Ralph Vaughan Williams
Encyclopedia
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM
(icon;
12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer of symphonies
, chamber music
, opera, choral music, and film score
s. He was also a collector of English folk music
and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal
, beginning in 1904, in which he included many folk song arrangements set as hymn tunes, and also influenced several of his own original compositions.
, Gloucestershire, where his father, the Reverend Arthur Vaughan Williams (the surname Vaughan Williams is an unhyphenated double-barrelled name
of Welsh origin), was vicar. Following his father's death in 1875 he was taken by his mother, Margaret Susan née Wedgwood (1843–1937), the great-granddaughter of the potter Josiah Wedgwood
, to live with her family at Leith Hill Place, a Wedgwood family home in the Surrey Hills
. He was also related to the Darwins, Charles Darwin
being a great-uncle. Though born into the privileged intellectual upper middle class
, Vaughan Williams never took it for granted and worked all his life for the democratic and egalitarian ideals in which he believed.
As a student he had studied piano, "which I never could play, and the violin, which was my musical salvation."
After Charterhouse School
he attended the Royal College of Music
(RCM) under Charles Villiers Stanford
. He read history and music at Trinity College, Cambridge
, where his friends and contemporaries included the philosophers G. E. Moore and Bertrand Russell
. He then returned to the RCM and studied composition with Hubert Parry
, who became a friend. One of his fellow pupils at the RCM was Leopold Stokowski
and during 1896 they both studied organ under Sir Walter Parratt
. Stokowski later went on to perform six of Vaughan Williams's symphonies for American audiences, making the first recording of the Sixth Symphony
in 1949 with the New York Philharmonic, and giving the U.S. premiere of the Ninth Symphony
in Carnegie Hall
in 1958.
Another friendship made at the RCM, crucial to Vaughan Williams's development as a composer, was with fellow-student Gustav Holst
whom he first met in 1895. From that time onwards they spent several 'field days' reading through and offering constructive criticism on each other's works in progress.
Vaughan Williams's composition developed slowly and it was not until he was 30 that the song "Linden Lea" became his first publication. He mixed composition with conducting, lecturing and editing other music, notably that of Henry Purcell
and the English Hymnal
. He had already taken lessons with Max Bruch
in Berlin in 1897 and in 1907–1908 took a big step forward in his orchestral style when he studied for three months in Paris with Maurice Ravel
.
In 1904, Vaughan Williams discovered English folk songs and carols
, which were fast becoming extinct owing to the oral tradition through which they existed being undermined by the increase of literacy and printed music
in rural areas. He travelled the countryside, transcribing and preserving many himself. Later he incorporated some songs and melodies into his own music, being fascinated by the beauty of the music and its anonymous history in the working lives of ordinary people. His efforts did much to raise appreciation of traditional English folk song and melody. Later in his life he served as president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society
(EFDSS), which, in recognition of his early and important work in this field, named its Vaughan Williams Memorial Library
after him. During this time he strengthened his links to prominent writers on folk music, including the Reverend George B. Chambers
.
In 1905, Vaughan Williams conducted the first concert of the newly founded Leith Hill Music Festival at Dorking
which he was to conduct until 1953, when he passed the baton to his successor, William Cole
.
In 1909, he composed incidental music for the Cambridge Greek Play
, a stage production at Cambridge University of Aristophanes'
The Wasps
. The next year, he had his first big public successes conducting the premieres of the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (at the Three Choirs Festival
in Gloucester Cathedral
) and his choral symphony
A Sea Symphony (Symphony No. 1). He enjoyed a still greater success with A London Symphony
(Symphony No. 2) in 1914, conducted by Geoffrey Toye
.
Vaughan Williams was 41 when World War I began. Though he could have avoided war service entirely, or tried for a commission, he chose to enlist as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps
. After a gruelling time as a stretcher bearer in France and Salonika, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant
in the Royal Garrison Artillery
on 24 December 1917. On one occasion, though too ill to stand, he continued to direct his battery
while lying on the ground. Prolonged exposure to gunfire began a process of hearing loss which eventually caused severe deafness in old age. In 1918, he was appointed Director of Music, First Army, and this helped him adjust back into musical life.
After the war, he adopted for a while a somewhat mystical style in A Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No. 3), which draws on his experiences as an ambulance volunteer in that war; and Flos Campi
, a work for solo viola
, small orchestra, and wordless chorus. From 1924 a new phase in his music began, characterised by lively cross-rhythms and clashing harmonies. Key works from this period are Toccata marziale, the ballet
Old King Cole, the Piano Concerto
, the oratorio
Sancta Civitas
(his favourite of his choral works) and the ballet Job: A Masque for Dancing, which is drawn not from the Bible
but from William Blake
's Illustrations of the Book of Job
. He also composed a Te Deum in G for the enthronement of Cosmo Gordon Lang as Archbishop of Canterbury
. This period in his music culminated in the Symphony No. 4 in F minor
, first played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra
in 1935. This symphony contrasts dramatically with the "pastoral" orchestral works with which he is associated; indeed, its almost unrelieved tension, drama, and dissonance have startled listeners since it was premiered. Acknowledging that the Fourth Symphony was different, the composer said, "I don't know if I like it, but it's what I meant." Two years later, Vaughan Williams made a historic recording of the work with the same orchestra for HMV (His Master's Voice), his only commercial recording. During this period, he lectured in America and England, and conducted The Bach Choir
. He was President of the City of Bath Bach Choir
between 1946 and 1959. He was appointed to the Order of Merit
in the King's Birthday Honours of 1935, having previously declined a knighthood. He also gave private lessons in London to students including Irish composer Ina Boyle
.
