The wit of Vaughan Williams

Good old RVW could dish it out as much as he took it

You might have been aware that it was the 150th anniversary of the birth of the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams on 12th October.

Vaughan Williams info @RVWinfo

Happy 150th birthday to our man, Ralph Vaughan Williams. He's very much still alive and well. Indeed probably growing in popularity now, despite the lazy, sneering barbs and dismissals. The music - along with his character as a human being - have just proved too strong. #RVW150

Running the @RVWinfo Twitter account as I do, I was quite busy on the 12th in particular, checking out what was being said and the various events and performances going on, retweeting stuff out and participating in the conversations going on. Then on Friday 14th I was fortunate enough to go on a tour of the Royal College of Music’s Museum and ‘Hidden Treasures’ related to the composer – a real treat and quite moving to hold things like the Order of Merit in my hands.

RVW’s Order of Merit plus other treasures

It has been quite moving online too, not least in seeing what ‘RVW’ means to so many people (which is: a lot). This was one of my favourite tweets: somehow summing up the sort of man he was.

Simon Burne @simonburne1

Today is the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams. A great man who dug the potatoes in the garden of the lovely family who sponsored and took my Dad in after he arrived on the Kindertransport. RVW also composed some wonderful music.

Over the years RVW has been the target of various barbs and dismissals as I said in my tweet above, not least from snobbish aesthetes and modernists who look down on the popularity of pieces like The Lark Ascending and their associations with Englishness (I wrote about this subject here last June, causing a few ripples).

However he could dish it out himself too, at times showing a cutting wit. Generally however, his humour was of the generous, self-deprecating kind.

I thought it would be a nice thing to do to share with paid subscribers a few of these bonnes mots to spread a bit of the enjoyment and mischief generated by this great man.