Symphony No. 6 (Vaughan Williams)

Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony in E minor, known as Symphony No. 6, was first started during World War II and completed in 1948; it was first performed by Sir Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony in April of that year. Very nervous about this symphony, Vaughan Williams threatened to tear the draft to pieces several times.

The piece is clearly a war symphony, with the first three movements very belligerent and violent, marked by innovative orchestration for the saxophone and percussion. The fourth movement, however, abandons overt violence for uneasy contemplation; every entrance of every instrument throughout the entire twelve-minute movement is marked "pp sempre" (always very quiet). This last movement is what the symphony is largely famous for; it gives the listener a sense of mystery and forces one to think about the first three movements of violence. The composer suggested that the Epilogue was inspired by a quotation from Act IV of Shakespeare's The Tempest: "We are such stuff / As dreams are made on; and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep."

The symphony is in four movements:

1. Allegro
2. Moderato
3. Scherzo: Allegro vivace
4. Epilogue: Moderato

A common performance takes about 35 minutes.