Vaughan Williams was an intimate life long friend of the famous British pianist Harriet Cohen
. His letters to her reveal a flirtatious relationship, regularly reminding her of the thousands of kisses that she owed him. Before Cohen's first American tour in 1931 he wrote "I fear the Americans will love you so much that they won't let you come back." He was a regular visitor to her home and often attended parties there. Cohen premiered Vaughan Williams's "Hymn Tune Prelude" in 1930, which he dedicated to her. She later introduced the piece throughout Europe during her concert tours. In 1933 she premiered his Piano Concerto in C major, a work which was once again dedicated to her. Cohen was given the exclusive right to play the piece for a period of time. Cohen played and promoted Vaughan Williams's work throughout Europe, the USSR, and the United States.
His music now entered a mature lyrical phase, as in the Five Tudor Portraits; the Serenade to Music
(a setting of a scene from act five of The Merchant of Venice
, for orchestra and sixteen vocal soloists and composed as a tribute to the conductor Sir Henry Wood); and the Symphony No. 5 in D
, which he conducted at the Proms
in 1943. As he was now 70, many people considered it a swan song
, but he renewed himself again and entered yet another period of exploratory harmony and instrumentation. His very successful Symphony No. 6
of 1946 received a hundred performances in the first year. It surprised both admirers and critics, many of whom suggested that this symphony (especially its last movement) was a grim vision of the aftermath of an atomic war: typically, Vaughan Williams himself refused to recognise any programme behind this work.
, first performed in 1956, was followed by the much weightier Symphony No. 9 in E minor
of 1956–57. This last symphony was initially given a lukewarm reception after its first performance in May 1958, just three months before his death. But this dark and enigmatic work is now considered by many to be a fitting conclusion to his sequence of symphonic works.
He also completed a range of instrumental and choral works, including a Tuba Concerto, An Oxford Elegy
on texts of Matthew Arnold
, and the Christmas cantata
Hodie. He also wrote an arrangement of The Old One Hundredth Psalm Tune
for the Coronation Service
of Queen Elizabeth II. At his death he left an unfinished Cello Concerto, an opera Thomas the Rhymer and music for a Christmas play, The First Nowell, which was completed by his amanuensis Roy Douglas
(b. 1907).
Despite his substantial involvement in church music, and the religious subject-matter of many of his works, he was described by his second wife as "an atheist ... [who] later drifted into a cheerful agnosticism." It is noteworthy that in his opera The Pilgrim's Progress he changed the name of the hero from John Bunyan
's Christian to Pilgrim. He also set Bunyan's hymn Who would true valour see
to music using the traditional Sussex
melody "Monk's Gate
". For many church-goers, his most familiar composition may be the hymn tune
Sine nomine
written for the hymn
"For All the Saints
" by William Walsham How
. The tune he composed for the mediaeval hymn "Come Down, O Love Divine" (Discendi, Amor santo by Bianco of Siena, ca.1434) is entitled "Down Ampney
" in honour of his birthplace.
He also worked as a tutor for Birkbeck College
.
In the 1950s, the composer supervised recordings of all but his Ninth Symphony by Sir Adrian Boult
and the London Philharmonic Orchestra
for Decca
. At the end of the sessions for the mysterious Sixth Symphony, Vaughan Williams gave a short speech, thanking Boult and the orchestra for their performance, "most heartily," and Decca later included this on the LP. He was to supervise the first recording of the Ninth Symphony (for Everest Records
) with Boult; his death on 26 August 1958 the night before the recording sessions were to begin provoked Boult to announce to the musicians that their performance would be a memorial to the composer. These recordings, including the speeches by the composer and Boult, have all been reissued by Decca on CD.
Vaughan Williams is a central figure in British music because of his long career as teacher, lecturer and friend to so many younger composers and conductors. His writings on music remain thought-provoking, particularly his oft-repeated call for all persons to make their own music, however simple, as long as it is truly their own. Vaughan Williams was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey
.
) in 1896. Adeline was related to Ruth Fisher de Ropp, who was the mother of Robert S de Ropp
. Robert's father, a semi-destitute European nobleman, was unable to pay for his son's post-secondary education. Consequently, Ralph and Adeline Vaughan Williams paid for Robert’s education at the Royal College of Science, in South Kensington, where he eventually specialised in biology and earned a PhD. De Ropp went on to be a successful research scientist and well-known author of books on human potentials. Adeline Fisher Vaughan Williams died in 1951 after many years of suffering from crippling arthritis
.
