Serenade to Music is a work by Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...

 for 16 vocal soloist

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

s and orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

, composed in 1938. The text is an adaptation of the discussion about music and the music of the spheres

Musica universalis

Musica universalis is an ancient philosophical concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies—the Sun, Moon, and planets—as a form of musica . This 'music' is not usually thought to be literally audible, but a harmonic and/or mathematical and/or religious concept...

 in Act V, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...

by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

. Vaughan Williams later arranged the piece into versions for chorus

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

 and orchestra and solo violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 and orchestra. It is approximately 13 minutes in duration.

History

Vaughan Williams wrote the piece as a tribute to the conductor Sir Henry Wood

Henry Wood

Henry Wood was a British conductor.Henry Wood may also refer to:* Henry C. Wood , American Civil War Medal of Honor recipient* Henry Wood , English cricketer...

 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Wood's first concert. The solo parts were composed specifically for the voices of sixteen eminent British singers chosen by Wood and the composer. In some parts of the work, the soloists sing together as a "choir," sometimes in as many as twelve parts; in others, each soloist is allotted a solo (some soloists get multiple solos). The published score places the initials of each soloist next to his or her lines.

Wood conducted the first performance at his jubilee concert at the Royal Albert Hall

Royal Albert Hall

The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....

 on 5 October 1938. The orchestra comprised players from the three London orchestras – the London Symphony Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra

The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...

, the BBC Symphony Orchestra

BBC Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...

 and the London Philharmonic Orchestra

London Philharmonic Orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...

. The soloists were:

Soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... s:	Isobel Baillie Isobel Baillie Dame Isobel Baillie DBE was a Scottish soprano, popular in opera, oratorio and lieder. She was regarded as one of the 20th century's great oratorio singers.Isobel Baillie was born in Hawick, Scottish Borders, in 1895... , Lilian Stiles-Allen Lilian Stiles-Allen Lilian Stiles-Allen was a British soprano of the mid 20th century.She was born Lilian Elizabeth Allen, and later added her mother's maiden name.... , Elsie Suddaby Elsie Suddaby Elsie Suddaby was a leading British lyric soprano of the years between World War I and World War II. She was born in Leeds.A pupil of Sir Edward Bairstow, she was known as ‘The Lass With The Delicate Air’ .She was principal soprano in the bicentennial St Matthew Passion Elsie Suddaby (1893 -... , Eva Turner Eva Turner Dame Eva Turner DBE was an English dramatic soprano with an international reputation. Her strong, steady and well-trained voice was renowned for its clarion power in Italian and German operatic roles.-Career:...
Contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... s:	Muriel Brunskill Muriel Brunskill Muriel Brunskill was an English contralto of the mid-twentieth century. Her career included concert, operatic and recital performance from the early 1920s until the 1950s... , Astra Desmond Astra Desmond Astra Desmond CBE was a British contralto of the early and middle twentieth century.-Early years:Astra Desmond was born Gwendolyn Mary Thompson, in Torquay, England. She was educated at Notting Hill High School and Westfield College, where she was a classical scholar... , Mary Jarred Mary Jarred Mary Jarred was an English opera singer of the mid-twentieth century. She is sometimes classed as a mezzo-soprano and sometimes as a contralto.-Biography:... , Margaret Balfour Margaret Balfour Margaret Balfour was an English classical Contralto of the 1920s and 1930s. She is best remembered as the angel in Elgar's own recorded excerpts of The Dream of Gerontius and one of the 16 soloists in the original performance of Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music .She was also recorded by HMV...
Tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... s:	Heddle Nash Heddle Nash William Heddle Nash was an English lyric tenor who appeared in opera and oratorio in the middle decades of the twentieth century. He also made numerous recordings that are still available on CD reissues.... , Frank Titterton Frank Titterton Frank Titterton was a well known British lyric tenor of the mid twentieth century. He was noted for his musicianship.Titterton's career was mainly in the concert hall... , Walter Widdop Walter Widdop Walter Widdop was a British operatic tenor who is best remembered for his Wagnerian performances. His repertoire also encompassed works by Verdi, Leoncavallo, Handel and Bach.-Career:... , Parry Jones Gwynn Parry Jones Parry Jones , known early in his career as Gwynn Jones, was a Welsh tenor of the mid-twentieth century.-Life and career:...
Baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... s:	Harold Williams Harold Williams (baritone) Harold John Williams MBE was a leading Australian baritone and music teacher. Born in Sydney, he enjoyed a long and successful career in England and his native country, performing in opera, oratorio and concerts and giving radio broadcasts.-Early years:Williams was born on 3 September 1893 at... , Roy Henderson
Bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... es:	Robert Easton, Norman Allin Norman Allin Norman Allin was a British bass singer of the early and mid twentieth century, and later a teacher of voice...

