An Analysis of the Motivic Devices and Musical Language

in Ralph Vaughan Williams's Riders to the Sea

Lauren SpavelkoMUS 607: Bibliography & Research

April 20, 2015

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An Analysis of the Motivic Devices and Musical Language

in Ralph Vaughan Williams's Riders to the Sea

Ralph Vaughan Williams's Riders to the Sea is based on the famous drama of the same

name by Irish playwright John Millington Synge. Set in the Aran Islands, the play creates a

compelling portrait of Ireland and explores themes such as maternal love and grief and the

futility of fighting against nature. Synge spent five successive summers in the Aran Islands,1

which left a deep impression on him. His play was influenced by real-life experiences. Synge

wrote of the islands, “[T]he maternal feeling is so powerful on these islands that it gives a life of

torment to the women. Their sons grow up to be banished as soon as they are of age, or to live

here in continual danger on the sea.”2 Indeed, our protagonist, Maurya, has already lost four

sons, a husband, and a father-in-law to the sea. She has been looking for the body of her fifth

son, Michael, for nine days, and later learns that his body was found in the north. Before the

play's close, she loses her last son, Bartley. Elizabeth Coxhead remarks that Maurya acts as a

“universal symbol of maternal grief” and likens the work to a Greek tragedy.3 This paper will

explore the work's thematic material and musical language and demonstrate how Vaughan

Williams uses them to support the dramatic action.

Vaughan Williams uses many motives to symbolize various characters, ideas, and

entities. Many of the motives in Riders have been primarily identified by Anne-Marie

Forbes, who discusses twenty-one motives and organizes them into families which relate

to Maurya, Bartley, the sea, and death based on their musical and textual relationships and

associations.4 Walter Aaron Clark recognizes her work in his article too:

1 Elizabeth Coxhead, J.M. Synge and Lady Gregory (Great Britain: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1962), 10.2 Coxhead, J.M. Synge, 15.3 Coxhead, J.M. Synge, 15-16.4 See Anne-Marie Forbes, “Motivic Unity in Ralph Vaughan Williams's Riders to the Sea,” Music Review 44, no.

3-4 (1983).

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Anne-Marie H. Forbes has brought the work's motivic coherence into sharper focus. She labels motives and makes connections between them, which, after thefashion of Wagnerian leitmotif, exhibit consistent associations with certain characters and events.5

Though Clark focuses on other musical features of Riders, where applicable he seems to

agree with Forbes's motives, save for one three-note idea which he terms the idée fixe (to

be discussed in more detail later). Of Forbes's identified motives, I will focus on those

introduced in the orchestral prelude, from which many others are derived, and several

which are prominent in the final scene, and examine how they function musically and

dramatically to create a compelling work.6

In the prelude, Vaughan Williams introduces four main motives. The first is Motive

A, which is synonymous with the sea (Example 1). Strangely, this is one of only two

motives in which Forbes includes the harmony as part of her segmentation, but then does

not discuss its harmony at all.7 Melodically, it is comprised of four notes built on

descending major seconds and two distinctive dotted rhythms. Motive A is possibly the

most pervasive motive in the opera. It is often repeated many times in succession, and it is

5 Walter Aaron Clark, “Vaughan Williams and the 'night side of nature': Octatonicism in Riders to the Sea,” in Vaughan Williams Essays, ed. Byron Adams and Robin Wells (Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate Publishing Co., 2003), 60.

6 See Appendix 1. For clarity and convenience, all motives referenced in this paper can also be found there.7 See Anne-Marie Forbes, “Motivic Unity in Ralph Vaughan Williams's Riders to the Sea.”

Example 1 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Riders to the Sea, measures 1-8

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simple to use, hear, and identify. Vaughan Williams frequently layers this motive and its

variations with other themes. Dramatically, it represents the sea as an ever-present force.

Upon examining the opening, it is appropriate to discuss Vaughan Williams's

treatment of tonality. Riders to the Sea is definitely tonal, yet fluid, moving freely from

one tonal center to another. He largely uses aeolian modes, though Walter Aaron Clark

makes a persuasive case of how he employs octatonic collections as well.8 Curiously, a

traditional dominant-tonic relationship is completely absent in establishing these tonal

centers. Rather, he frequently uses pedal tones which have their own gravitational pull on

the surrounding music. A number of his motives are designed so that they too surround or

emphasize a particular pitch.