Vaughan Williams had an affair with the married poet Ursula Wood
beginning in 1938. After Wood's husband died in 1942, Wood became Ralph's literary advisor and personal assistant and moved into his Surrey home, apparently with the tacit approval of Adeline, for whom Wood served as a caretaker until Adeline's death in 1951. Wood wrote the libretto
to his choral work The Sons of Light, and contributing to that of The Pilgrim's Progress and Hodie. Wood and Vaughan Williams married in 1953 and moved to London and occupied a house at 10 Hanover Terrace, Regents Park until the composer's death five years later. In 1964 Wood published RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams. She served as honorary president of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society until her death in 2007.
, Frederick Delius
, George Butterworth
and William Walton
. In Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination, Peter Ackroyd
writes, "If that Englishness in music can be encapsulated in words at all, those words would probably be: ostensibly familiar and commonplace, yet deep and mystical as well as lyrical, melodic, melancholic, and nostalgic yet timeless." Ackroyd quotes music critic John Alexander Fuller Maitland
, whose distinctions included editing the second edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
in the years just before 1911, as having observed that in Vaughan Williams's style "one is never quite sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new."
His style expresses a deep regard for and fascination with folk tunes, the variations upon which can convey the listener from the down-to-earth (which he always tried to remain in his daily life) to the ethereal. Simultaneously the music shows patriotism toward England in the subtlest form, engendered by a feeling for ancient landscapes and a person's small yet not entirely insignificant place within them. His earlier works sometimes show the influence of Maurice Ravel
, his teacher for three months in Paris in 1908. Ravel described Vaughan Williams as the only one of his pupils who did not write music like Ravel.
of 1906, and the co-editor with Martin Shaw
of Songs of Praise
of 1925 and the Oxford Book of Carols
of 1928, all in collaboration with Percy Dearmer
.
(Fifth), Adrian Boult
and Leopold Stokowski
(both in the Sixth), and the composer's own recording of the Fourth, preceded several complete cycles. Stokowski's 1943 NBC Symphony broadcast of the Fourth Symphony has also been issued on CD, as has his 1964 Proms performance of the 8th with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Sir Eugene Goossens recorded the 1920 edition of A London Symphony
with the Cincinnati Orchestra for RCA Victor in 1941, the only recording of that version of the score ever made. Boult taped the first cycle (Symphonies 1–8) for Decca
in the early 1950s, completing it with No. 9 for the Everest label in 1958; he re-recorded all nine for EMI
between 1967 and 1972. Other cycles have followed from André Previn
, Bernard Haitink
, Bryden Thomson
, Vernon Handley
, Leonard Slatkin
and Richard Hickox
.
Several other foreign conductors have also recorded individual Vaughan Williams symphonies: Dimitri Mitropoulos and Leonard Bernstein
both recorded the Fourth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic, the same orchestra with which Leopold Stokowski
had made the first recording of the Sixth Symphony in 1949. This work was also recorded by Maurice Abravanel
and the Utah Symphony in 1966. Paavo Berglund
also recorded the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies and, among other CD releases, the Portuguese premiere of the Ninth Symphony, with Pedro de Freitas Branco conducting the National Symphony Orchestra of Portugal, has also been issued. Similarly, the US premiere of the Ninth Symphony, given by Leopold Stokowski
in Carnegie Hall in 1958 'In Memoriam Vaughan Williams' has also been released on CD by Cala Records.
A first official release of the Symphony No. 5
conducted by the composer in 1952 was recently issued in the U.K. by Somm Recordings.
David Willcocks recorded much of the choral output for EMI
in the 1960s and 1970s. Award-winning performances of the string quartets have followed on Naxos
, which along with the Hyperion
and Chandos
labels have recorded much neglected material, including works for brass band and the rarely performed operas.
EMI Classics has issued a budget 30-CD set (34+ hours) with virtually all of Vaughan Williams's works, including alternative settings.
Order of Merit
The Order of Merit is a British dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...
(icon;
12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer of symphonies
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
, chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
, opera, choral music, and film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
s. He was also a collector of English folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal
English Hymnal
The English Hymnal was published in 1906 for the Church of England under the editorship of Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The preface to the hymnal began with the statement, "A collection of the best hymns in the English language." Much of the contents was used for the first time at St...
, beginning in 1904, in which he included many folk song arrangements set as hymn tunes, and also influenced several of his own original compositions.
Early years
Ralph Vaughan Williams was born on 12 October 1872 in Down AmpneyDown Ampney
Down Ampney is a medium-sized village located in Cotswold district in Gloucestershire, in England.It is off the A417 which runs between Cirencester and Faringdon on the A420, and about 5 km north of Cricklade,...