Sergei Rachmaninov

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...

 played in the first half of the concert as soloist in his Second Piano Concerto

Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, is a concerto for piano and orchestra composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901. The second and third movements were first performed with the composer as soloist on 2 December 1900...

; when he heard the Serenade from his place in the audience, he was so overcome by the beauty of the music that he wept.

On 15 October 1938, Wood made the first recording (with the same soloists and the BBC Symphony Orchestra) at the HMV

HMV

His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...

 Abbey Road Studio

Abbey Road Studios

Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...

 No. 1. Vaughan Williams and HMV donated copyright fees received from the initial record sales to The Henry Wood Jubilee Fund, which was established to endow London hospital beds for British orchestral musicians.

Vaughan Williams, realising the difficulty of assembling sixteen soloists for future performances, subsequently made arrangements for four soloists plus choir and orchestra and for orchestra alone. Wood premiered the orchestral version in February 1940. The composer also authorised the performance of the solo parts by sections of the chorus. The orchestra consists of two flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

s (second doubling piccolo

Piccolo

The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...

), oboe

Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

, cor anglais

Cor anglais

The cor anglais , or English horn , is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family....

, two clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

s, two bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...

s, four horns

Horn (instrument)

The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....

, two trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

s, three trombone

Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

s, tuba

Tuba

The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...

, timpani

Timpani

Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...

, percussion, harp

Harp

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...

, and strings

String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

.

Vaughan Williams conducted a performance of the original version of the Serenade during the inaugural concerts at the new Royal Festival Hall

Royal Festival Hall

The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...

 in 1951. The orchestra was the Liverpool Philharmonic and eleven of the original sixteen soloists sang; Ena Mitchell replaced Turner, Gladys Ripley

Gladys Ripley

-Early life:She was born in Forest Gate, Essex, the daughter of Alfred and Amy Ripley, and was educated at St. Edmund Roman Catholic School, East Ham, and at Clark's Business College.- Career :...

 replaced Balfour, and William Herbert, Richard Lewis

Richard Lewis (tenor)

Richard Lewis CBE was a Welsh tenor.Born Thomas Thomas in Manchester to Welsh parents, Lewis began his career as a boy soprano and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1939 to 1941...

 and Stephen Manton replaced Titterton, Widdop and Jones. The performance was recorded and has been released on CD.

Text

In arranging Shakespeare's text, Vaughan Williams followed the word order, but cut words, phrases, and whole lines, and repeated at the end eleven words from the third and fourth lines, producing the following text. The initials mark the singers' solo passages; ensemble passages are shown in italics:

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Here will we sit and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night

Become the touches ^IB of sweet harmony.

^HN Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:

^FT There's not the smallest orb that thou behold'st

But in his motion like an angel sings,

^WW Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;

Such harmony is in immortal souls;

^PJ But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

^SA Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn!

With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,

And draw her home with music.

^ES I am never merry when I hear sweet music.

^RE The reason is, your spirits are attentive –

^HW The man that hath no music in himself,

^RH Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,

^RE Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;

^NA The motions of his spirit are dull as night

And his affections dark as Erebus:

Let no such man be trusted. ^MBr Music! hark!

It is your music of the house.

^AD Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day.

^MJ Silence bestows that virtue on it

^ET How many things by season season'd are

To their right praise and true perfection!

^MBa Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion

And would not be awak'd. Soft stillness and the night

Become the touches ^IB of sweet harmony.

Recordings

The recordings of the original version, for sixteen singers and orchestra, are conducted by Sir Henry Wood (1938), the composer (1951), Sir Adrian Boult

Adrian Boult

Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...

 (1969), Matthew Best (1990) and Sir Roger Norrington

Roger Norrington

Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington, CBE is a British conductor. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington and his brother is Humphrey Thomas Norrington....

 (1997). In the table below, each row shows the original singer, followed by those performing the same part in the later recordings.

