ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the treatment of themes in the symphony in light of the aural folk-song tradition as Vaughan Williams conceived of it. It examines the thematic material of the first movement, turns to Vaughan Williams's writings on folk-song for explication, and concludes by examining themes in the second movement. The chapter considers two interrelated issues: the problem of a folk-music aesthetic transferred to the symphonic tradition, and the effect of an ideology underlying much of Vaughan Williams's thought – that music must be expressly 'national'. In the case of the first and second movements of Vaughan Williams's Fifth Symphony, however, no firm statement of theme emerges in subsequent sketches or indeed in the score itself. The folk-song idea in the Fifth Symphony is not expressed by a folk-song theme but rather by the treatment accorded thematic material. The principal thematic material of the second movement stems from a chain of fourths.
