To Vaughan Williams, with an intense love of the English countryside that he knew in his youth, the lark represented the heart’s rapture and the soul’s aspiration. A miniature violin concerto in all but name, the composer called "The Lark Ascending" a "romance" when he completed it in 1920, though he commenced the composition before war broke out in 1914.

This ballet is performed in excerpt in Ailey Highlights.