, Gloucestershire, where his father, the Reverend Arthur Vaughan Williams (the surname Vaughan Williams is an unhyphenated double-barrelled name
Double-barrelled name
In English speaking and some other Western countries, a double-barrelled name is a family name with two parts, which may or may not be joined with a hyphen and is also known as a hyphenated name. An example of a hyphenated double-barrelled surname is Bowes-Lyon; an example of an unhyphenated...
of Welsh origin), was vicar. Following his father's death in 1875 he was taken by his mother, Margaret Susan née Wedgwood (1843–1937), the great-granddaughter of the potter Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood was an English potter, founder of the Wedgwood company, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family...
, to live with her family at Leith Hill Place, a Wedgwood family home in the Surrey Hills
Surrey Hills AONB
The Surrey Hills is a Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , located in Surrey, England. The AONB was designated in 1958 and covers one quarter of the county of Surrey...
. He was also related to the Darwins, Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
being a great-uncle. Though born into the privileged intellectual upper middle class
Upper middle class
The upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term "lower middle class", which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term "middle...
, Vaughan Williams never took it for granted and worked all his life for the democratic and egalitarian ideals in which he believed.
After Charterhouse School
Charterhouse School
Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...
he attended the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
(RCM) under Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
. He read history and music at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, where his friends and contemporaries included the philosophers G. E. Moore and Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
. He then returned to the RCM and studied composition with Hubert Parry
Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...
, who became a friend. One of his fellow pupils at the RCM was Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
and during 1896 they both studied organ under Sir Walter Parratt
Walter Parratt
Sir Walter Parratt KCVO was an English organist and composer.-Biography:Born in Huddersfield, son of a parish organist, Parratt began to play the pipe organ from an early age, and held posts as an organist while still a child...
. Stokowski later went on to perform six of Vaughan Williams's symphonies for American audiences, making the first recording of the Sixth Symphony
Symphony No. 6 (Vaughan Williams)
Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony in E minor, published as Symphony No. 6, was composed in 1946–47, during and immediately after World War II. Dedicated to Michael Mullinar, it was first performed by Sir Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra on April 21, 1948. Within a year it had received...
in 1949 with the New York Philharmonic, and giving the U.S. premiere of the Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Vaughan Williams)
The Symphony No. 9 in E minor was the last symphony written by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. He composed it from 1956 to 1957 and it was given its premiere performance in London by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent on 2 April 1958, in the composer's...
in Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in 1958.
Another friendship made at the RCM, crucial to Vaughan Williams's development as a composer, was with fellow-student Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
whom he first met in 1895. From that time onwards they spent several 'field days' reading through and offering constructive criticism on each other's works in progress.
Vaughan Williams's composition developed slowly and it was not until he was 30 that the song "Linden Lea" became his first publication. He mixed composition with conducting, lecturing and editing other music, notably that of Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
and the English Hymnal
English Hymnal
The English Hymnal was published in 1906 for the Church of England under the editorship of Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The preface to the hymnal began with the statement, "A collection of the best hymns in the English language." Much of the contents was used for the first time at St...
. He had already taken lessons with Max Bruch
Max Bruch
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he...
in Berlin in 1897 and in 1907–1908 took a big step forward in his orchestral style when he studied for three months in Paris with Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
.
In 1904, Vaughan Williams discovered English folk songs and carols
Carol (music)
A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character....
, which were fast becoming extinct owing to the oral tradition through which they existed being undermined by the increase of literacy and printed music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
in rural areas. He travelled the countryside, transcribing and preserving many himself. Later he incorporated some songs and melodies into his own music, being fascinated by the beauty of the music and its anonymous history in the working lives of ordinary people. His efforts did much to raise appreciation of traditional English folk song and melody. Later in his life he served as president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society
English Folk Dance and Song Society
The English Folk Dance and Song Society was formed in 1932 when two organisations merged: the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society. The EFDSS, a member-based organisation, was incorporated as a Company limited by guarantee in 1935 and became a Registered Charity The English Folk...
(EFDSS), which, in recognition of his early and important work in this field, named its Vaughan Williams Memorial Library
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society , located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House...
after him. During this time he strengthened his links to prominent writers on folk music, including the Reverend George B. Chambers
George B. Chambers
George Bennet Chambers was an English vicar, social activist and author . Following a long career in the Church of England, he became the vicar of Carbrooke Church in Norfolk...
.
In 1905, Vaughan Williams conducted the first concert of the newly founded Leith Hill Music Festival at Dorking
Dorking
Dorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...
which he was to conduct until 1953, when he passed the baton to his successor, William Cole
William Cole (Musician)
William Charles Cole FSA was a conductor, composer and organist. He went to Saint Olave's Grammar School, where he in fact almost lost his scholarship there because 'his music was getting in the way of his studies'. He also studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he won the Stewart...
.
In 1909, he composed incidental music for the Cambridge Greek Play
Cambridge Greek Play
The Cambridge Greek Play is a play performed in Ancient Greek by students and alumni of the University of Cambridge, England. The event is held once every three years and is a tradition which started in 1882 with the Ajax of Sophocles....
, a stage production at Cambridge University of Aristophanes'
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
The Wasps
The Wasps
The Wasps is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient genre of drama called 'Old Comedy'. It was produced at the Lenaia festival in 422 BC, a time when Athens was enjoying a brief respite from The Peloponnesian War following a one...
