Sinfonia antartica explained

Sinfonia antartica ("Antarctic Symphony") is the Italian title given by Ralph Vaughan Williams to his seventh symphony, first performed in 1953. It drew on incidental music the composer had written for the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic.

Background and first performances

By the mid-1940s, Vaughan Williams had written five symphonies of widely varying characters, from the choral Sea Symphony (1909)^[1] to the turbulent and discordant Fourth (1934)^[2] and the serene Fifth (1943), which some took to be the septuagenarian composer's symphonic swan song.^[3] In the event there were four more symphonies to come; his Sixth was premiered in 1948.^[4] After completing it, Vaughan Williams undertook a substantial film score to accompany Scott of the Antarctic produced by Michael Balcon and directed by Charles Frend.^[5] The composer became deeply interested in and moved by the story of the disastrous polar expedition of Robert Falcon Scott and his companions, and music suggested by ice and wind, penguins and whales came into his head.^[6] Before even seeing the film script he had composed most of the score.^[7] His biographer Michael Kennedy writes that the autograph full score contains 996 bars of music, of which about half was used in the finished film.

While writing the film music, Vaughan Williams had begun to feel that it might later form the basis of a symphony.^[8] He worked on that intermittently during the next few years, between other major compositions including his opera The Pilgrim's Progress. By early 1952 the symphony was complete. His musical assistant Roy Douglas played a piano arrangement to a group of musicians including Arthur Bliss, Gerald Finzi and Edward Dent; also in the group was Ernest Irving, who had commissioned the film score and to whom Vaughan Williams dedicated the new symphony. An orchestral score was sent to Sir John Barbirolli, who had secured the composer's agreement that he should conduct the premiere. The work was first given in public on 14 January 1953 at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, by Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra and Choir with Margaret Ritchie in the wordless soprano solo.^[9] The performers repeated the performance at the same venue the following evening, and gave the London premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on 21 January.^[10] The title of the symphony was changed at the last minute from Sinfonia Antarctica to Sinfonia Antartica, so as to use consistently Italian spelling in the two words.^[10]

The first American performance was given on 2 April 1953 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelík.^[11] The Australian premiere was given by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugene Goossens on 17 June 1953.^[12]

Score notes

The work is scored for a large orchestra including:

• • Woodwinds: three flutes (3rd doubling on piccolo), two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon Brass: four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba
  • Percussion: timpani, side drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, gong, bells, xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, wind machine Keyboards: celesta, piano, organ (in the third movement)
• Strings: harp, and strings
• Voices: (first and last movements) soprano solo, three-part women's chorus.

Mechanics of the composition

A typical performance lasts around 45 minutes. There are five movements. The composer specified that the third movement lead directly into the fourth. The score includes a brief literary quotation at the start of each movement. While Vaughan Williams did not say that these quotations were intended to form part of a performance of the work, they are sometimes declaimed in performance and in recordings. Among the recordings including the quotations are Sir Adrian Boult's first recording for Decca in 1954 (supervised by the composer) with Sir John Gielgud narrating, and André Previn's 1967 recording for RCA with Sir Ralph Richardson narrating.^[13]

