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The Radio 3 Boards > General Chat > News And Current Affairs > Obituary Pages > Ursula Vaughan Williams
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Author Topic: Ursula Vaughan Williams  (Read 401 times)
iwarburton
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« on: 16:26:39, 25-10-2007 »
This lady, the widow of Ralph Vaughan Williams, has died at the age of 96.  I thought you might wish to see her obituary in the Telegraph.

The couple married in February 1953, when Ralph was 80 and Ursula was 41.  Both had been married before.  The age difference meant that they had been married for only five and a half years when RVW died in August 1958.

In 2002 UVW described widowhood as the dreariest club in the world.  It seems poignant that she still felt it so keenly after 44 years.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/25/db2501.xml

Ian.
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #1 on: 16:40:05, 25-10-2007 »
Ian,

Thanks for posting that: a great benefactress and muse. I'm sure that RVW's Indian Summer is in no small part due to her.
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martle
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« Reply #2 on: 17:40:39, 25-10-2007 »
I met her on a number of occasions in recent years, and her energy and charm were astonishing. Very sad. RIP
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A
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« Reply #3 on: 10:42:53, 26-10-2007 »
I too met her several times over the last few years, she was charming.

A sad loss.

A
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Ena
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« Reply #4 on: 20:08:01, 26-10-2007 »
Tears came to my eyes! She were lovely! And to think she were only 2 years younger than me. The last time I saw her, she gave me a hug and a kiss. When I asked her why she let that silly prat Ken Russell prance around with her for 't film he made of her lovely husband, she seemed lost for words. I thought she danced beautifully, but the PRAT was a nobody!
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marbleflugel
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« Reply #5 on: 15:39:59, 31-10-2007 »
Ena, I feel thats a bit disingenuous-at least he wasnt 'rollingover and over in a ploughed field' around her
(as someone said of VW's alleged autopilot bits).Am I right in recalling Urs was involved in the Royal Phil Soc until very recently-or various other vital arteries. At the risk of waxing sentimental.I feel she's at the core of VW's most searching music, eg the Romanza from Symphony 5 as well as the more astringent stuff like 4, 6 etc finding its metier.
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Arnold Brown
pim_derks
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« Reply #6 on: 09:35:36, 06-11-2007 »
Here's a fragment from last Friday's edition of Last Word (Radio 4):

http://www.esnips.com/doc/7930f757-23d0-48e9-b311-9d930f8c22a1/Last-Word---Ursula-Vaughan-Williams

Ursula Vaughan Williams
Poet and Librettist who has died aged 96.

Ursula Vaughan Williams was a poet and librettist and the second wife of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. They married in 1953, when she was 41 and he was 80. But their friendship had started some fifteen years earlier when they were both married to other people. After his death, Ursula wrote the definitive biography of her husband and acted as guardian of his musical legacy.

She was born in Malta, the daughter of a British Army officer and studied at the Old Vic drama school. In 1933 she married Captain Michael Forrester Wood. During the thirties and forties, Ursula wrote poetry, made poetry programmes for the BBC and was a reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement. But it was after seeing a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ ballet, “Job”, that she resolved to meet the composer.

Matthew Bannister talks to Stephen Connock, chairman of the Ralph Vaughan Williams society.

Ursula Vaughan Williams was born March 15th 1911 and died October 23rd 2007.
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #7 on: 21:56:57, 27-08-2008 »
I was sure there was a thread on O Thou Transcendent, but I can't for the life of me find it.

So this seems the best place to say I had seen OTT on the big screen at the British Film Instiute on the South Bank. I was deeply moved and must read Michael Thing's biography and get to know the Sea Synphony, in IGI's perferred version.

I can't remember when I was last at the flicks and (some) of the audience applauded at the end.  Followed by the crashingly insensitive choice by the BFI of Eric Flaming Coates' Knightsbridge March as canned music as we left.

Sex, religion and a bit of politics.  All human life was here.

Also the contrast between RVW as life affirming ecstatic (in the left hand corner Rowan Williams) and bleak nihilist (in the left hand corner Stephen Johnson and M A Turnage).

Johnson was extremely cogent - I liked his description of the finale to the 6th as unresolved Amens.

I think we can only realise the wonder of life if we have stared into the abyss.

Ursula had the last word, looking much older than in previous clips, and identified in the subtitle by the one word Ursula, she said he was a lovely man, and I love him. That's how it ended, in the present tense.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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