. The next year, he had his first big public successes conducting the premieres of the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (at the Three Choirs Festival
Three Choirs Festival
The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme...
in Gloucester Cathedral
Gloucester Cathedral
Gloucester Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the river. It originated in 678 or 679 with the foundation of an abbey dedicated to Saint Peter .-Foundations:The foundations of the present...
) and his choral symphony
Choral symphony
A choral symphony is a musical composition for orchestra, choir, sometimes with solo vocalists, which in its internal workings and overall musical architecture adheres broadly to symphonic musical form. The term "choral symphony" in this context was coined by Hector Berlioz when describing his...
A Sea Symphony (Symphony No. 1). He enjoyed a still greater success with A London Symphony
A London Symphony
A London Symphony is the second symphony composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The work is sometimes referred to as the Symphony No. 2, though it was not designated as such by the composer...
(Symphony No. 2) in 1914, conducted by Geoffrey Toye
Geoffrey Toye
Edward Geoffrey Toye , better known as Geoffrey Toye, was an English conductor, composer and opera producer....
.
Two World Wars
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
. After a gruelling time as a stretcher bearer in France and Salonika, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
in the Royal Garrison Artillery
Royal Garrison Artillery
The Royal Garrison Artillery was an arm of the Royal Artillery that was originally tasked with manning the guns of the British Empire's forts and fortresses, including coastal artillery batteries, the heavy gun batteries attached to each infantry division, and the guns of the siege...
on 24 December 1917. On one occasion, though too ill to stand, he continued to direct his battery
Artillery battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
while lying on the ground. Prolonged exposure to gunfire began a process of hearing loss which eventually caused severe deafness in old age. In 1918, he was appointed Director of Music, First Army, and this helped him adjust back into musical life.
After the war, he adopted for a while a somewhat mystical style in A Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No. 3), which draws on his experiences as an ambulance volunteer in that war; and Flos Campi
Flos Campi
Flos Campi: suite for solo viola, small chorus and small orchestra is a composition by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, completed in 1925. Its title is Latin for "flower of the field". It is neither a concerto nor a choral piece, although it prominently features the viola and a...
, a work for solo viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, small orchestra, and wordless chorus. From 1924 a new phase in his music began, characterised by lively cross-rhythms and clashing harmonies. Key works from this period are Toccata marziale, the ballet
Ballet (music)
Ballet as a music form progressed from simply a complement to dance, to a concrete compositional form that often had as much value as the dance that went along with it. The dance form, originating in France during the 17th century, began as a theatrical dance. It was not until the 19th century that...
Old King Cole, the Piano Concerto
Piano Concerto (Vaughan Williams)
The Piano Concerto in C is a concertante work by Ralph Vaughan Williams written in 1926 and 1930-31 . During the intervening years, the composer completed Job: A Masque for Dancing and began work on his Fourth Symphony...
, the oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
Sancta Civitas
Sancta Civitas
Sancta Civitas is an oratorio by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Written between 1923 and 1925, it received its first performance in Oxford in May 1926, during the General Strike. Although its title is in Latin, the libretto is entirely in English, based upon texts from Revelation, as well as Taverner's...
(his favourite of his choral works) and the ballet Job: A Masque for Dancing, which is drawn not from the Bible
Book of Job
The Book of Job , commonly referred to simply as Job, is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, his challenge to God, and finally a response from God. The book is a...
but from William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
's Illustrations of the Book of Job
William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job
William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job primarily refers to a series of twenty-two engraved prints by Blake illustrating the biblical Book of Job. It also refers to two earlier sets of watercolours by Blake on the same subject...
. He also composed a Te Deum in G for the enthronement of Cosmo Gordon Lang as Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
. This period in his music culminated in the Symphony No. 4 in F minor
Symphony No. 4 (Vaughan Williams)
The Symphony No. 4 in F minor by Ralph Vaughan Williams was dedicated by the composer to Arnold Bax.Unlike Vaughan Williams's first three symphonies it was not given a title, the composer stating that it was to be understood as pure music, without any incidental or external inspiration.In contrast...
, first played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
in 1935. This symphony contrasts dramatically with the "pastoral" orchestral works with which he is associated; indeed, its almost unrelieved tension, drama, and dissonance have startled listeners since it was premiered. Acknowledging that the Fourth Symphony was different, the composer said, "I don't know if I like it, but it's what I meant." Two years later, Vaughan Williams made a historic recording of the work with the same orchestra for HMV (His Master's Voice), his only commercial recording. During this period, he lectured in America and England, and conducted The Bach Choir
The Bach Choir
The Bach Choir is a large chorus, based in London, England. It has around 220 active members. The choir's musical director is David Hill and previous musical directors have included Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Reginald Jacques and Sir David Willcocks.The Bach Choir is an...