This is apparent from the first eight measures (Example 1). Clark argues that D is

the first “tonal destination.” But it does not begin as a tonal center. Clark describes the

opening dissonance: “A quartal-quintal stack on A flat in the bass constitutes a diad whose

root is D flat. It is juxtaposed against a C minor triad in first inversion in the right hand,

with an accented appoggiatura D.”9 Thus, from the start, Motive A's opening pitch D acts

as an appoggiatura (which resolves to C only briefly). In m. 5, it exerts more influence as a

pedal tone in the uppermost voice, while Motive A and the accompanying bass move

down by a whole step. It finally pulls the music to it in m. 8, where it settles in the bass as

part of a pentatonic harmony, creating a momentary sense of rest and arrival.

Motive A's rhythmic and intervallic design is such that it supports the

aforementioned techniques to establish tonality—a brief departure and quick return to a

central pitch, which is given the longest duration overall. This also creates a “rocking”

8 See Walter Aaron Clark, “Vaughan Williams and the 'night side of nature': Octatonicism in Riders to the Sea.”9 Clark, “Octatonicism in Riders to the Sea,” 61.

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sensation—again indicative of the sea. Beginning in m. 4, Vaughan Williams planes a

variation of Motive A. Planing is another characteristic feature of this opera. Often, it

consists of stacked perfect fourths and fifths in the bass and triads in various inversions in

the upper voices. Planing is typically used on lines composed of seconds and thirds. In

calmer moments, the pitches belong to the same consonant harmony; at other times, as

here, Vaughan Williams uses planing in dissonance for dramatic effect.

Ralph Vaughan Williams's overall musical language creates a poignant, masterful

setting for the work. Examining the opening allows us insight into how he creates

meaningful moments by the powerful combination of these musical and dramatic

elements. This is simply one example. The power and nature of the sea is reinforced by the

opening dissonance, the inherent rocking of the motive's design, the swell and decay (as

indicated by the dynamics), the planing of Motive A as the sea gains force, and finally the

tonal arrival in m.8. Just as D pulls the surrounding music to it, the sea pulls every person

to it as well. It claims so many lives.

After these first eight bars, Vaughan Williams introduces another key idea—Motive

B (Example 2). It is comprised of four ascending, pentatonic notes. It presents another

distinctive rhythmic idea—quarter-note triplets. Forbes claims this motive is associated

Example 2 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Riders to the SeaMotives A, B, and C from the Orchestral Prelude

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with drowning and keening.10 Its rising contour certainly lends itself to this idea. It is the

keening women's wail in the final scene.

At key points in the final scene, Motive B is transformed by the octatonic

collections referenced by Clark (Example 3). For instance, Maurya gives reassurances to

the deceased Bartley in this recitative-like section. Motive B reappears in her vocal line,

affected by an octatonic collection.11 The final ascending major second is altered to minor,

culminating on B .♭ Vaughan Williams uses octatonicism here because the surprise of the

minor second in this motive adds another musical reflection of Maurya's pain.

In the prelude, Motive B elides with Motive C's first appearance (Example 2). This

motive includes five notes, but is often abridged to four. The final descending minor

second, when included, is typically used to move in sequence or modulate. Forbes

identifies its dramatic connections generally with drowning and, specifically, to Bartley's

10 Anne-Marie Forbes, “Motivic Unity in Ralph Vaughan Williams's Riders to the Sea,” Music Review 44, no. 3-4 (1983): 241.

11 Forbes, “Motivic Unity,” 64.

Example 3 Riders to the Sea, measures 463-470 Octatonic influence on recitative

The E octatonic scale. The E is in parentheses ♭because it is not included in this passage. Although not strictly octatonic, the influence of the collection isclear if we consider the D and F as embellishing ♮ ♮lower neighbor tones.

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drowning.12 Like Motive B, it shares the recognizable quarter-note triplet rhythm.

The final idea in this prelude begins in m. 22. Motive D is never seen again in its

entirety, though there are derivatives (Example 4). Its character is deliberate. This haunting

melody sounds alone, unaccompanied, from m. 23 through m. 29. It begins with four

repetitions of a single pitch, then a descending pattern which is a retrograde of Motive B,

followed by one of the most elongated rhythmic ideas seen thus far—half-note triplets.

The “tag”of this motive utilizes the first three pitches of Motive B, which is completed in

m. 28 with a variation on the first portion of this motive. Like Motive A, its design

supports Vaughan Williams's methods for tonality. The initial repetition emphasizes that

pitch and prepares the stepwise descent. The ensuing skip and return to the same pitch

creates an opportunity for a tonal center or point of arrival. Like B and C, Motive D

includes triplet rhythms. Its unique feature is the augmentation into the half-note triplet

rhythm, which is used sparingly in the opera to emphasize a piece of text or musical idea.

