Sinfonia antartica

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Sinfonia Antartica ("Antarctic Symphony") is the Italian title given by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams to his seventh Symphony.

Contents

[edit] History

Vaughan Williams provided the music for the film Scott of the Antarctic in 1947, and was so inspired by the subject that he incorporated much of the music into a symphony. The piece was begun in 1949, the first performance taking place in 1953 in Manchester with Sir John Barbirolli conducting the Hallé Orchestra. The reverential mood of much of this work reflects Britain's perennially proud fascination with her explorers; in the case of Scott, tragedy heightens the effect.

[edit] Score notes

The work is scored for a large orchestra including three flutes doubling piccolos, two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, four percussionists (playing side drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, gong, bells, glockenspiel, vibraphone, and wind machine), celesta, harp, piano, organ and strings.

There is also a wordless three-part women's chorus and solo soprano, which sing only in the first and last movements.

[edit] Mechanics of the composition

A typical performance lasts around 45 minutes. There are five movements. The third and fourth are linked, and the score includes a literary quotation at the start of each movement.

  1. Prelude: Andante maestoso (quotation from Shelley, Prometheus Unbound)
    • To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite,/ To forgive wrongs darker than death or night,/ To defy power which seems omnipotent,/ Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent:/ This… is to be/ Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free,/ This is alone life, joy, empire and victory.
  2. Scherzo: Moderato (quotation from Psalm 104, Verse 26)
    • There go the ships, and there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to take his pastime therein.
  3. Landscape: Lento (quotation from Coleridge, Hymn before Sunrise, in the vale of Chamouni)
    • Ye ice falls! Ye that from the mountain's brow/ Adown enormous ravines slope amain —/ Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice,/ And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge!/ Motionless torrents! Silent cataracts!
  4. Intermezzo: Andante sostenuto (quotation from Donne, The Sun Rising)
    • Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,/ Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
  5. Epilogue: Alla marcia, moderato (non troppo allegro) (quotation from Captain Scott's Last Journal)
    • I do not regret this journey; we took risks, we knew we took them, things have come out against us, therefore we have no cause for complaint.

Occasionally in performance and recordings the preceding quotations are recited before each movement is played, but this practice makes impossible the composer's instruction that the third movement lead directly into the fourth without a pause.

[edit] DVD & Discography

[edit] DVDs

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in conjunction with TVNZ's Natural History Unit has released a PAL zone DVD consisting of Antarctic footage with Sinfonia Antartica as the cover music.

[edit] In popular culture

In one Monty Python episode that had content related to Scott of the Antarctic, the Boult EMI recording is used.[citation needed]

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Symphonies by Ralph Vaughan Williams
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