The Concerto in A minor for Oboe and Strings was written by

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

in 1943–44 for the oboist

Léon Goossens Léon Jean Goossens, CBE, FRCM (12 June 1897 – 13 February 1988) was an English oboist. Career Goossens was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, and studied at Liverpool College of Music and the Royal College of Music. His father was violinist and ...

, to whom the score is dedicated.

History

Vaughan Williams began work on the Oboe Concerto in 1943, immediately after completing the Fifth Symphony, with which it shares a great deal. Amongst other things, the concerto began as a revision of a

scherzo A scherzo (, , ; plural scherzos or scherzi), in western classical music, is a short composition – sometimes a movement from a larger work such as a symphony or a sonata. The precise definition has varied over the years, but scherzo often ref ...

movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

originally intended for the symphony. The concerto was to have been premiered at a

Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

concert on 5 July 1944, but due to the threat of

V1 rocket The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany ...

raids on London the Proms season was curtailed. The piece was first played in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

instead, on 30 September 1944 in a concert by the

Liverpool Philharmonic Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmon ...

, conducted by

Malcolm Sargent Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated include ...

, that also included the Oboe Concerto by the soloist's brother, Eugène Goossens.

Analysis

This pastoral piece is divided into three movements: #

Rondo The rondo is an instrumental musical form introduced in the Classical period. Etymology The English word ''rondo'' comes from the Italian form of the French ''rondeau'', which means "a little round". Despite the common etymological root, rondo ...

Pastorale (Allegro moderato) #

Minuet A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. The term also describes the musical form that accompa ...

and Musette (Allegro moderato) # Scherzo (Presto – Doppio più lento – Lento – Presto) The concerto has an element of

cyclic form Cyclic form is a technique of musical construction, involving multiple sections or movements, in which a theme, melody, or thematic material occurs in more than one movement as a unifying device. Sometimes a theme may occur at the beginning and e ...

. Each movement begins and ends with the same

pentatonic A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancie ...

theme, spanning an octave. It is scored for a solo

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A ...

and

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

References

Sources * * * *

: Zeitschrift für Orchesterkultur und Rundfunk-Chorwesen'' 40, no. 11:1293–1297. * Holmes, Paul. 1997. ''Vaughan Williams: His Life and Times''. London: Omnibus Press. . * Howes, Frank. 1975. ''The Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Publishers. * Kennedy, Michael. 1964. ''The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams''. London and New York: Oxford University Press. * Kennedy, Michael. 1996. ''A Catalogue of the Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams'', second edition. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. . * Kupitz, Emily. 2013. "English Folk Song Influences on the Vaughan Williams Concerto for Oboe and Strings." DMA diss. Tempe: Arizona State University. * Rosen, Carole. 1993. ''The Goossens: A Musical Century''. London: André Deutsch.

External links

* *
Program notes
by Jason Sundram
Program notes
by David Hoose (archive from 20 March 2012, accessed 28 April 2016) * ,

Albrecht Mayer Albrecht Mayer (born 3 June 1965) is a German classical oboist and conductor. The principal oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic, he is internationally known as a soloist and chamber musician and has made many recordings. Biography Born in Erlangen, ...

(oboe), ,

Daniel Stabrawa Daniel Stabrawa (born 23 August 1955 in Kraków) is a Polish people, Polish violinist and conducting, conductor. Life Daniel Stabrawa began playing the violin at the age of seven and studied playing the violin at the Music Academy in Kraków wit ...

conducting {{Authority control Concertos by Ralph Vaughan Williams

Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

1944 compositions Compositions in A minor Music dedicated to ensembles or performers

History

Analysis

References

Further reading

External links