LAND OF HOPE & GLORY
When it comes to many of the greatest British composers, it is hard to separate their music from a sense of place. On the one hand, some of the most enduring composers of the past few centuries have an immediate association with a particular part of the country in which they lived, performed and developed new works, whether that’s Benjamin Britten and Aldeburgh, Sir Edward Elgar and Worcester Cathedral, or Gustav Holst and Thaxted.
In other cases, the beautiful works of these composers serve as an evocation of a certain kind of Britishness. Anyone with a soul can’t fail to hear Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, for instance, and not be transported to an idyllic world of green fields, freshly-cut grass and the drowsy hum of nature in the midst of a perfect English summer. Yet these composers did not work in isolation, being inspired by both the places in which they lived, and by those who had gone before them, meaning that their work often exhibits a dual sense of ‘belonging’.