Wood	Composer	Boult	Best	Norrington
Isobel Baillie Isobel Baillie Dame Isobel Baillie DBE was a Scottish soprano, popular in opera, oratorio and lieder. She was regarded as one of the 20th century's great oratorio singers.Isobel Baillie was born in Hawick, Scottish Borders, in 1895...	Isobel Baillie	Norma Burrowes Norma Burrowes Norma Burrowes is an Irish coloratura soprano, particularly associated with Handel and Mozart roles.-Life and career:...	Amanda Roocroft	Felicity Lott Felicity Lott Dame Felicity Ann Emwhyla Lott, DBE, FRCM is an English soprano.-Education:From her earliest years she was musical, having started studying piano at age 5. She also played violin and began singing lessons at 12. She is an alumna of Royal Holloway, University of London, obtaining a BA in French and...
Lilian Stiles-Allen Lilian Stiles-Allen Lilian Stiles-Allen was a British soprano of the mid 20th century.She was born Lilian Elizabeth Allen, and later added her mother's maiden name....	Lilian Stiles-Allen	Sheila Armstrong Sheila Armstrong (singer) Dr. Sheila Armstrong is an English soprano, equally noted for opera, oratorio, symphonic music and lieder.Educated at the Royal Academy of Music, she was co-winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award in 1965, and as of 2011 was a trustee of the award fund.She was active in English opera and oratorio...	Anne Dawson	Lisa Milne
Elsie Suddaby Elsie Suddaby Elsie Suddaby was a leading British lyric soprano of the years between World War I and World War II. She was born in Leeds.A pupil of Sir Edward Bairstow, she was known as ‘The Lass With The Delicate Air’ .She was principal soprano in the bicentennial St Matthew Passion Elsie Suddaby (1893 -...	Elsie Suddaby	Susan Longfield	Linda Kitchen	Rosa Mannion
Eva Turner Eva Turner Dame Eva Turner DBE was an English dramatic soprano with an international reputation. Her strong, steady and well-trained voice was renowned for its clarion power in Italian and German operatic roles.-Career:...	Ena Mitchell	Marie Hayward	Elizabeth Connell	Yvonne Kenny Yvonne Kenny Yvonne Kenny AM is an Australian soprano, particularly associated with Handel and Mozart roles.Born in Sydney, she first studied at the University of Sydney in science, hoping to become a biochemist, but decided to pursue a career in music instead...
Muriel Brunskill Muriel Brunskill Muriel Brunskill was an English contralto of the mid-twentieth century. Her career included concert, operatic and recital performance from the early 1920s until the 1950s...	Muriel Brunskill	Gloria Jennings	Sarah Walker	Catherine Wyn-Rogers
Astra Desmond Astra Desmond Astra Desmond CBE was a British contralto of the early and middle twentieth century.-Early years:Astra Desmond was born Gwendolyn Mary Thompson, in Torquay, England. She was educated at Notting Hill High School and Westfield College, where she was a classical scholar...	Astra Desmond	Shirley Minty	Jean Rigby Jean Rigby Jean Rigby , is an English opera and concert singer. A mezzo-soprano, she is a long-time principal with the English National Opera....	Ann Murray Ann Murray Ann Murray DBE is an Irish mezzo-soprano. She was born on 27 August 1949, in Dublin. She studied with Frederic Cox at the Royal Manchester College of Music and made her stage debut as Alcestis in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Alceste in 1974...
Mary Jarred Mary Jarred Mary Jarred was an English opera singer of the mid-twentieth century. She is sometimes classed as a mezzo-soprano and sometimes as a contralto.-Biography:...	Mary Jarred	Meriel Dickinson	Diana Montague Diana Montague Diana Montague is a British mezzo-soprano known for her performances in opera and as a concert singer.-Biography:She was born in Winchester and educated at the Testwood School, the Winchester School of Art and the Royal Northern College of Music...	Diana Montague
Margaret Balfour Margaret Balfour Margaret Balfour was an English classical Contralto of the 1920s and 1930s. She is best remembered as the angel in Elgar's own recorded excerpts of The Dream of Gerontius and one of the 16 soloists in the original performance of Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music .She was also recorded by HMV...	Gladys Ripley Gladys Ripley -Early life:She was born in Forest Gate, Essex, the daughter of Alfred and Amy Ripley, and was educated at St. Edmund Roman Catholic School, East Ham, and at Clark's Business College.- Career :...	Alfreda Hodgson	Catherine Wyn-Rogers	Della Jones Della Jones Della Jones , is a Welsh mezzo-soprano, particularly well-known for her interpretations of works by Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, and Britten.-Life and career:Della Jones was born in Tonna, near Neath, Wales...
