The Wasps: Overture

The Cambridge Greek Play produced Aristophane’s The Wasps as Trinity College, Cambridge in 1909, and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was asked to compose incidental music to accompany the production. Scored for tenor and baritone solos, male chorus, and orchestra, the lengthy work averages around an hour and forty-five minutes for a complete performance and so is not programmed often. Vaughan Williams later extracted the overture and four additional movements to create suite. But the most popular stand-alone concert work from the original incidental music is the Overture. Instrumentation: 2(2nd dPicc).2.2.2: 4.2.0.0: Timp.Perc(2-3): Hp: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set).