Celebrating their 120th birthday this year, the BBC Promenade Concerts – universally known as “The Proms” – rank as the world’s biggest classical music festival. With 76 concerts, running from July to September, of which the vast majority focus on classical music, not only do the events reach a sizeable audience live in London’s Royal Albert Hall, or for the earlier daytime concerts, the Cadogan Hall, but there’s a much bigger audience for the nightly live broadcasts on BBC radio and for the highlights on television.
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In celebration of The BBC Proms 120th anniversary we have created a comprehensive reading list of books, journals, and online resources that celebrate the eight- week British summer season of orchestral music, live performances, and late-night music and poetry.
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By Robyn Elton
On Saturday 7 September 2013, lovers of classical music will gather together once again for the final performance in this year’s momentous Proms season. Alongside the traditional pomp and celebration of the Last Night, with Rule, Britannia!, Jerusalem, and the like, we are promised a number of more substantial works, including Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and the overture to Wagner’s The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. I suspect the crowning glory for many listeners, however, will be Ralph Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending, performed by Nigel Kennedy—one-time enfant terrible of the violin world.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Kennedy’s earlier performance in this year’s Proms season could hardly have been less conventional. His late-night Prom with the Palestine Strings and members of the Orchestra of Life revisited Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons—the work he recorded to great acclaim nearly 25 years ago—but with a twist: this time the musicians added improvised links between the sections, fusing the Italian Baroque with jazz and microtonal Arabic riffs. Given this precedent, along with Kennedy’s reputation, I can’t help wondering what he has planned for his Last Night performance.
There’s certainly a lot of scope for personal interpretation within The Lark Ascending. Although Vaughan Williams is specific about his requirements on the page, the solo writing is calling out for a violinist to breathe life into it—to make the lark ascend, as it were. It must sound natural, almost as if it was improvised (as the lark’s song), leaving the door open for all kinds of interpretive inventiveness. In fact, I’d say that this is one of the main challenges for the performer, because to play this music ‘straight’ would be to completely take away its character. The composer makes his intentions in this area clear from the outset, with the opening cadenza notated entirely freely, without barlines and with senza misura marked not once but twice.
When I was 16, and again a few years later, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to perform The Lark Ascending with orchestra—a rare chance for a young performer, and an experience I haven’t since repeated. The freedom of the work’s opening was exhilarating, yet in my case somewhat terrifying. You really are left hanging, when the already sparse orchestral accompaniment (just a held chord in the strings) drops out, leaving the soloist stranded at the extreme end of the violin’s upper range. With no orchestral support, there really is nowhere to hide, but on the other hand, you know you can take your time and everyone will just have to wait. For me, there was no way to practise exactly how that part would turn out on the night—no point in counting imaginary beats or planning the precise amount of bow to save. It’s all in the moment, and you can decide what you want to do at that very point in time, depending on how the mood takes you, the atmosphere in the hall, or even what your fingers feel like doing: it’s as if time is suspended. I can imagine that’s something that appeals to Nigel Kennedy, and I’m sure he’s on the exhilarated rather than terrified end of the spectrum.
After that initial cadenza, I almost felt like my work was done: I could relax and enjoy the sumptuous melodies to come (Vaughan Williams was especially kind in his first main melody—nothing too tricky there). Even the double stopping at the Largamente, the alternating parallel fifths, and the seemingly never-ending runs and twiddles, seem relatively harmless once you’ve conquered the opening. Of course, the cadenza returns at the end of the work (as well as briefly in the middle), and the soloist is once again left to wrap things up on their own. I just hope the excitable Last Night audience will be able to hold that moment of silence for long enough before bursting into rapturous applause.
Robyn Elton is Senior Editor in the printed music department at Oxford University Press and an active local violinist.
In the fifty years since his death, Vaughan Williams has come to be regarded as one of the finest British composers of the 20th century. He has a particularly wide-ranging catalogue of works, including choral works, symphonies, concerti, and opera. His searching and visionary imagination, combined with a flexibility in writing for all levels of music-making, has meant that his music is as popular today as it ever has been.
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Image credit: Violin via Shutterstock.
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It is prom night for popular Bliss, bad girl Jolene, and nerdy Meg. Their prom night is far from imagined perfection. In alternating chapters the girls tell the story of their shared all night adventures that are reminiscent of the feel of “Adventures in Babysitting.” Bliss interrupts a lap dance of her best friend and boyfriend in the limo. Jolene is stood up. Meg’s date shows, but ditches her. A comedy and tragedy of errors follows Bliss’ decision to seek revenge, dragging her new posse’ along on each escapade. Highly entertaining, and ending with a feel-good but unsappy ending, this one will fly off the shelves in libraries. I reminds me again how fun creating stories from different perspectives can be.