. He was President of the City of Bath Bach Choir
City of Bath Bach Choir
The City of Bath Bach Choir , based in Bath, Somerset, England, is a choir, founded in October 1946 by Cuthbert Bates, who was also a founding father of the Bath Bach Festival in 1950. The choir gave its inaugural concert in June 1947 in Bath Abbey, a performance of J. S. Bach's great Mass in B...
between 1946 and 1959. He was appointed to the Order of Merit
Order of Merit
The Order of Merit is a British dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...
in the King's Birthday Honours of 1935, having previously declined a knighthood. He also gave private lessons in London to students including Irish composer Ina Boyle
Ina Boyle
Ina Boyle was an Irish composer. She was born in Bushey Park near Enniskerry and took violin and cello lessons as a child. She studied counterpoint, harmony and composition with Drs. Kitson and Hewson in Dublin, and by correspondence with her cousin Charles Wood. She also traveled to London...
.
Vaughan Williams was an intimate life long friend of the famous British pianist Harriet Cohen
Harriet Cohen
Harriet Cohen CBE was a British pianist.-Biography:Harriet Cohen was born in London and studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay, having won the Ada Lewis scholarship at the age of 12. She made her debut at a Chappell's Sunday concert at the Queen's Hall a year later...
. His letters to her reveal a flirtatious relationship, regularly reminding her of the thousands of kisses that she owed him. Before Cohen's first American tour in 1931 he wrote "I fear the Americans will love you so much that they won't let you come back." He was a regular visitor to her home and often attended parties there. Cohen premiered Vaughan Williams's "Hymn Tune Prelude" in 1930, which he dedicated to her. She later introduced the piece throughout Europe during her concert tours. In 1933 she premiered his Piano Concerto in C major, a work which was once again dedicated to her. Cohen was given the exclusive right to play the piece for a period of time. Cohen played and promoted Vaughan Williams's work throughout Europe, the USSR, and the United States.
His music now entered a mature lyrical phase, as in the Five Tudor Portraits; the Serenade to Music
Serenade to Music
Serenade to Music is a work by Ralph Vaughan Williams for 16 vocal soloists and orchestra, composed in 1938. The text is an adaptation of the discussion about music and the music of the spheres in Act V, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Vaughan Williams later arranged...
(a setting of a scene from act five of The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
, for orchestra and sixteen vocal soloists and composed as a tribute to the conductor Sir Henry Wood); and the Symphony No. 5 in D
Symphony No. 5 (Vaughan Williams)
Symphony No. 5 by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was written between 1938 and 1943. In style it represents a shift away from the violent dissonance of the Fourth Symphony, and a return to the more romantic style of the earlier Pastoral Symphony...
, which he conducted at the Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
in 1943. As he was now 70, many people considered it a swan song
Swan song
"Swan song" is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that the Mute Swan is completely silent during its lifetime until the moment just before death, when it sings one beautiful song...
, but he renewed himself again and entered yet another period of exploratory harmony and instrumentation. His very successful Symphony No. 6
Symphony No. 6 (Vaughan Williams)
Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony in E minor, published as Symphony No. 6, was composed in 1946–47, during and immediately after World War II. Dedicated to Michael Mullinar, it was first performed by Sir Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra on April 21, 1948. Within a year it had received...
of 1946 received a hundred performances in the first year. It surprised both admirers and critics, many of whom suggested that this symphony (especially its last movement) was a grim vision of the aftermath of an atomic war: typically, Vaughan Williams himself refused to recognise any programme behind this work.
Later work
Before his death in 1958, he completed three more symphonies. His Seventh, Sinfonia Antartica, which was based on his 1948 film score for Scott of the Antarctic, exhibits his renewed interest in instrumentation and sonority. The Eighth SymphonySymphony No. 8 (Vaughan Williams)
Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 8 in D minor was composed between 1953 and 1955. It was the first of his symphonies which Vaugham Williams allowed to be given a number. Sir John Barbirolli conducted the premiere of the piece on May 2, 1956, with the Halle Orchestra. Eugene Ormandy gave the...
, first performed in 1956, was followed by the much weightier Symphony No. 9 in E minor
Symphony No. 9 (Vaughan Williams)
The Symphony No. 9 in E minor was the last symphony written by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. He composed it from 1956 to 1957 and it was given its premiere performance in London by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent on 2 April 1958, in the composer's...
of 1956–57. This last symphony was initially given a lukewarm reception after its first performance in May 1958, just three months before his death. But this dark and enigmatic work is now considered by many to be a fitting conclusion to his sequence of symphonic works.
