Mats Norrman <[log in to unmask]> writes that in Vaughan Willams there
is no ...

>preeching of moral problems such in Beethoven or Bax symphonies

Beethoven I can understand.  But Bax?? I can't think of another composer
offhand less concerned with either preaching or morality.  Can you give
an example of what and where you mean? He's concerned with music, myth,
and himself.

Yes, there's something like a funeral march in Bax's first symphony, as in
Beethoven's third, not to mention Elgar's and VW's second, but this exposes
much less of a moral debate than any of the others cited.  In fact, it's a
musical lament expressing a deep personal sadness existing solely for its
own sake.  It makes absolutely no "statement" beyond that, unless you're
going to sentimentalise it beyond the pale.

I don't follow (i.e.  don't understand, because it doesn't make any sense
to me) your curious derivation of RVW's aesthetic from German models, apart
from agreeing with you that he loved J.  S.  Bach and admired Beethoven.
Over and above any motivic coincidences.  the most profound revelations
to him were his discovery of English folksong and Elizabethan polyphony.
It was through these that he wrenched himself free of the influences you
outline, though structurally the 4th seems to be making some sort of a
comment on Beethoven's 5th.  I wouldn't press it further than that.

Actually, the BACH motif of that Symphony is much closer in feeling to DSCH
than anything German, and I'm not the first to have fooled unsuspecting
listeners into thinking that they were listening to Shostakovich rather
than RVW in this work!

Last, I didn't offer any "interpretation" of the 9th Symphony.  Perish the
thought!  I expressed my feeling about its dark, Cimmerian gloom, that's
all.  However, it does have its roots in programme music, and certainly
chimes in with Hardy's pessimism, which was clearly exercising RVW much
during the writing.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"