Just beyond the prelude, Vaughan Williams introduces one more idea which is

found initially at the ends of phrases in the opening dialogue (Example 5). It is a three-

note figure composed of a descending minor second and minor third. Forbes only

discusses this figure as part of a larger motive and interprets it as a retrograde of a portion

of Motive B with a change of mode (to account for the minor second).13 Curiously, Forbes

12 Forbes, “Motivic Unity,” 241.13 Forbes, “Motivic Unity,” 242.

Example 4 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Riders to the Sea, measures 22-30 Motive D

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never acknowledges it as a distinct motive, although it is used dramatically in its own right

to contribute to a mood of foreboding or unease and becomes a feature in other motives in

the final scene. Clark terms this as an idée fixe which “can be linked in a descended

sequence to modulate to any tonal center” and is based (at least initially) on the E

octatonic collection.14 While I agree with the function Clark suggests, the label seems ill-

matched. An idée fixe is an obsessive thought which typically motivates a character and

his or her actions. This figure does not seem strongly attached to any one character. In fact,

it seems to be yet another idea which evokes the sea and drowning. Since neither “motive”

nor “idée fixe” seem to fit, I will refer to it as Figure A.

In the final scene, we can examine how these motives and several other key themes

return and function musically and dramatically. At this point in the drama, Maurya

despairs over her vision—an ill omen of Bartley's death—and recounts how each of the

men were killed by the sea. In the midst of this, Michael's death is confirmed, Bartley is

drowned and carried up from the beach, and Maurya tries to cope with all she has lost.

In order to better understand the impact of these motivic ideas in the vocal line, it is

necessary to discuss Vaughan Williams's treatment of prosody. Coxhead, in an essay on J.M.

Synge and Lady Gregory, discusses the appeal that the Irish language held for writers:

[P]eople whose first language was Irish Gaelic spoke an uncommonly musical and vivid English, partly based on mental translation from the Gaelic, but also filled with rich Elizabethan turns of phrase. Plainly, there was a wealth of poetic

14 Clark, “Octatonicism in Riders to the Sea,” 65.

Example 5 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Riders to the Sea, Soprano I & Alto I, measures 599-603

Each appearance of Figure A is bracketed in this excerpt.

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material here.15

Vaughan Williams is sensitive to the Irish dialect, and his setting is often recitative-like. The rise

and fall of the music follows the natural cadence of the language. Peculiarly, he crafts the vocal

lines primarily of steps or skips and occasionally of leaps of a fourth. Larger leaps are rare and

usually employed specifically for dramatic effect. Additionally, much of the vocal music is mid-

range. He reserves the highest notes (F5 and above) for climactic moments. Several analysts

liken the prosody in Riders to Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1902), “where words and music

are fused to a degree never approached even by Wagner.”16 Vaughan Williams himself discusses

the relationship of text and music:

The duty of words is to say just as much as the music has left unsaid, no more. Now, music, expressing as we have seen emotion only, will demand least of the words at the most emotional moments, and the words will stand out most clearly atthose explanatory passages where the music is almost non-existent. Therefore, the relative importance of words and music will vary exactly as the dramatic situation approximates to feeling or to mere explanation.17

This conception holds true in Riders. Where the dialogue is key for the audience to

understand the drama, the music is secondary or nearly absent. But where the emotion

takes precedence, the music swells, layers, and crashes upon itself magnificently.

Motive E commences the final scene (Example 6). Its standout feature is the minor

sixth leap followed immediately by Figure A. The stepwise motion and inclusion of the

quarter-note triplet rhythm tie it to Motives B and C. Dramatically, it is associated with

lamentation and despair. Given the nature of the prosody, the minor sixth leap is atypical,

thus the leap is all the more pronounced and evocative. The interval's inclusion makes

sense considering the motive's dramatic function. After its presentation in the vocal line,

15 Coxhead, J.M. Synge, 7.16 Michael Kennedy, The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), 48.17 Ralph Vaughan Williams, “The Words of Wagner's Music Dramas,” in Vaughan Williams on Music, ed. David

Manning (London: Oxford University Press, 2007), 142.

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the piano spins wildly on with Figure A at various levels of transposition—like a frenzied

wind whipping off the sea. It then adopts Motive E again, but deprives us of the motive's

final pitch. Between Rehearsals 35-37, the accompaniment repeats Motive E in part or in

full no fewer than seven times, reinforcing Maurya's profound sense of loss.

The women's chorus adds another dimension for musical and dramatic effect. The

chorus represents the sea and the keening women—both appropriate dramatic associations

at this point, as Maurya recounts the men's deaths. Between Rehearsal 38 and 41, Vaughan

Williams orchestrates an impressive series of layered motives. An excerpt of this is

included in Example 7, with each motive segmented and labeled. The motives become

Example 6 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Riders to the Sea, measures 416-421 Motives in the Final Scene

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more thickly layered, heightening the drama as they approach the section's climax, when

Maurya describes a particularly vivid image of how her son Patch was brought in. The

increased use of Motive C (associated with Bartley and drowning) under this text and

approaching the climax foreshadows the events about to occur. The tonality here is also

Example 7 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Riders to the Sea, measures 463-470

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worth note, as the function is nearly identical to the opening bars. Here, B acts first as an

appoggiatura, then a pedal tone, and finally becomes the tonal destination. Motive F

follows the climax and precedes the revelation of Michael's death and Bartley's drowning.

