The Lark Ascending
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The Lark Ascending is a popular musical piece featuring a prominent solo violin part, written by the famous British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1914. It is intended to convey the lyrical and almost eternally English beauty of the scene in which a skylark rises into the heavens above some sunny down and attains such height that it becomes barely visible to those on the ground below. The First World War halted composition, but the work was revised in 1920 and it was premièred under conductor Adrian Boult in 1921. It was dedicated to Marie Hall who gave the first performance with piano.
The musical work was inspired by George Meredith's 112 line poem of the same name about the skylark.
A traditional Chinese composition for the Chinese Erhu, the Chinese equivalent of a violin with two strings, shares very close similarities to Williams's "The Lark Ascending" that it suggests a direct connection. The Chinese song title translates loosely as "The Nightingale Sings at Midnight." Because Williams's piece is, at its core, unlike his other compositions, yet similar to the specific Chinese work, which itself fits in Chinese musical traditions and time signatures, suggests the Chinese work as the original source. This is, however, an undocumented tentative connection.
"The Lark Ascending" is the acknowledged direct inspiration for "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" by King Crimson (1973) an inspired brash rock-n-roll twist on Williams's lyricism. The piece was also used as the main theme for the 1987 Australian film The Year My Voice Broke, starring Noah Taylor and Loene Carmen.
In addition, the work was used as part of the last two tracks of David Crowder Band's A Collision, or ( 3 + 4 = 7). The piece is discussed by David Crowder as part of a fictitious interview, and Crowder even goes as far as to quote a portion of George Meredith's work.
