Incidental music to Electra (Preview)

1912. In its 25 May Musical Gossip column, English newspaper The Globe included a preview
of the performance, with the prescient remarks:
In connection with Mr Vaughan Williams’ musical setting of choruses from Euripides,
to be given at the Court Theatre next Friday, we are informed that “they are an attempt
at something new, and something which is neither German nor French. This music is
no experiment in style. It would seem, rather, as though the composer had disclaimed
all styles and all schools, and found direct inspiration in the material of the poet’s
inspiration, and the result is something of undeniable beauty.” A chorus from ‘The
Electra’ and from ‘The Bacchae’ and four from ‘Iphigenia in Tauris’ should make up a
programme of interest. 7
Electra is the central figure of this tragedy. The daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen
Clytemnestra, she is shattered in childhood by the shock of an experience too hard to bear,
growing to become a poisoned and haunted woman eating her heart in ceaseless broodings
of hate and love, alike unsatisfied.
How does the history set out above tally with the manuscripts found in the British Library?
Let us begin with two choruses from the second section. The first of these, O for the
ships, is set in ‘a sort of chant’ accompanied by a dominant pedal on the strings and with
occasional interjections from woodwinds, horn, cymbals and harp. The second, There came
a man, has thrumming string and harp chords with the voices doubled in mostly single
woodwind instruments. This chorus has a touch of Vaughan Williams’ superb archetypal
melody against the words “How, orb on orb, to strike with cold the Trojan”. The first
section, for Electra herself, Onward O labouring tread, is set as recitative, with the addition
of pure speech occasionally. The singing and much of the speaking is against chords, often
dissonant to reflect the subject matter, and with the small orchestra setting the mood of
each section. Vaughan Williams’ treatment of dissonance is a premonition of his use of it in
the symphonies to come, although the music is less elaborate than his music for The Wasps.
Here, he mostly concerns himself with the vocal line and how it carries the text in such a
natural flow. The chorus is made up of women’s voices. As Vaughan Williams specified, ‘the
solos may be divided among the members of the chorus’, after Electra has disappeared from
the stage.
Alan Tongue, Editor
Editorial notes
The manuscripts are held in the British Library Archives within two folios. The editor
arranged them into four sources in the preparation of this edition.
Sources:
A MS 71480 Instrumental parts, complete
7 The Globe, 25 May 1912.
B MS 71480 Chorus parts, mulitple copies, complete
C MS 71479 Vocal short scores and sketches, incomplete
D MS 71479 Full scores, incomplete
PEV03 – vii