It has the same deliberate character as Motive D due to its repeated pitches and even,

steady rhythm. Dramatically, it is associated with Maurya's resignation.18

The density of voices, the many layered motives, the culmination of Maurya's

vocal line on F5, and the B♮ pulling the music to it as a tonal center combine to create an

immense musical tension and release. Vaughan Williams writes the music in this manner

because, in the very next breath, Maurya's memory repeats itself like a horrible déja vu.

Cathleen offers proof of Michael's death to Maurya. Nora, meanwhile, sees the men

carrying a dripping thing up from the beach—Bartley's body, which they lay on a table.

The reality of Bartley's death, after Maurya has just recounted how she lost each of her

other sons, strikes her in silence (indicated by lunga in the score). The dramatic impact of

this moment is all the more effective because of the music's intensity and subsequent

absence. The audience feels Maurya's heartbreak even more acutely.

Even through the opera's final moments, Vaughan Williams exercises his masterful

control of motivic ideas, tonality, planing, and prosody to amplify the drama. Maurya's

resignation motive (Motive F) recurs regularly through the remainder of the opera.

Originally, as in Example 7, Motive F encompasses a minor third. But Vaughan Williams

alters it to span a major third at Rehearsal 47 when the tonality shifts strikingly to E major

—a musical indication of the acceptance of her loss and the relief that she no longer has

anyone to worry over. It coincides with Maurya's line, “But it's a great rest I'll have now,

18 Forbes, “Motivic Unity,” 239.

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and it's time surely.” We can see precisely the same major tonality with Maurya's final

lines (Example 8).

She closes the opera with a humble statement which epitomizes her attitude at this

moment: “What more can we want than that? No man at all can be living forever, and we

must be satisfied.” Here again, Vaughan Williams emphasizes a motive through extensive

planing, supporting Maurya's resignation and acceptance. His handling of prosody is made

obvious again in this final statement too. Maurya's words take precedence above the music

here. Thus, her first words are delivered over a sustained harmony, with no more musical

activity to detract from them, and the very last words of all are delivered in absolute

silence. Vaughan Williams allows the text to speak for itself in this last dramatic moment.

Example 8 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Riders to the Sea, measures 604-612

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After some closing material from the piano accompaniment and the women's

chorus, Motive F is also the final piece of music we hear, rhythmically augmented as the

opera comes to a close (Example 9). Although it concludes on E major, the sparseness of

the solitary triad, the lack of a root in the bottom voice, and the dynamic markings of a

decrescendo to niente all contribute to a rather bittersweet, unsettling feeling. Clark

remarks beautifully of the end:

[T]hough the tonal conflict may have been resolved in favor of a conventional sonority, the larger conflict between man and nature is ongoing. This represents a final demonstration that, along with his tightly organized manipulation of leading motives, the extraordinary cohesion and emotional impact of this work are indebted to the composer's skillful handling of his harmonic materials to express, in every measure, the underlying currents of the drama.19

Ralph Vaughan Williams's setting of this tragedy exemplifies his sensitivity to the

drama. His brilliant use of motivic devices and his treatment of tonality, planing, and

prosody create the distinct character and sound of the opera and enhance many of its

dramatic moments. Truly, Vaughan Williams has crafted a moving, poignant opera.

19 Clark, “Octatonicism in Riders to the Sea,” 68.

Example 9 Ralph Vaughan Williams, Riders to the Sea, measures 636-639

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Appendix 1

List of musical motives referenced from Riders to the Sea

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Bibliography

Clark, Walter Aaron. “Vaughan Williams and the 'night side of nature': Octatonicism in Riders to the Sea.” In Vaughan Williams Essays, edited by Byron Adams and Robin Wells, 55-71. Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate Publishing Co., 2003.

Coxhead, Elizabeth. J.M. Synge and Lady Gregory. Great Britain: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1962.

Forbes, Anne-Marie. “Motivic Unity in Ralph Vaughan Williams's Riders to the Sea.” Music Review 44, no. 3-4 (1983): 234-245.

Kennedy, Michael. The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. London: Oxford University Press, 1964.

Vaughan Williams, Ralph. “The Words of Wagner's Music Dramas.” In Vaughan Williams on Music, edited by David Manning, 133-143. London: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Vaughan Williams, Ralph. Riders to the Sea. London: Oxford University Press, 1936.