Translated literally as ‘Flower of the Field’, Flos Campi is one of Vaughan Williams’s most unique works. Although the six movements are all headed by Latin quotations (with English translations added later) from the Old Testament’s Song of Solomon, Vaughan Williams himself denied any religious basis for the music. On the contrary, the composer hinted that the reference to the sensual Song of Solomon is driven by its love theme, and the title Flos Campi should be understood in relation to the verse ‘I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the valleys (Ego Flos Campi, et Lilium Convallium)’, with which the woman describes herself to her beloved.
In Flos Campi, Vaughan Williams mobilises a rather unusual instrumentation that involves a solo viola, a small chorus and a small orchestra. Despite the use of voices and the allusion to the Song of Solomon, the composer did not set any text to the music. Instead, the chorus is being treated as part of the orchestra, creating an additional vocal texture that gives an exquisite colour to the mix of instrumental timbres. To achieve this, Vaughan Williams has instructed the chorus to sing with various sounds (e.g. ‘ur’) and techniques (e.g. ‘lips nearly closed’), which altogether show his remarkable sensitivity to tone colours.
The six movements of Flos Campi are all linked without a break. Apart from the subject matter, Vaughan Williams has reused some of the thematic materials across movements to retain an overall coherence. The work begins with a dialogue between the oboe and the solo viola. This is followed by a new theme introduced through the flute and the viola, which, together with the opening materials, are due to reappear in the later movements. While the chorus only serves to support the climax in the first movement, it is given a major role in the second movement, where it yields a polyphony that is gradually reintegrated into being part of the orchestra as the viola solo emerges. The third movement arrives over a recitative-like passage on the solo viola, which is then brought into a conversation with the treble and alto voices from the chorus. After the instrument-led, march-style fourth movement, the fifth movement continues with a slow dance that alternates between the viola and the orchestra. Towards the end of the movement, we see the return of the thematic materials from the beginning, which are then deployed again as the source of interruption as we revel in the soothing final movement.
The quotations inserted at the head of each movement include:
- Sicut Lilium inter spinas, sic amica mea inter filias…Fulcite me floribus, stipate me malis, quia amore langueo. (As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.…Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love.)
- Jam enim hiems transiit; imber abiit, et recessit; Flores apparuerunt in terrâ nostrâ, Tempus putationis advenit; Vox turturis audita est in terrâ nostrâ. (For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.)
- Quaesivi quem diligit anima mea; quaesivi illum, et non inveni…Adjuro vos, filiae Jerusalem, si inveneritis dilectum meum, ut nuntietis ei quia amore langueo.…Quo abiit dilectus tuus, O pulcherrima mulierium? Quo declinavit dilectus tuus? et quaeremus eum tecum. (I sought him whom my soul loveth, but I found him not.…I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love.…Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.)
- En lectulum Salomonis sexaginta fortes ambiunt,…omnes tenentes gladios, et ad bella doctissimi. (Behold his bed [palanquin], which is Solomon’s, three score valiant men are about it.…They all hold swords, being expert in war.)
- Revertere, revertere Sulamitis! Revertere, revertere ut intueamur te.…Quam pulchri sunt gressus tui in calceamentis, filia principis. (Return, return, O Shulamite, return, return that we may look upon thee.…How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O Prince’s daughter.)
- Pone me ut signaculum super cor tuum. (Set me as a seal upon thine heart.)
Concerts notes originally commissioned for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Saturday 12 February 2022 (event cancelled).
© Kelvin H. F. Lee