[Afamilyatwar-list] Vaughan Williams

[Veit, Richard]

Yes, Scott, you are right on target about the impact of the Vaughan Williams excerpt in A FAMILY AT WAR. I am stirred anew each time I hear it. Another instance of classical usage that comes to mind are the closing credits for the 1979 film, ALIEN, which used the glorious first movement of Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2 ("Romantic").

Stanley Kubrick must have been quite knowledgeable about classical music. For his A CLOCKWORK ORANGE from 1971, he borrowed (and ruthlessly "modernised") themes from no fewer than four composers: Purcell, Rossini, Beethoven, and Elgar.

Richard Veit

From: <afamilyatwar-list-bounces at baylor.edu> on behalf of AFAMILYATWAR-LIST <Afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>
Reply-To: AFAMILYATWAR-LIST <Afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>, Scott Filderman <scottfilderman at yahoo.com>
Date: Friday, April 13, 2018 at 4:22 PM
To: AFAMILYATWAR-LIST <Afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>
Subject: [Afamilyatwar-list] Vaughan Williams

Whoever had the truly inspired idea to use the end of the first movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Sixth Symphony as the theme for AFAW did as great a service to that wonderful composer as did whoever chose the last section of Rossini’s William Tell overture for the Lone Ranger radio/television program here in the USA. As a lifelong Vaughan Williams admirer, I never tire of hearing that plaintive hymn that opens and closes every episode. Stanley Kubrick did a similar favor for Richard Strauss by choosing Also Sprach Zarathustra to open his epic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sometimes ya just gotta go classical!

Always a favorite game to Name That Tune as episodes of The Onedin Line roll by! MORE Vaughan Williams! Fifth Symphony, right?

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