h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am constantly dismayed by the amount of misinformation I read on web pages.

On one of yours there is a short comment, by someone referred to as a 'researcher', about the Last Night of the Proms that mentions the 'Fantasia on British Sea Shanties' by Vaughan Williams.

Vaughan Williams did, indeed compose a Fantasia but this was on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. He also wrote a Sea Symphony, with words by Walt Whitman. But the music your correspondent refers to is actually a 'Fantasia on British Sea Songs' (not shanties), arranged by non other than the father of the Proms, Sir Henry Wood himself.

Perhaps you could correct this statement before it gets embedded into other readers' minds.

Traveller in Time flying by
"< A398937 > is the entry you talk aboout? "

Nuhhuh

This one: A594281

No, the one you reference is a well written, informative and accurate account. I can't just now find the page I wrote about but I'll get back to you if and when I do.

No, I believe it's this one A594281
"The night continued with the joyful and tears-of-laughter-inducing Vaughan Williams' 'Fantasia on Sea-Shanties', which is just pure, bouncy fun to hear."

Vaughan Williams wrote a pice called 'Five Sea Songs' which isn't called 'Fantasia', although it is based on sea shanties. I think we need to find out if name of the composer is correct but the name of the piece is wrong... or vice versa.

Traveller in Time on top
"I think 'Cat' is right. nearly at the end of the entry there is a 'shanty' instead of 'symphony'.

How should the paragraph look like when it is rebuild? if this is not the author, then all of it is wrong. "

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/09_september/03/last_night.shtml

Any search using 'last' 'night' 'proms' will provide the simple correct answer. Try the link above, one of the BBC's own pages. Nice to know somebody else cares! Thanks for your input.

'songs' rather then 'symphony'

This reply is really for Gosho. I suddenly had the dreadful thought I might have been mistaken and that they played the Vaughan Williams sea shanties at one of the proms I missed. But on the site you correctly located, the guy is talking specifically about the 2000 Last Night. The link below shows every single piece played during the 2000 season, including the last night (Saturday, 9th September). There you will see what it was the 'researcher' actually heard - Sir Henry Wood's 'Fantasia on British Sea Songs'. Good night, or good morning; time I was in bed.
http://www.albemarle-london.com/proms2000.html

As far as I can make out, the link in post 7 is for the 2002 season but the entry in question deals with 2000, and the link in post 9 is for the Last Night of The Proms (Albert Hall), not Proms in The Park.

Neither of which tell us what was performed at the show covered in the entry. I've tried several Google searches and haven't yet found a programme for the 2000 Proms in The Park... but then I'm a volunteer here and I've got a life to live, new apartment to get hooked up to phone service, find an ISP, get the electricity sorted out, as well as peparing for a test on Thursday. Perhaps the Editors will have ready access to the relevant information, what them being BBC employees and all

I'm beginning to be really sorry I started this, except that I hate to see false information displayed in a public place.

Please read the extract in quotes below, copied directly from the original piece, which was about the 2000 Proms. You'll see that it's talking about the Prom from the Royal Albert Hall. If you watch this year's Last Night, you'll see that the indoor prom, as always, is relayed directly to huge screens in various parks for the hardy souls who care to brave the late evening temperatures and weather. These parks include, if I remember rightly, ones in London, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast. But late in the evening (9:40 in 2000, according to the extract) they always unite for the last part.

"Yet the real magic began at 9.40. This was when broadcasting came live from the Royal Albert Hall. This started with Elgar's 'Pomp and Circumstance' and the singing of 'Land of Hope and Glory'.from the Albert Hall."

Hence the link in post 9 is perfectly valid as it covers both Park and Albert Hall and the programme is the one you can find there. It includes, as it has done every year since I started listening to the Proms in another century, Sir Henry Wood's 'Fantasia on British Sea Songs'. The only exception I seem to recall is that the BBC and Leonard Slatkin made a sensible decision to change the programme he conducted immediately after 9/11 in 2001.

The BBC said at the time:
"Of the traditional final sequence in the second half, Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea-Songs, and Rule, Britannia! will not be performed. In recognition of the events of recent days the second half of the concert now includes John Adams's fanfare Tromba Lontana, Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, Spirituals from Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time and the Choral Finale from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony."

Can we leave this here?

So to summarise:

A594281

Vaughan Williams' 'Fantasia on Sea-Shanties'
-->
Sir Henry Wood's 'Fantasia on British Sea Songs'

G

The really strange thing is that this was pointed out on 15 Jul 2002, and nobody did anything about it. See the "Sea Shanties" conversation attached to the entry itself.

Thanks for your last contribution Gnomon. I've learned a great deal about Vaughan Williams during my searching around for information. I missed the 'Sea Shanties' link but you were quite right in that nobody had taken any notice. I suspect that with corrections like this, nobody does. Everyone loses interest by the time the truth surfaces.

Incidentally, with reference to your Post 12, I have searched for something called 'Fantasia on Sea Shanties' by VW but can find no trace. My Master Musicians book on VW (by James Day) only has three Fantasias in the Index - the Tallis, of course, and ones on Christmas Carols and the Old 104th Psalm tune. Nor does anything like this appear on the definitive list of works at:

http://www.agentsmith.com/rvw/RVW_Works/RVW.pdf.

In fact the only thing I could find there was Sea Songs arranged as a march for brass band; but there is an American music publishing company offering piano music for what it calls 'Five Sea Songs' at:

http://www.thorpemusic.com/vaugha01.html

Right - before I go blundering around and change the wrong thing, all I need to do is make the change Gnomon pointed out above, yes?



Paully

>>I suspect that with corrections like this, nobody does.

If mistakes are pointed out in the right place, the editors are very quick to correct them. We are very interested in making sure the information in the Edited Guide is accurate, and welcome any corrections.

Yes, Paully.

Hi Paully. Was it you that started this off? If it was then the answer to your question is - you could simply change the words in your original description from:-

"The night continued with the joyful and tears-of-laughter-inducing Vaughan Williams' 'Fantasia on Sea-Shanties', which is just pure, bouncy fun to hear."

to:-

"The night continued with the joyful and tears-of-laughter-inducing Henry Wood's 'Fantasia on British Sea Songs', which is just pure, bouncy fun to hear."

Then we can all rest happily, and I can go and do the shopping in peace.

No, Paully didn't write the original entry, but as an offical Editor on the site, he has the ability to change it. Which I'm sure he will now be doing.


Geggs

Right - amendment now made. Many thanks for pointing it out to us... if you spot any more, don't hesitate to shout out!

Paully