What is the history of The Lark Ascending, and why is it still so relevant today?
31 January 2025, 15:29
Composed on the eve of the First World War, The Lark Ascending has bewitched listeners for over a century.
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Very few pieces have the ability to strike right to the core of our hearts. In The Lark Ascending, Vaughan Williams created a piece of music that can deeply transform the listener.
Completed in 1914, just before the onset of the First World War, it is an ode to a pastoral world that the imminent horrors of the global conflict would destroy.
The message of the music is timeless, as each generation looks back at the past with rose-tinted glasses. Have a listen to it here:
Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending - Nathan Amaral | Classic FM
The piece is inspired by George Meredith’s 1881 poem of the same name, written in the bygone Victorian era. It is a hymn to the skylark and its song, first appearing in The Fortnightly Review in May 1881. It is essentially a pastoral ode, ruminating on the effortless joy exhibited by the skylark through its song. This is then contrasted with the human voice, which cannot express the same level of feeling as the skylark.
Vaughan Williams was captivated by this prose and the relationship between birdsong and human song, deciding to use the violin as the best medium for both voices.
The image of the Lark ascending onto the horizon resonated with the mood of the time, which was characterised by a general wave of nostalgia sweeping across Europe, as the onset of War became more inevitable and people longed for a simpler time, uncharacterised by the rapid increase of machinery.
Read more: ‘It’s genius’ – classical music stars on why they love The Lark Ascending
The piece was written for leading violinist Marie Hall, a former pupil of Elgar. She worked with Vaughan Williams and made suggestions that influenced the composition.
The piece was premiered by Hall in its piano and violin version on 15 December 1920, and in June 1921 the orchestral version was heard for the first time, conducted by Adrian Boult.
Contemporary reviews were positive, but in time the work has been seen in the context of the era, with Jeffrey Davis commenting, “At one level it seems to be an idyll of rural England [but] in view of its composition on the eve of the First World War, there is perhaps an underlying layer of sadness to the music.
“Rather like the Edwardian era, as viewed retrospectively from the other side of World War One, it seems to reflect nostalgia for a partly mythological lost age of innocence.”
How does Vaughan Williams’ music create the sound of the lark?
Ursula Vaughan Williams, the composer’s second wife, wrote that in The Lark Ascending, “Vaughan Williams had made the violin become both the bird’s song and its flight, being – rather than illustrating – the poem from which the title was taken.”
As in the poem, ‘He rises and begins to round, He drops the silver chain of sound’, the violin starts tentatively, before rising higher and higher into the sky. The lark’s calls on the solo violin are echoed and answered by the mournful sound of the horn, evoking an evening pastoral setting. The end of the piece alludes to the poem’s conclusion, where ‘lost on his aerial rings, in light, and then the fancy sings’, bringing us to a magical, completely still conclusion.
The piece draws on several folk song influences, using relatively simple melodies. This folky ambience aligns with the pastoral feeling of the piece, adding layers to the nostalgia.
The Lark Ascending has become one of the most loved pieces of all time, having topped the Classic FM Hall of Fame, the world’s biggest poll of classical music tastes, a record 12 times.
