Claire Partridge reflects on her choice for Clip of the Week, Silent Noon, by Ralph Vaughan Williams:

I was recently introduced to this piece by a friend with whom I often swap pieces of beautiful music.  I was surprised not to have heard it before, because I am a huge RVW fan, and I wasn’t disappointed by this piece.  It envelops you in the sort of sense of wellbeing that can usually only be found whilst lying in a patch of sunlight – which is, of course, exactly what the song is about.

The lyrics are a poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, brother of one of my favourite poets, Christina (she of “In the Bleak Midwinter” and “Remember”), and you can certainly hear the family influence.  I must confess that I am a great lover of words, and the imagery that Rossetti conjures up is simply delicious – from “… golden kingcup-fields with silver edge / Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge” (can’t you just picture the glowing flowers brushing up against the frothy cow-parsley?!) to the perfect simplicity of “Your eyes smile peace”.

The piano mirrors the images of clouds scudding across the sky, of birds wheeling through the air, and of time slowly and luxuriantly passing, whilst the repeating phrase of three rising notes creates a sense of contentment that carries you through the piece.

With love comes every lover’s longing to pause time and hold onto the precious moments spent with a loved one.  Rossetti’s words and Vaughan Williams’ music together capture the mixture of blissful joy of the moment, and fear of the inevitable end of all things.

Image © Sarah Egginton Photography