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Article: Ascent of 'middle Britain' sees Vaughan Williams soar to top of the classical chart
- Article from:
- The Scotsman
- Article date:
- March 25, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2008 The Scotsman. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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IT WAS a piece of music that conveyed pastoral beauty at a time
of mechanised destruction and death. The Lark Ascending, written by
Ralph Vaughan Williams after he served as a stretcher-bearer during
the First World War, has been voted Britain's favourite classical
composition.
In a triumph of middle England over the European continent's
great litany of classical giants, Vaughan Williams, whose great-
uncle was Charles Darwin and who hailed from Gloucestershire, has
been awarded the top spot in Classic FM's Hall of Fame for the
second year in a row.
The Lark Ascending, which features a prominent solo violin part
and was intended to convey the eternal beauty of a skylark rising
into the ...