One of the simplest songs created by Ralph Ralph Vaughan Williams|composer} is Riders to the ocean. Riders to the ocean was first performed in the one-act play Nursing, with music composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams. He wrote his own script for the play supported by the poet John Millington's play. The opera was first performed in London at the Royal Faculty of Music on 1 December 1937. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first topic of this opera is “man versus nature,” which is a topic the composer often wrote about throughout his career. The composer is generally considered the most important musician of British music in the twentieth century. The poet John Millington was associated with the Irish UN agency nurse playwright who typically wrote plays concerning Irish peasant life and in the typical Irish idiom of his time, having lived from 1871 to 1909. Interestingly, this work was written in the 1930s, when the Western world (North America, Europe, Australia, etc.) was going through the Great Depression. During this decade there have been many natural disasters that have affected countries' livelihoods. many people and created serious economic difficulties (the geographical area, for example). Usually Riders has been performed at universities and music/opera festivals around the world due to the fact that it is just one act. once performed, Riders is performed with another one-act play, for example with Savitri by Gustav Holst and Pauvre matelot, autoimmune disease by Darius Milhaud. The music itself is evaluated with numerous examples of chromatic writing in each vocal line as well as the orchestra/piano. line, which creates disturbing and intense emotions throughout the work. In the finale of the work no key is indicated before the indication of the musical tempo, which suggests that the composer wanted to have the freedom to describe the pain, agony and misery experienced at the end of the work without having to consider a key fixed. within the prelude, the composer introduces four main motifs. the primary is Motif A, replaceable with the ocean (Example 1). Oddly enough, this is often one of the only reasons why Forbes includes harmony as part of its segmentation, on the other hand it doesn't discuss harmony at all. Melodically, it is composed of notes designed on the descending major seconds and 2 distinctive dotted rhythms. Motif A is presumably the most pervasive motif within the work. it is typically continuous and repeated in succession and is simple to use, listen to and establish. The composer often overlaps this motif and its variations with different themes. Dramatically, it represents the ocean as a present force associated with nursing. After examining the gap, it is applicable to the debate over singer Williams' treatment of tonality. Riders to the ocean is certainly tonal, but fluid, moving freely from one tonal center to another. It uses mostly Aeolian modes, although musical director Aaron Clark makes a compelling case that it still uses octatonic collections. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Curiously, a traditional Dominant-tonic relationship is totally absent in establishing these tonal centers. Rather, use overtime pedal tones that have their own gravitational pull on the surrounding music. the variety of its motifs is designed in such a way that.