Vaughan-Williams composed this overture as part of a suite of incidental music for a 1909 Cambridge production of Aristophanes’ classical Greek comedy “The Wasps,” a satire of the Athenian legal system.
The overture opens with a loud humming noise, suggesting the incessant “buzzing” of wasps (symbolizing the Athenian jurymen costumed as wasps in the play). Vaughan-Williams then transitions to several typically English folk melodies, starting with the woodwinds and being taken up by the entire orchestra. He expands these melodies in style and meter. The middle section of the overture transitions to a French-impressionist style, no doubt influenced by Vaughan-Williams’ studies with Maurice Ravel in 1908. A main-theme recap (both the “buzzing” and initial folk-song melody) leads to a glorious combination of all themes played against each other at the same time. a hallmark of Vaughan-Williams’ orchestral style.
While originally part of his larger theatrical score, “The Wasps” overture stands effectively on its own in the concert hall, and remains one of Vaughan-Williams’s most frequently performed short orchestral works.
Overture to "The Wasps"
Composed in 1909
By Ralph Vaughan-Williams