He also completed a range of instrumental and choral works, including a Tuba Concerto, An Oxford Elegy
An Oxford Elegy
An Oxford Elegy is a work for narrator, small mixed chorus and small orchestra, written by Ralph Vaughan Williams between 1947 and 1949. It uses portions of two poems by Matthew Arnold, The Scholar Gipsy and Thyrsis...
on texts of Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
, and the Christmas cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
Hodie. He also wrote an arrangement of The Old One Hundredth Psalm Tune
Old 100th
"Old 100th" or "Old Hundredth" is a hymn tune from Pseaumes Octante Trois de David , and is one of the best known melodies in all Christian musical traditions...
for the Coronation Service
Coronation of the British monarch
The coronation of the British monarch is a ceremony in which the monarch of the United Kingdom is formally crowned and invested with regalia...
of Queen Elizabeth II. At his death he left an unfinished Cello Concerto, an opera Thomas the Rhymer and music for a Christmas play, The First Nowell, which was completed by his amanuensis Roy Douglas
Roy Douglas
Roy Douglas is a British composer and arranger. He worked with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Richard Addinsell.-Works as composer:*Oboe quartet [1932]...
(b. 1907).
Despite his substantial involvement in church music, and the religious subject-matter of many of his works, he was described by his second wife as "an atheist ... [who] later drifted into a cheerful agnosticism." It is noteworthy that in his opera The Pilgrim's Progress he changed the name of the hero from John Bunyan
John Bunyan
John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...
's Christian to Pilgrim. He also set Bunyan's hymn Who would true valour see
To be a Pilgrim
"To be a Pilgrim" "To be a Pilgrim" "To be a Pilgrim" (also commonly known as "He who would Valiant be" is the only hymn John Bunyan is credited with writing but is indelibly associated with him. It first appeared in Part 2 of Pilgrim's Progress, written in 1684 while he was serving a twelve-year...
to music using the traditional Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
melody "Monk's Gate
Monk's Gate
Monk's Gate is a hamlet in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A281 road 2.6 miles southeast of Horsham.-Hymn tune:...
". For many church-goers, his most familiar composition may be the hymn tune
Hymn tune
A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm , and no refrain or chorus....
Sine nomine
Sine nomine
"Sine nomine" is a Latin expression, meaning "without a name". It is most commonly used in the contexts of publishing and bibliographical listings such as library catalogs, to signify that the publisher of a listed work is unknown, or not printed or specified on the work...
written for the hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
"For All the Saints
For all the Saints
"For All the Saints" was written as a processional hymn by the Anglican Bishop William Walsham How. The hymn was first printed in Hymns for Saint's Days, and Other Hymns, by Earl Nelson, 1864.-Tune:...
" by William Walsham How
William Walsham How
William Walsham How was an English bishop.The son of a Shrewsbury solicitor, How was educated at Shrewsbury School, Wadham College, Oxford and University College, Durham. He was ordained in 1846, and for upwards of thirty years was actively engaged in parish work at Whittington in Shropshire and...
. The tune he composed for the mediaeval hymn "Come Down, O Love Divine" (Discendi, Amor santo by Bianco of Siena, ca.1434) is entitled "Down Ampney
Down Ampney
Down Ampney is a medium-sized village located in Cotswold district in Gloucestershire, in England.It is off the A417 which runs between Cirencester and Faringdon on the A420, and about 5 km north of Cricklade,...
" in honour of his birthplace.
He also worked as a tutor for Birkbeck College
Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...
.
In the 1950s, the composer supervised recordings of all but his Ninth Symphony by Sir Adrian Boult
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
and the London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...
for Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
. At the end of the sessions for the mysterious Sixth Symphony, Vaughan Williams gave a short speech, thanking Boult and the orchestra for their performance, "most heartily," and Decca later included this on the LP. He was to supervise the first recording of the Ninth Symphony (for Everest Records
Everest Records
Everest Records was a stereophonic record label based in Bayside, Long Island started by Harry D. Belock and Bert Whyte in May 1958. It was devoted mainly to classical music.-History:...
) with Boult; his death on 26 August 1958 the night before the recording sessions were to begin provoked Boult to announce to the musicians that their performance would be a memorial to the composer. These recordings, including the speeches by the composer and Boult, have all been reissued by Decca on CD.
Vaughan Williams is a central figure in British music because of his long career as teacher, lecturer and friend to so many younger composers and conductors. His writings on music remain thought-provoking, particularly his oft-repeated call for all persons to make their own music, however simple, as long as it is truly their own. Vaughan Williams was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
.
Marriages
He was married twice. His first marriage was to Adeline Fisher (daughter of the historian Herbert William FisherHerbert William Fisher
Herbert William Fisher was a British historian, best known for his book Considerations on the Origin of the American War ....
) in 1896. Adeline was related to Ruth Fisher de Ropp, who was the mother of Robert S de Ropp
Robert S de Ropp
Robert Sylvester de Ropp was a biochemist and a researcher and academic in that field. He became a prominent author in the general fields of the realisation of human potential and the search for spiritual enlightenment.-Early life:...
. Robert's father, a semi-destitute European nobleman, was unable to pay for his son's post-secondary education. Consequently, Ralph and Adeline Vaughan Williams paid for Robert’s education at the Royal College of Science, in South Kensington, where he eventually specialised in biology and earned a PhD. De Ropp went on to be a successful research scientist and well-known author of books on human potentials. Adeline Fisher Vaughan Williams died in 1951 after many years of suffering from crippling arthritis
Arthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
.
