Symphony No. 8 (Vaughan Williams)

[2] Progress was slowed by his busy schedule, including a long spell lecturing and conducting in the US in the second half of 1954,[3] but by January 1955 the symphony was substantially complete.

[4] While it was in the final stages of composition the composer and his wife went to a performance of Turandot at Covent Garden, at which Vaughan Williams became fascinated by the tuned gongs extensively used in Puccini's score, and he added them to the already large percussion section required for the symphony.

[5] The work was not written to commission, but Sir John Barbirolli, conductor-in-chief of the Hallé Orchestra, asked Vaughan Williams for a new piece, and the composer offered him the symphony.

The critic and musicologist Michael Kennedy writes that the movement is "among the most highly and skilfully organised" that Vaughan Williams wrote, "with rich and diverse thematic material".

[16] There are three principal motifs, all closely related: two rising fourths for trumpet, answered by vibraphone; a phrase for flute in jig time; and a descending figure for strings.

Kennedy writes that the variations illustrate various facets of the composer's style: "The second, presto, plays around with all three motifs; the third is a chorale-like tune in A minor for strings and harp with a subsidiary theme for oboe and cello".

This movement, in a five-part rondo form, has a meditative character; Kennedy calls it a "beautiful old-age reverie of farewell to Tallis and larks ascending".

[15] The main theme bears a resemblance to the traditional chorale that Vaughan Williams, as editor, included in the English Hymnal as "O sacred head sore wounded".

[20] The tune is used in Bach's St Matthew Passion, a work close to Vaughan Williams's heart, and he said that its appearance in the symphony was "a mix-up in my mind".

[23] The Manchester Guardian reported after the premiere, "It is not often that the entire audience in an English concert hall gets on its feet to cheer, particularly after a new work",[24] and the Eighth has remained one of the composer's most popular symphonies.

[25] In 2008, the music critic of The Times wrote, "With its witty variations in search of a theme, its sparky scherzo and its toybox of a toccata, the symphony sounds like the work of a young man at the height of his powers".