In 1908 Vaughan Williams had three months in France to be tutored by Ravel, a composer who was not well known in Britain at the time. It was mostly technical training. Yet Ravel's style is sometimes clearly noticeable in Vaughan Williams's music. As in the poignant Bredon Hill from the song cycle On Wenlock Edge for tenor, piano and string quartet. Housman's poem does not literally say what is going
… on, as so often in British folk poetry. Very French impressionist, then, is the lonely chime, similar to Ravel's La vallĂ©e des cloches (Miroirs). In this way, the program hinges around the French connection in Vaughan Williams' otherwise British music. (HJ)more