R. Vaughan Williams - Scott of the Antarctic

preface This is

preface This is the first complete presentation of all the music written by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1947 for the film Scott of the Antarctic, its soundtrack recognized as significant in the history of British cinema and in the context of his later oeuvre, not only in the Sinfonia Antartica of 1953, but also in the development of his style generally. Completed in an astonishingly brief period of under three weeks at the invitation of the music director of Ealing Studios, Ernest Irving, the score, of over an hour’s duration, was unusual in having been conceived before shooting had begun, after the composer had read The Worst Journey in the World, Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s classic account of Scott’s expedition. In consequence, while the film used some thirty-eight minutes of material, a similar amount was omitted, including episodes relating to Oriana, the wife of Captain Wilson, the ship’s spectacular departure from Ross Island, miniature portraits of Nansen and Amundsen, and the discovery of the tent containing the frozen bodies of Wilson, Scott and Bowers. Subsequently the dedicatee of the Sinfonia Antartica, Ernest Irving collaborated closely with Vaughan Williams. To fit the film, the former cut some sequences and rewrote others, and may also have written ‘The Queen’s Birthday’ March (as he refers to it in a letter to VW), which is played by brass band as the expedition’s ship the Terra Nova is loaded at Cardiff docks. No score survives of either piece, nor has any march of this title been found, in spite of exhaustive searching of the archives. In a cue-sheet at the British Library, both this and an arrangement of Will Ye No Come Back Again, played at the quayside, are marked as ‘Source: Ernest Irving’, though this does not necessarily imply that he was the composer. Both pieces were transcribed from the film by the editor for the first recording of the complete music, the folksong arrangement found to be harmonised very much in the Vaughan Williams manner. Nonetheless, they have been omitted from this edition, both on account of their uncertain provenance and because they are ‘featured’ rather than ‘background’, in the technical sense of being in the film rather than accompanying it. Four full scores now in the British Library form the basis of the text. First, Add MS 52289B is the original full score in the composer’s hand, including many crossings out and revisions; the second, Add MS 52289A, is a collection of sketches and partly complete numbers in the composer’s hand and showing much working out. The third source, Add MS 50431, is the full score used in the recording sessions, written in four hands, one of which is the composer’s. Here, some parts appear to have been cut in a hurry, with instructions to return to certain passages, or to skip a number of bars and proceed to another bar, changes which sometimes neglect the melodic and harmonic structure, and probably relate only to their use in the soundtrack. Finally, there is Add MS 59537, the Ernest Irving full score, so described because it was previously held in the library’s collection of his papers rather than Vaughan Williams’s. Although it might be supposed that this score was also used at recording sessions, it differs in places from the third source, with cuts of bars and even entire cues, almost certainly to fit it to the film. Several items exist in two or three versions, some radically different from one another, all of which, however, are included here. They are: two versions each of Pony March, Scott on the Glacier, The Polar Party Departs, The Death of Oates, and Aurora, and three of Kathleen. It is a matter of speculation whether the composer was anticipating intercuts of these scenes or, additionally, whether he and the director Charles Frend were unhappy with some of the versions, Vaughan Williams therefore offering alternatives. Constructing a sequence of movements was not straightforward, as some of the scenes relating to the music do not appear in the film, and no versions of the script that are earlier drafts and possible sources of enlightenment have been discovered. However, a common-sense order has been adopted, assisted by reference to Apsley Cherry-Garrard and to a surviving editor’s script of the film. In several of the scores there are deleted or incomplete entries for the organ, which have been restored in the spirit of presenting the composer’s original intentions. Interestingly as well, some pages torn out and missing from two of the full scores are found inserted into the manuscript of the Sinfonia Antartica itself, tangible evidence of the subject’s enduring appeal to the composer, and suggestive too of the latent symphonic potential of the original film score. I was helped enormously in this undertaking by my music editor Emma Syrus, who prepared the full score and orchestral parts for the recording and whose attention to detail made my job much easier. The scope of the complete score is surprising; its vastness in both size and musical language directly paralleling the wastes of the territory Scott was attempting to conquer; and whilst this tale of desperation and heroism by Scott and his men is directly told through this music, it is the landscape that is the constant musical backdrop. The picture of this vast wilderness is so real and alive in the music that the film almost becomes superfluous; perhaps a conclusion that Vaughan Williams himself came to, spurring him to create Sinfonia Antartica. Martin Yates 2018 for online perusal only v

orchestration 3 Flutes (3rd doubling Piccolo) 2 Oboes Cor Anglais 2 Clarinets in Bb and A Bass Clarinet (doubling Clarinets in Bb and A) 2 Bassoons Contrabassoon 4 Horns in F 3 Trumpets in Bb 3 Cornets in Bb Euphonium 2 Tenor Trombones Bass Trombone Tuba Timpani Percussion (4 players: Cymbals, Suspended Cymbal, Triangle, Bass Drum, Side Drum, Tenor Drum, Tam-Tam, Tubular Bells, Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Wind Machine) Harp Piano Celeste Organ Solo Soprano Chorus [Sopranos, Altos] Strings for online perusal only Duration: c.80 minutes The complete score is recorded on Dutton Epoch [CDLX7340] with Ilona Domnich (soprano), Christopher Nickol (organ), Women of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Chorus, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Martin Yates. It was generously supported by The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust.