Excellent documentary about Ralph Vaughan-Williams

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Earlier this year, I invested in a region-free DVD player (only $20 more than a comparable regular model) and ordered a bunch of DVDs from Amazon UK.

One of them was a documentary about Ralph Vaughan-Williams called O Thou Transcendent, and I didn't get around to watching it till yesterday.

It intersperses performances of his works with still photographs, contemporary film sequences of places and events that Vaughan-Williams was involved in (London in the early 1900s, for example), and interviews with people who knew him (including his second wife, who was nearly 40 years his junior), were influenced by him, or have opinions about his influence on British culture.

As an Episcopalian, I've sung a lot of his music, and I knew about his activities as a folk song collector and editor of The English Hymnal, but there was a lot more to learn about his fascinating life. Did you know, for example, that he was closely related to both the Darwin and Wedgewood families, named his hymn tunes after villages in his native Gloucestershire, was an ambulance driver in World War I (already in his 40s), and was an avid promoter of classical music for amateurs and young people throughout his life?

You don't even need a region-free player to see it, because it is an all-region disk, something I didn't realize until I started playing it.

Highly recommended.

[CBHagman]

1. I just put it in my Netflix queue.

Come over here, Lydia Leftcoast. :hug: I think you just made my night. I can't get enough of Ralph Vaughan Williams (another October birthday boy, if I recall correctly).

I'm always waiting to hear the next CD of folk song settings, or another V-W hymn arrangement at church. I'm RC, and of course Catholics are famous for not being able to sing :blush:, but the music program in my parish is amazing.

As for the all-region DVD player, do you have any tips on models and brands? I'm just about going nuts with having to subsist on YouTube clips of Life on Mars.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Okay, then this is the DVD for you!

As for the region-free player, I got mine at

http://www.220-electronics.com/google.htm

It arrived in less than a week and works just fine.

You'll find that Amazon UK sells DVDs that have never been released in the U.S. and often cheaper than Amazon.com does, especially older TV series.

I've watched two episodes of the U.S.-based Life on Mars, and since I haven't seen the first season of the British version for two years, I can't remember exactly, but they seem to be turning it into an ordinary cop show in leisure suits. There's nothing of the subplot that was so important in the British version, trying to find out why his father disappeared.

[norepubsin08]

3. Hey we're using his most famous church piece this Sunday

Hymn Tune Sine Nomine or "For All Thy Saints" I used that as the recessiobnal for my moms funeral

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. It just wouldn't be All Saints' Day without that hymn

My choir is singing the Fauré Requiem Saturday night as the liturgical music for a Commemoration of the Faithful Departed.

[norepubsin08]

6. Great Piece

I have to represent the Church community at a panel put together by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture that night. I was thinking about handing out Obama buttons instead of candy on Halloween, but am wondering if I would get flak for it. I would just tell the kids that Obama likes children, McCain doesn't...just kidding! However it did cross my warped political mind.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. My favorite Vaughan Williams piece...

The Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-kWBOvfwdg

Thanks for the info. I'll have to check that out!

[norepubsin08]

7. Hey that was great-thanks

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. Sorry the clip ends before the piece is over...

It's worth buying a cd! :hi: