User:AidanLewis7/Ruth Gipps

English Nationalism
Gipps’ defining characteristic of her music was the ‘Englishness’ associated with it. Ralph Vaughn-Williams, Gipps’ composition teacher, pushed her towards nationalism within her music. Pastoral settings are where Gipps’ proved her nationalism. Flax and Charlock, for cor anglais and string trio is inspired by the two English herbaceous plants flax and charlock, or wild mustard. The use of the famous cuckoo sound and the trilling of birds is orchestrated to demonstrate the rural settings of England. An unconscious influence on her style of writing was her exposure to folk music when she was a child. Gipps brought together faith and nationalism in her work the Easter Carol to show her true patriotism. Gipps’ believed that the traditional English way of life needed to be preserved and upheld.