This third volume of
Chandos’s excellent series of discs
celebrating the film music of Vaughan
Williams is also the final instalment
in the series. Once again it will be
of considerable interest to the VW enthusiast
bringing something new to the Vaughan
Williams discography.
In this case the greatest
curiosity value is in the score for
the 1950 Ealing film, Bitter Springs,
a collaborative effort between VW and
Ernest Irving, the latter arranging
and scoring the music from just thirty
eight bars of material penned by Vaughan
Williams. Vaughan Williams enjoyed a
close working relationship with Irving
who at five years his junior was a near
contemporary. Irving’s long standing
position at Ealing Studios had made
him a highly successful film composer
in his own right. To the basic material
supplied by Vaughan Williams Irving
added a substantial quantity of his
own music that stands up impressively
well alongside that of the slightly
elder statesman.
Starring Tommy Trinder
and "Chips Rafferty" the film
tells the story of a trek through the
Australian outback. The main titles
are provided by Vaughan Williams in
the form of a swaggering march, dubbed
"Irving’s March" by
the composer in the original score.
Forever self-deprecating in his references
to his own music VW referred to it as
his "silly little tune" and
thanked Irving for the "marvels"
he performed with it. In point of fact
and in common with all of the numbers
that Irving expanded and developed from
VW’s thirty eight bars, the music is
utterly characteristic of its composer.
As with the music for Scott of the
Antarctic, it amply demonstrates
Vaughan Williams’ ability to create
suitable atmosphere in response to visual
imagery; an ability that made him a
natural for the medium of film.
Of the fifteen brief
numbers from the incidental music here
recorded, eight are by Vaughan Williams,
the remainder being penned by Irving
and amongst which the delightful Kangaroos
and the marimba-led Boomerang
- perhaps more African sounding than
Antipodean but effective nonetheless
- are a particular pleasure.
Chandos’s assertion
that this is the "premiere recording"
of the music to the film The
Loves of Joanna Godden is true
enough in terms of this newly-edited
version by Stephen Hogger. Strictly
speaking though it is not the first
time that Vaughan Williams’ score has
made it onto disc. Pearl’s British
Film Music Volume Three (GEM 0141)
features a fascinating remastering of
the original recording of ten out of
the twenty five cues Vaughan Williams
wrote for the film. It was a recording
specifically authorised by the composer
and made in May 1947 by the Philharmonia
Orchestra and Chorus under Ernest Irving
just one month before the film received
its first showing on 16 June 1947.
From Pearl we get a
little over eight and a half minutes
of music tracked in two four minute
sections, with the track listing on
the rear cover of the disc usefully
indicating the relevant reference points
in the film to which the music relates.
Stephen Hogger on the other hand expands
this to fifteen minutes of music. The
booklet indicates the tempos of the
various passages rather than the scenes
the music represents and just one overall
track listing.
Perhaps the most fascinating
aspect of the music is its close relationship
with certain passages from the Sixth
Symphony - listen to the brooding,
darkly ominous mood from around 9:47
- which was occupying the composer‘s
attention at the time. Hints of the
Sixth are also evident in Story of
a Flemish Farm. Equally striking
though is the sheer quality of the music,
beautifully realised and atmospherically
portraying the mists of Romney Marsh,
the setting for Sheila Kaye-Smith’s
novel. Passages of glowing romantic
tenderness alternate with music depicting
daily life on Godden’s farm and that
of her three suitors but it is the depiction
of the Romney March landscape that leaves
the most lasting musical impression.
The Story of a Flemish
Farm will be familiar to many from
the excellent Marco Polo disc that was
the only recording entirely dedicated
to Vaughan Williams’ music for the screen
until Chandos took up the cause. Two
other scores included in that recording,
Coastal Command and Three
Portraits from the England of Elizabeth
have also made it into the Chandos series.
The Flemish Farm
was a propaganda film telling the tale
of the heroic wartime exploits of members
of the Belgian Air Force. Vaughan Williams
clearly thought highly enough of the
music to arrange it in the form of a
substantial seven movement suite that
he himself conducted at a Promenade
concert in July 1945. The fact that
he chose to do so is perhaps no surprise
for once again the quality of the music
shows no sign of the composer "writing
down" for the cinema. The bold
strength of the melodic writing is highly
idiomatic and reflects VW at the height
of his creative powers shortly before
the works that were to form the symphonic
"Indian Summer" of his later
years.
Marco Polo’s admirable
recording by the RTE Concert Orchestra
under Andrew Penney sets a strong benchmark
although Rumon Gamba and his Manchester
forces win the day by a hair’s breadth.
Gamba just manages to create the greater
sense of atmosphere - the wonderfully
hushed strings at the beginning of The
Dead Man’s Kit is a good example.
Gamba’s brisker tempo in the concluding
"The Wanderings of the Flag"
allows the music to benefit from an
increased sense of urgency that undoubtedly
adds something to the heroic strains
of the closing paragraphs.
Stephen Hogger’s contribution
to this fine series of discs cannot
be underestimated. His painstaking reconstructions
of several of the scores allow us to
enjoy a good deal of music for the first
time. Add to this the uniformly top-drawer
contribution of Gamba and the BBC Phil
and we have a series of discs that form
an important record of an often overlooked
aspect of VW’s catalogue.
Christopher Thomas
Volume
1 RECORDING
OF THE MONTH November 2002
Volume
2
Ladies of Manchester Chamber Choir/Darius
Battiwalla 
