Title: England Resounding
Subtitle: Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Britten and the English Musical Renaissance
Author: Keith Alldritt
Published: 2019
This book was structured exactly how the subtitle says it. There was an introduction/ prologue/ preface (pardon, I do not remember what it was called), followed by a section on Edward Elgar, a next section on Vaughan Williams, and last but not least, Benjamin Britten.
As mentioned in the introduction, these three composers are in their ways, cornerstones of the English Musical Renaissance. After all, if one was asked to name some English classical composers, these three names are the ones to pop up. (Handel did a lot for the English music scene as well, but that was further back in time. And yes, Handel was not English by birth but he resided in England long enough that he eventually became a naturalised English citizen.) Anyway, what is really interesting, is that these three composers hail from three different generations. Elgar lived during the rule of Queen Victoria, Vaughan Williams and Britten lived through the World Wars. But each held different political attitudes. (I won't go into specifics because I don't remember it).
I did find it mildly humorous that just as Vaughan Williams was not a fan of Elgar's writing style (finding it old fashioned), Britten held a similar attitude towards Vaughan Williams. But this is a pretty general sentiment we would find around almost all disciplines, past and present (and naturally in the future as well).
Comments