Talk:The Lark Ascending

Chinese influence?
The work sounds very Chinese in melody. Does it have any Chinese influence? Badagnani (talk) 07:51, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Not as far as I know. It uses the pentatonic scale (e.g. the black notes on the keyboard), which is common to many folk tunes all over the world, including much Chinese music. RVW drew extensively from English folk melodies and harmonies in his works. PhilUK (talk) 12:07, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I remember reading somewhere that RVW was also influenced by Chinese melodies and that this one was reminiscent of one that he was likely to have heard. I wish I could remember the source I found it at. 130.56.65.24 (talk) 02:10, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

The writing about the chinese influence in this piece was originally documented in the very same page here back in mid 2006: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Lark_Ascending&diff=prev&oldid=59114060 Apparently, someone disapproved of the statement and subsequently removed the section in March 2007: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Lark_Ascending&diff=116654518&oldid=105927963 --Schmidl (talk) 13:50, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

RVW's 'arrest'
Is there any evidence to support the statement about RVW's arrest as a suspected spy? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.30.196.143 (talk)
 * Oh, bleh. Let's see - it was added to the article in 2009, so we're going to have to find a source which pre-dates that. DS (talk) 15:09, 11 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Found a mention of it in a 2007 review (at the Independent) of Tony Palmer's 2007 "O Thou Transcendent" (a documentary about Vaughan Williams), so I'd say that's good enough. DS (talk) 15:47, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

Serene
Just added a source for the Times review:

It showed serene disregard of the fashions of today or yesterday.

For five years the article said:

supreme disregard for the ways of today or yesterday.

Funnily enough; quite a few websites also use the incorrect supreme, which gives a slightly different impression of the reviewers' opinion. -- Hillbillyholiday talk 21:26, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia is wonderful
Congratulations to everyone who has worked on this - I picked up a comment on Radio Tree just now about when LA was written and was confused. This page really helped. Fantastic!!!! 08:35, 17 September 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by YellowFratello (talk • contribs)

Suggested split of article
A tag (not by me) on the article page suggests a split between the Meredith poem and the Vaughan Williams music into two articles. Some time ago I rearranged this article to take proper notice of the poem and to give that its due precedence in the creative sequence. I think splitting them would be perfectly reasonable so long as the article on the music were to make due reference and linkage to the poem right from the start, since the two are obviously bound up together and the music was not created in a vacuum. The importance of that, I suppose, is that Meredith's poem is not merely a pastoral evocation of the lark's song, but something more complex about the human spirit, and that would need to come across adequately in a stand-alone article about the musical composition. At present that point is clearly made by the combination of the two. In other words, the poem well deserves to have its own article, but the Vaughan Williams article would still need to contain quite a bit about the poem anyway, as it is pretty thin on musical analysis. Eebahgum (talk) 09:53, 5 November 2017 (UTC)]
 * A split of the article seems a good idea to me, especially as the piece by Vaughan Williams has been Number One on the Classic FM Hall of Fame. Vorbee (talk) 09:42, 22 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Support as well. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 21:08, 22 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I originally added the tag; I think both the poem and composition deserve their own articles. Each should discuss and link to the other. Ekartha 23:05, 22 January 2018 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ekartha (talk • contribs)
 * I might start The Lark Ascending (Vaughan Williams) in my sandbox. - Osian 07 (11/06/18) Osian 07 (talk) 12:26, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Support - of course, both will need disambiguation and clear links to one another. Having separate articles would provide good opportunities to extend the literary and musicological analyses and contextualisations. Whiteghost.ink (talk) 00:09, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
 * If the article is split before August 26, please update the link at Today's featured article/August 26, 2018. - Dank (push to talk) 01:43, 27 July 2018 (UTC)


 * I've only just seen this thread. I concur with colleagues, above, that splitting the article would be a v. good move. I'll put the VW work on my to-do list. I leave it to someone more attuned to Meredith than I am to overhaul the article on the poem.
 * I've made a start, here. Tons to do on the music analysis yet. Contributions cordially invited.  Tim riley  talk   17:29, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Done all I can, I think, on the musical article: additions and emendations hereby canvassed. Does anyone fancy taking on the Meredith work? The present article has an awful lot of uncited speculative stuff. I'll give it a shot if no other volunteer comes forward, but late Victorian poetry is not my strongest suit.  Tim riley  talk   15:40, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

It appears that the splitting of the article has been accomplished. Thus, the "splitting" tag should be removed, don't you think? Any objections? Thanks.--Jburlinson (talk) 08:34, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Done. I'm sure it's right that the two should be separate (see above), but I feel quite strongly that something useful has been lost by separating them. Still, the new Vaughan Williams Lark Ascending page is a great improvement, well done Tim! Eebahgum (talk) 18:13, 17 March 2020 (UTC)