1. Prelude: Andante maestoso

2. Scherzo: Moderato \relative c'

3. Landscape: Lento

4. Intermezzo: Andante sostenuto \relative c'

5. Epilogue: Alla marcia, moderato (non troppo allegro) \relative c'

Recordings

Conductor	Orchestra	Chorus	Soloist	Narrator	Recorded	Cat no
Sir John Barbirolli	Hallé Orchestra	Hallé Choir	Margaret Ritchie	—	Free Trade Hall, 15–16 June 1953	HMV ALP 1102
Sir Adrian Boult	London Philharmonic	London Philharmonic Choir	Margaret Ritchie	John Gielgud	Kingsway Hall, 10–11 Dec 1953	Decca LXT 2912
André Previn	London Symphony Orchestra	Ambrosian Singers	Heather Harper	Ralph Richardson	Kingsway Hall, 14–16 Sept 1967	RCA Victor SB 6736
Sir Adrian Boult	London Philharmonic	London Philharmonic Choir	Norma Burrowes	—	Kingsway Hall, 18–21 Nov 1969	HMV ASD 2631
Ainslee Cox	American Symphony Orchestra	ASO Women's Chorus	Jacqueline Pierce	Franklin Williams	Carnegie Hall, 13 April 1970	CRQ Editions CD 251
Bernard Haitink	London Philharmonic	London Philharmonic Choir	Sheila Armstrong	—	Royal Festival Hall, 27 Nov 1984	LPO-0072
Bernard Haitink	London Philharmonic	London Philharmonic Choir	Sheila Armstrong	—	Abbey Road, 28–29 Nov 1984	EMI CDC 7 47516 2
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky	USSR State Symphony Orchestra	Chamber Choir of Moscow Conservatory	Elena Dof-donskaya	—	Philharmonia Building, Leningrad, 28 April 1989	Melodiya CD 10-02170-5
Bryden Thomson	London Symphony Orchestra	LSO Chorus	Catherine Bott	—	St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead, 19–22 June 1989	Chandos CHAN 8796
Vernon Handley	Royal Liverpool Philharmonic	Liverpool Philharmonic Choir	Alison Hargan	—	Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, April 1990	EMI Eminence CD EMX 2173
Leonard Slatkin	Philharmonia Orchestra	Philharmonia Chorus	Linda Hohenfeld	—	Abbey Road, 28–29 Nov 1991	RCA Victor Red Seal 09026-61195-2
Raymond Leppard	Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra	Indianapolis Symphonic Choir	Dominique Labelle	—	27–29 April 1992	Koss Classics KC 2214
Andrew Davis	BBC Symphony Orchestra	BBC Symphony Chorus	Patricia Rozario	—	St Augustine's Church, London, March 1996	Teldec 0630-13139-2
Kees Bakels	Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra	Waynflete Singers	Lynda Russell	David Timson	Poole Arts Centre, 6–7 Sept 1996	Naxos 8.550737
Sir Andrew Davis	Bergen Philharmonic	Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Grieg Kor	Mari Eriksmoen	—	Grieghallen, Bergen, 30 Jan to 2 Feb 2017	Chandos CHSA 5186
Andrew Manze	Royal Liverpool Philharmonic	Liverpool Philharmonic Choir	Rowan Pierce	Timothy West	Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 28 Sept 2018	ONYX, ONYX4190
Sir Mark Elder	Hallé Orchestra	Hallé Choir	Sophie Bevan	—	Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 24 January 2019, live and in rehearsal	Hallé CD HLD 7558

Notes, references and sources

Sources

• Book: Howes, Frank . The Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams . 1954. London . Oxford University Press . 459433504.
• Book: Kennedy, Michael . The Film Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams . 2002 . Colchester . Chandos. 173228673.
• Book: Vaughan Williams, Ursula . RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams . 1964 . Oxford . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-315411-7 .

Further reading

• Beckerman, Michael (Spring 2000). "The Composer as Pole Seeker: Reading Vaughan Williams's Sinfonia antartica." Current Musicology, no. 69, pp. 42–67.
• Grimley, Daniel M. (Spring-Summer 2008). "Music, Ice, and the 'Geometry of Fear': The Landscapes of Vaughan Williams's 'Sinfonia Antartica.'" The Musical Quarterly, vol. 91, nos. 1–2, pp. 116–150.
• Mason, Colin. (March 1953). "Vaughan Williams's 'Sinfonia Antartica.'" The Musical Times, vol. 94, no. 1321, p. 128.

Notes and References

1. Howes, p. 3
2. Howes, pp. 34–35
3. Howes, p. 41
4. Vaughan Williams, p. 283
5. Vaughan Williams, p. 279
6. Vaughan Williams, pp. 279–280
7. Kennedy, p. 5
8. Vaughan Williams, p. 286
9. "A New Symphony", The Times, 15 January 1953, p. 3
10. "Vaughan Williams' 'Sinfonia Antartica': The First Performance", Illustrated London News, 24 January 1953, p. 131
11. Cassidy, Claudia. "On the Aisle", Chicago Tribune, 3 April 1953, p. 2/1
12. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18376669"'Antarctic' Symphony at Concert"
13. Stuart, Philip. Decca Classical 1929–2009. Retrieved 22 December 2021