Heddle Nash Heddle Nash William Heddle Nash was an English lyric tenor who appeared in opera and oratorio in the middle decades of the twentieth century. He also made numerous recordings that are still available on CD reissues....	Heddle Nash	Bernard Dickerson	John Mark Ainsley John Mark Ainsley John Mark Ainsley is an English lyric tenor. Known for his supple voice, Ainsley is particularly admired for his interpretations of baroque music and the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...	Toby Spence Toby Spence Toby Spence, born London 1969, is a professional and internationally renowned tenor active on the concert platform, in the opera house and in recordings across a wide range of classical music.-Early life and studies:...
Frank Titterton Frank Titterton Frank Titterton was a well known British lyric tenor of the mid twentieth century. He was noted for his musicianship.Titterton's career was mainly in the concert hall...	William Herbert	Wynford Evans	Martyn Hill	John Mark Ainsley
Walter Widdop Walter Widdop Walter Widdop was a British operatic tenor who is best remembered for his Wagnerian performances. His repertoire also encompassed works by Verdi, Leoncavallo, Handel and Bach.-Career:...	Richard Lewis Richard Lewis (tenor) Richard Lewis CBE was a Welsh tenor.Born Thomas Thomas in Manchester to Welsh parents, Lewis began his career as a boy soprano and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1939 to 1941...	Kenneth Bowen	Arthur Davies	Anthony Rolfe Johnson Anthony Rolfe Johnson Anthony Rolfe Johnson, CBE was an English operatic tenor.-Life and career:Born in Tackley in Oxfordshire, Rolfe Johnson studied with Ellis Keeler and Vera Rosza at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He first appeared in opera in the chorus and in small roles at the Glyndebourne Festival...
Parry Jones Parry Jones Parry Jones may refer to:* Gwynn Parry Jones , Welsh tenor*Rhys Parry Jones, Welsh TV actor-See also:*Love Parry Jones-Parry , British army officer and High Sheriff of Anglesey*Jones Parry...	Stephen Manton	Ian Partridge Ian Partridge Ian Partridge CBE is a retired English lyric tenor, whose repertoire ranged from Monteverdi, Bach and Handel, the Elizabethan lute songs, German, French and English songs, through to Schoenberg, Weill and Britten, and on to contemporary works. He formed a renowned vocal-piano duo with his sister...	Maldwyn Davies	Timothy Robinson
Harold Williams Harold Williams (baritone) Harold John Williams MBE was a leading Australian baritone and music teacher. Born in Sydney, he enjoyed a long and successful career in England and his native country, performing in opera, oratorio and concerts and giving radio broadcasts.-Early years:Williams was born on 3 September 1893 at...	Harold Williams	Christopher Keyte	Gwynne Howell Gwynne Howell Gwynne Howell is a Welsh bass, particularly associated with Verdi and Wagner roles.-Life and career:Born in Gorseinon, Wales, he studied at the RMCM, where he sang Leporello in concert, and Hunding, Fasolt, and Pogner in staged performances.He joined the Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1968, and the...	Stephen Roberts
Roy Henderson	Roy Henderson	John Noble John Noble (baritone) John Noble was an English baritone. He was Ralph Vaughan Williams's favourite in the title role of the composer's opera The Pilgrim's Progress....	Thomas Allen	Christopher Maltman
Robert Easton	Robert Easton	John Carol Case John Carol Case John Carol Case is an English baritone.Case was born in Salisbury, England. Awarded a choral scholarship at King's College, he graduated from Cambridge University with MA and BMus degrees....	Alan Opie Alan Opie Alan Opie is a Cornish baritone, primarily known as an opera singer.He attended Truro School and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the London Opera Centre before joining the Sadler's Wells Opera...	Michael George
Norman Allin Norman Allin Norman Allin was a British bass singer of the early and mid twentieth century, and later a teacher of voice...	Norman Allin	Richard Angas	John Connell	Robert Lloyd
BBC Symphony	Liverpool Philharmonic	London Philharmonic	English Chamber Orchestra English Chamber Orchestra The English Chamber Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and the ECO Ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall...	London Philharmonic

In popular culture

The Serenade to Music figures prominently in No Distance Left to Run

No Distance Left to Run (film)

No Distance Left to Run is a documentary film about the British rock band Blur, released in cinemas on 19 January 2010. Following the band during their 2009 reunion and tour, the film also includes unseen archive footage and interviews...

, a 2010 documentary film about the British rock band Blur

Blur (band)

Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...

. The film also features Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending

The Lark Ascending

The Lark Ascending is a work by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, inspired by George Meredith's 122-line poem of the same name about the skylark. The work was written in two versions: violin and piano, written in 1914; and violin and orchestra, written in 1920. The orchestral version...

.