Job: A Masque for Dancing

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Job: A Masque for Dancing is a ballet written by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The ballet is based on William Blake's work Illustrations of the Book of Job and was conceived by the scholar Geoffrey Keynes and the artist Gwen Raverat, who was Keynes' sister-in-law and also a cousin of Vaughan Williams. They approached Vaughan Williams with a request to write the score, with the aim of having the ballet produced by Sergei Diaghilev, but Diaghilev rejected the proposal. Vaughan Williams wrote the music between 1927 and 1929. He was so taken with the commission that he created a score that required a larger-scale orchestra than any conventional theatre pit would be able to handle. The score received its world premiere in October 1930, conducted by Vaughan Williams himself, at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, in a concert performance with full orchestra.

For the first stage production, Constant Lambert created a reduced orchestration suitable for a theatre orchestra, in collaboration with Vaughan Williams. This is how the work was first staged on 5 July 1931, by the Camargo Society at the Cambridge Theatre, London. Ninette de Valois was the choreographer, Anton Dolin danced the role of Satan, and Stanley Judson danced the role of Elihu. That same summer the American dancer Ted Shawn created an outdoor production for the Lewisohn Stadium concerts in New York City, which was scheduled for three performances in July 1931. In 1948 the staging moved from Sadler's Wells to Covent Garden, whereupon the full orchestra could be used. The original Raverat set designs no longer suited the much larger stage and new set designs were commissioned from John Piper.

Vaughan Williams dedicated the score to the conductor Adrian Boult, in 1934, after the composer had learned that the Bach Choir, which Boult had directed, raised funds towards the engraving of the full score of Job for publication as a parting gift to Boult.^[1] Boult made four commercial recordings of the work, including the first recording from 1946 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra,^[2] with his fourth and final commercial recording released in 1971.^[3]

O.A. Weltzien has written a detailed analysis of Blake's illustrations and Vaughan Williams' score.^[4] F.W.D. Ries publilshed an article which contained reminescences by Keynes of the original production and the later 1948 production.^[5]

[edit] Sections

The ballet falls into 9 scenes, each headed with a quotation from the Bible. Vaughan Williams headed his score with 18 section headings.

• Scene I: "Saraband of the Sons of God" ("Hast thou considered my servant Job?")

- Introduction
- Pastoral Dance
- Satan's Appeal to God
- Saraband of the Sons of God

• Scene II: "Satan's Dance of Triumph" ("So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.")

- Satan's Dance

• Scene III: "Minuet of the Sons of Job and Their Wives" ("There came a great wind and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and they are dead.")

- Minuet of the Sons and Daughters of Job

• Scene IV: "Job's Dream" ("In thoughts from the visions of the night....fear came upon me and trembling.")

- Job's Dream
- Dance of Plague, Pestilence, Famine and Battle

• Scene V: "Dance of the Three Messengers" ("There came a messenger.")

- Dance of the Messengers

• Scene VI: "Dance of Job's Comforters" ("Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth.")

- Dance of Job's Comforters
- Job's Curse
- A Vision of Satan

• Scene VII: "Elihu's Dance of Youth and Beauty" ("Ye are old and I am very young.")

- Elihu's Dance of Youth and Beauty
- Pavane of the Heavenly Host

• Scene VIII: "Pavane of the Sons of the Morning" ("All the Sons of God shouted for joy.")

- Galliard of the Sons of the Morning
- Altar Dance and Heavenly Pavane

• Scene IX: "Epilogue" ("So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.")

[edit] References