'They do such Musick make': "The Pilgrim's Progress" and Textually Inspired Music

• Published in: Bunyan studies Vol. 5; no. 5; p. 58
• Main Author: Ralph, Arleane
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Bunyan Studies 01.10.1994; Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); Bunyan, John (1628-88); English literature
• ISSN: 0954-0970

Throughout their journey, they participate, either as chosen auditors or inspired performers, in music-making which serves to celebrate their community with each other and to propel them forward in their progress toward God. [...]Christiana and her company sing a number of wayfaring songs which mark the stages or events of their pilgrimage. The use of such phrases as 'they went on their way, and Sung' (p.172), 'from hence they went on Singing ' (p.24 1 ), or 'they brake out and Sang' (p.254), suggests both their togetherness and their advancement on a journey. [...]the unity and harmony of the individual voices becomes the unity and harmony of an open congregation in concert with each other despite the human variety they represent and the human frailties they possess. According to Vaughan Williams, the opera was intended 'to be universal and to apply to anybody who aims at the spiritual life whether he is a Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Shintoist, or Fifth Day Adventist'.5 Yet, despite its intended universality, The Pilgrim 's Progress, which lacked a heroine or the sort of romantic involvements of which great duets are made, ran for seven nights only in 1951 and just three more performances in 1952. [...]in 1951, after a twenty-five year pilgrimage of its own, die operatic morality was given its premiere, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, who had long pursued and once abandoned this opus, made his enigmatic, yet emphatic remark about his relationship with the text.