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The Symphony No. 9 in E minor was the last symphony written by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. He composed it from 1956 to 1957 and it was given its premiere performance in London by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent on 2 April 1958, in the composer's eighty-sixth year. It was subsequently performed on 5 August 1958 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Malcolm Sargent at a Promenade Concert. Vaughan Williams died three weeks later, on 26 August, the very day on which the symphony was due to be recorded for the first time, by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. The composer had planned to attend the recording sessions. Vaughan Williams's original idea was to create a programmatic symphony based on Thomas Hardy's book ''Tess of the d'Urbervilles'', even though the programmatic elements eventually disappeared as work on the composition progressed. Existing sketches clearly indicate that, in the early stages of composition, certain passages related to specific people and events in the novel: in some of the manuscripts, the first movement is headed "Wessex Prelude", and the heading "Tess" appears above sketches for the second movement.〔"Vaughan Williams and Thomas Hardy: 'Tess' and the slow movement of the Ninth Symphony" by Alain Frogley (''Music and Letters'', 1987)〕 The work is in four movements #Moderato maestoso #Andante sostenuto #Scherzo: Allegro pesante #Finale: Andante tranquillo It is worth noting that the opening theme of the slow movement comes from music Vaughan Williams had composed more than fifty years earlier: ''A Sea Symphony'' and an even earlier, unpublished tone poem from 1904 called ''The Solent''. The composer himself called the drumbeat music that immediately follows this theme, “the ghostly drummer of Salisbury Plain.” ==Instrumentation== The orchestra includes: *Woodwinds: piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets (B♭), bass clarinet (B♭), two bassoons, contrabassoon, two alto saxophones (E♭), tenor saxophone (B♭) *Brass: four horns (F), two trumpets (B♭), flugelhorn (B♭), three trombones, tuba *Percussion: timpani, side drum, tenor drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, large gong, tam-tam, deep bells, glockenspiel, xylophone, celesta *Strings: two harps, and strings Vaughan Williams's program note accompanying the premiere performance remarked thus: The usual symphony orchestra is used with the addition of three saxophones and flugelhorn. This beautiful and neglected instrument is not usually allowed in the select circles of the orchestra and has been banished to the brass band, where it is allowed to indulge in the art of vibrato. While in the orchestra it is obliged to play with a pure and unwavering tone. The saxophones, also, are not expected, except possibly in one place in the scherzo, to behave like demented cats, but are allowed to be their own romantic selves. Otherwise the orchestra is normal, and is, the composer hopes, sound in wind and strings. Very early on in the first movement the three saxophones play a chorale-like passage in chordal harmony, perhaps to emphasise that this will not be the sort of dance band music which the saxophone produces in the scherzo of his Sixth Symphony. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Symphony No. 9 (Vaughan Williams)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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