ENDERS' Rating: ****
Abby's Website
Marketing yourself. Yeah, forget the hokey-pokey. We know what it’s really all about in this game. You poor authors and illustrators. Isn’t it enough that you sweat and strain to create the highest quality literature for the generation that will inherit the earth after we are dead and gone . . . and now you’ve gotta go and publicize your own book yourself?!? Who’s the yahoo who made THAT rule up? I feel your pain, and so in an effort to help you I shall direct you, today anyway, to someone who shows that the best way to bring attention to yourself is to be creative, low-key, and involve a lot of other folks. The author of Will Work for Prom Dress, Aimee Ferris (she of many names) has for the past few weeks been “posting daily photos of ‘mystery YA authors’ in their angsty teen best (showcasing a range of tragic teen fashion choices), as well as a few truly surly anti-prom shots on http://willworkforpromdress.com/ in anticipation of my upcoming book release on Feb 8.” She’s calling it the “Promapalooza” and promises that in the future weeks there will be serious cases of “Man Perm” an “Agent Week” and much much more. What she has up already is pretty impressive though. I’m not giving away who the cute gal in this photo I lifted from her site is, but I will say that she has a picture book out this year (and she’s definitely not me).
- Speaking of Blue Rose Girls, we’ve all heard of authors and illustrators talking about getting “the call” that told them they’d won a Caldecott or a Newbery. But an agent talking about getting “the call”? I’ve never heard of that one before.
- Well, geez. I was all set to tell you about Ward Jenkins and his crazy contest to convince enough people to “Like” his Facebook profile page for the upcoming picture book Chicks Run Wild. He said that if 300 people “liked” it he’d wear a chicken suit. The happy ending? It hit 333 as of this post. Didn’t need my help. Chicken suit-up, Ward my man.
More than just a dog that dies — a dog you have to shoot yourself. Even better!
ew, what next, SOUNDER kibbles?
when, oh please, when will they stop destroying jay ward cartoons? who watches those things? my kids loved the originals when i showed them the DVDs and had no desire to see any of the movies that were made because the “looked dumb.”
and while i agree about john hodgman, i think he’s more deserving an original creation for voice work. something in the pixar family, i believe.
finally, i’ve had my eye on picking up a copy of suzuki bean ever since i found out about it a year ago. i’ve read the scribd copy but its become a sort of fetish desire object for me. i cannot explain why.
They named the dog food after a dog that GOES MAD, then dies. Hm. Nutrition at it’s best. Wacky.
You know, I would’ve suited up and worn that chicken suit in public even if I *didn’t* hit that magic number 300. It’s crazy the things we have to do to get our books noticed!
I loved All of a Kind Family, and I was a Catholic kid growing up in the New Orleans area. I also loved Miriam Chaikin’s books, although hers were more subdued and serious (from what I remember…it’s been a while, but I think one of the siblings was chronically ill?).
Hodgman did do the voice of the dad in Coraline. And I too am horrified by the notion of a Peabody movie but . . . . GAH! Not to have Hodgman, if you’re going to make the film anyway, seems the greatest crime of all. Downey Jr. can be Sherman, if he wants.
Why stop at rabid dead dog food? How about Velveteen Rabbit Food (plush and inedible and maybe tinged with scarlet fever, but LOOKS Real) or Wanda Gag Cat Chow (dosed with fertility drugs)?
And thanks for the All-of-a-Kind shout-out, Betsy!
rams, that sounds like a great/horrible tagline for the bag “Old Yeller Dog Chow – for the dog you have to shoot yourself!”
I too loved All-of-a-Kind Family. Thanks for the heads up on that lovely article!
I live in KC, but haven’t been to the Reading Reptile in a while. I might have to scoot over there and see what’s what with the DNA collection…
Thanks for the shout out, Elizabeth. Much appreciated,
James Preller (Fathersread.com)
Enjoyed the All-of-a-Kind Family article so much!! (There are five of the books, but I only knew about four of them till I was a parent, when I found the fifth.)
Also, there’s a great article linked in the All-of-a-Kind Family comments – links to a post about fictional characters reading about other fictional characters (as Henny in All-of-a-Kind Family waits early for the sequel to Anne of Green Gables, a plot point I had forgotten).
http://eveninaustraliakidlit.blogspot.com/2011/01/to-get-all-meta-on-you-books-about.html