a new

section!

(play first movement from spotify)

Form Continued

First Movement: ABCBA form Second Movement: AABA form Third Movement: ABA form

Is there an overall form with the movements?

Rhythm

Each movement has a different set of rhythms that are repeated over and over again

Generally, the piece has lots of this kind of rhythm:

Lots of dotted 16th’s! Let’s count and clap a bit

Vaughan Williams and Folk Music What is folk music? Should folk music be written down or left to

be passed down through singing? Is folk music important? If you rearrange the music (like Vaughn

Williams did) is it still folk music?

Folk Songs in the Music

I. March “Seventeen Come Sunday” Seventeen Come Sunday Pretty Caroline Dives and Lazarus

I. March “Seventeen Come Sunday”

As I walked out on a May morning, on a May morning so early,I overtook a pretty fair maid just as the day was a-dawning.

Chorus:With a rue-rum-ray, fol-the-diddle-day,Whack-fol-lare-diddle-I-doh.

Why is it important to know the lyrics?(play “Seventeen Come Sunday” sung version)

Folk Songs in the Music

II. Intermezzo- “My Bonny Boy” My Bonny Boy Green Bushes

II. Intermezzo “My Bonny Boy”

I once loved a boy and a bonny bonny boy,I loved him I vow and protest,I loved him so well, there's no tongue can tell,Till I built him a berth on my breast.

'Twas up the wild forest and through the green grovesLike one that was troubled in mind,I hallooed, I whooped and I blew on my fluteBut no bonny boy could I find’

https://www.youtube.com/tv?vq=medium#/watch?v=62yqrlzbTtw

(play “My Bonny Boy” sung version)

Folk Songs in the Music

III. March- “Folk Songs from Somerset” High Germany Folk Songs from Somerset The Tree So High John Barleycorn

III. March- “Blow Away the Morning Dew”

There was a farmer's son,Kept sheep all on the hill;And he walk'd out one May morningTo see what he could kill.

Chorus And sing blow away the morning dewThe dew, and the dew.Blow away the morning dew,How sweet the winds do blow.

(play “Blow Away the Morning Dew” sung version)

Text and Music

How can the words influence the way you play the music?

Do the words have to influence your musical decisions?

Which folk song we listened to was your favorite?

Melodies

In each of the movements, where is the melody most likely to be? Did you hear which instruments had solos?

How did the dynamics help shape the melodies?

What even makes a melody?

Why are we Studying This Piece?

It will be one of the most fun things you play! Knowing more about the piece will make it

more meaningful to you when you play it It is part of the standard band repertoire The tunes will get stuck in your head!

Project

Groups get assigned folk songs Locate the folk song in the music Research the meaning of folk song, origins Write the words to your folk song in your part

wherever it occurs (even if you don’t have the melody)

The End