Four Last Songs (Vaughan Williams) - II. Menelaus

II. Menelaus

One day, after Vaughan Williams and his wife had been reading from T. E. Lawrence’s translation of Homer’s The Odyssey, Ursula felt compelled to write some verse. The resulting poem and song became the fourth song of the cycle “Menelaus.” The character Menelaus appears both in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey. Menelaus is the King of Sparta whose wife, Helen, was taken from him by Paris to Troy. Together with his brother Agamemnon, fellow ruler Odysseus, and other warriors, Menelaus launched the Trojan War to regain his wife and return her to Sparta. In The Odyssey, Odysseus’ son Telemachus visits Menelaus in attempts to obtain news of his father who has not yet returned from the war. The Vaughan Williams’ drew inspiration from Menelaus’ description to Telemachus of the things Odysseus must do in order to return home. This is evident in the text of the song in which the phrase "you will come home" returns both as a lyrical and musical refrain.

“Menelaus” is similar to “Procris” in that they both contain many hemiola rhythms and a wavering tonal center. “Menelaus” is written in triple meter, but contains many metric changes throughout the piece usually going back and forth between triple and duple meter. The opening measure contains three groups of descending and ascending 32nd notes that suggest the playing of a harp or lyre, which evokes an image of ancient story telling and music-making. This pattern repeats wherever the words “you will come home” occur as well as the statement, “stretch out your hand” creating a short, refrain-like section.