Thanksgiving for Victory. For Soprano Solo, Speaker, Chorus and Orchestra.

Publication details: Oxford University Press, n.d. [circa1945,]

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$1,075.67

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Bookseller Notes

Who would the BBC turn to, to commission a piece of music which would be ready to broadcast the moment Victory in Europe was declared at the end of WWII, but the most English of all twentieth-century composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams, then in his 72nd year. With inventive scoring (this edition, with reduced orchestration) and lyrics selected from the Bible, Shakespeare and Kipling, the work's tone succeeds in avoiding 'any suggestion of rhetorical pompousness.' (Lockspeiser, E., Music and Letters, 1945).Signed by the composer in pencil on the title-page.

Description

FIRST EDITION, the lyrics followed by the 22pp. score, pencil note at head of p. 21 ('no crescendo'), offset browning from covers at foot of title-page and final page, pp. 26, 4to, original sewn buff wrappers, contemporary ownership inscription ('C. Deryck Chamberlain, 1946') to front, light rubbing and soiling, very good

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