TBTITWRN: "The Lark Ascending" by Vaughan Williams

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Written in 1914-1920, during World War I, by Vaughan Williams. Features Williams's interest in Impressionism. The part for the solo violin was written without regular measures or meter; and in a pentatonic scale which doesn't sound like it has any particular tonal center. The violin feels like it could go anywhere at any point, without resolving to some traditional place.

The critic from The Times said of the first performance, "It showed supreme disregard for the ways of today or yesterday. It dreamed itself along".

Vaughan Williams wrote sketches for it while watching troop ships cross the English Channel at the outbreak of the First World War. A small boy observed him making the sketches and, thinking he was jotting down a secret code, informed a police officer who subsequently arrested the composer.

The performance above is the English Symphony Orchestra at Gloucester Cathedral, with young musicians from around Gloucestershire. Pretty awesome natural acoustics.