The Lark Ascending

A Reason to Smile

Last week, for our A Reason to Smile, we featured a wondrous piece for classical guitar: “Concierto de Aranjuez.” We were thrilled that so many of you enjoyed it. In the comments, some of you indicated you have listened to the piece for decades, and others wrote about hearing it for the first time. An old favorite for one person can be a new inspiration for another. Such is the way of time-tested art and itself a reason to smile.

This week, we return with another unique gem that has become a cherished part of the classical canon. It is also a 20th century composition that evokes how we commune with nature and how music can celebrate our bonds with Earth. This work features the violin to a mesmerizing effect.

“The Lark Ascending” by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was originally written in 1914 just before the outbreak of the First World War, which delayed the piece's premiere until 1920. It seems fitting that amidst the horrors of that war, the delicate beauty of this music would have to wait. Originally composed for violin and piano, Vaughan Williams rescored it for a full orchestra; that version debuted in 1921 and has become the more famous of the two. 

The piece was inspired by a poem of the same name by the English poet George Meredith. Vaughan Williams included several lines of that work in his manuscript:

He rises and begins to round
He drops the silver chain of sound
Of many links without a break
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake

For singing till his heaven fills
Tis love of earth that he instils
And ever winging up and up
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
To lift us with him as he goes

Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings

In Vaughan Williams’ work, the meanings of these words are translated into ethereal sound. It is a virtuosic mixture of folk and classical inspiration — a tribute to the sights and, just as importantly, the sounds of nature. It feels right on a spring day. In the hands of a virtuoso violinist like Hilary Hahn (shared here), the work’s many nuances and tones take flight to a subtle but dazzling effect. So many reasons to smile.

For those interested in seeing and hearing the namesake skylark in flight and sound, we share here:

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