Vaughan Williams had an affair with the married poet Ursula Wood
Ursula Vaughan Williams
Ursula Vaughan Williams, née Joan Ursula Penton Lock was an English poet and author, and biographer of her second husband, the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.-Biography:...
beginning in 1938. After Wood's husband died in 1942, Wood became Ralph's literary advisor and personal assistant and moved into his Surrey home, apparently with the tacit approval of Adeline, for whom Wood served as a caretaker until Adeline's death in 1951. Wood wrote the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
to his choral work The Sons of Light, and contributing to that of The Pilgrim's Progress and Hodie. Wood and Vaughan Williams married in 1953 and moved to London and occupied a house at 10 Hanover Terrace, Regents Park until the composer's death five years later. In 1964 Wood published RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams. She served as honorary president of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society until her death in 2007.
Style
Vaughan Williams's music has often been said to be characteristically English, in the same way as that of Gustav HolstGustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
, Frederick Delius
Frederick Delius
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...
, George Butterworth
George Butterworth
George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC was an English composer best known for the orchestral idyll The Banks of Green Willow and his song settings of A. E...
and William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
. In Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination, Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd CBE is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a particular interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot and Sir Thomas More he won the Somerset Maugham Award...
writes, "If that Englishness in music can be encapsulated in words at all, those words would probably be: ostensibly familiar and commonplace, yet deep and mystical as well as lyrical, melodic, melancholic, and nostalgic yet timeless." Ackroyd quotes music critic John Alexander Fuller Maitland
John Alexander Fuller Maitland
John Alexander Fuller Maitland was an influential British music critic and scholar from the 1880s to the 1920s. He encouraged the rediscovery of English music of the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly Henry Purcell's music and English virginal music...
, whose distinctions included editing the second edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is the largest single reference work on Western music. The dictionary has gone through several editions since the 19th century...
in the years just before 1911, as having observed that in Vaughan Williams's style "one is never quite sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new."
His style expresses a deep regard for and fascination with folk tunes, the variations upon which can convey the listener from the down-to-earth (which he always tried to remain in his daily life) to the ethereal. Simultaneously the music shows patriotism toward England in the subtlest form, engendered by a feeling for ancient landscapes and a person's small yet not entirely insignificant place within them. His earlier works sometimes show the influence of Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
, his teacher for three months in Paris in 1908. Ravel described Vaughan Williams as the only one of his pupils who did not write music like Ravel.
Works
Operas
- Hugh the DroverHugh the DroverHugh the Drover is an opera in two acts by Ralph Vaughan Williams to an original English libretto by Harold Child. According to Michael Kennedy, the composer took first inspiration for the opera from this question to Bruce Richmond, editor of The Times Literary Supplement, around 1909–1910:"I...
or Love in the Stocks (1910–20). Romantic ballad opera. Libretto: Harold Child - Sir John in LoveSir John in LoveSir John in Love is an opera in four acts by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The libretto, by the composer himself, is based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. Vaughan Williams originally titled his opera The Fat Knight...
(1924–28), from which comes an arrangement by Ralph Greaves of Fantasia on "GreensleevesGreensleeves"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, a ground of the form called a romanesca.A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves". It then appears in the surviving A Handful of...
" - The Poisoned KissThe Poisoned KissThe Poisoned Kiss, or The Empress and the Necromancer is an opera in three acts by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The libretto, by Evelyn Sharp, is based on Richard Garnett's The Poison Maid and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter...
(1927–29; revisions 1936–37 and 1956–57). Libretto: Evelyn Sharp (later amended by Ralph and Ursula Vaughan Williams) - Riders to the SeaRiders to the Sea (opera)Riders to the Sea is a short one-act opera by Ralph Vaughan Williams, based on the eponymous play by the Irish author John Millington Synge. The composer completed the score in 1927, but it was not premiered until 1 December 1937, at the Royal College of Music, London...
(1925–32), from the playRiders to the SeaRiders to the Sea is a play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge. It was first performed on February 25, 1904 at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin by the Irish National Theater Society. A one-act tragedy, the play is set in the Aran Islands, and like all of Synge's plays it is noted for...
by John Millington SyngeJohn Millington SyngeEdmund John Millington Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, and collector of folklore. He was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival and was one of the cofounders of the Abbey Theatre... - The Pilgrim's ProgressThe Pilgrim's Progress (opera)The Pilgrim's Progress is an opera by Ralph Vaughan Williams, based on John Bunyan's allegory The Pilgrim's Progress. The composer himself described the work as a 'Morality' rather than an opera, while nonetheless he intended the work to be performed on stage, rather than in a church or cathedral...
(1909–51), based on John BunyanJohn BunyanJohn Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...
's allegory - The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains (1921). Libretto: Ralph Vaughan Williams (from John BunyanJohn BunyanJohn Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...
) (Later incorporated, save for the final section, into The Pilgrim's Progress)
Incidental music
- The WaspsThe Wasps (Vaughan Williams)The Wasps is incidental music composed by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909. It was written for a production of Aristophanes' The Wasps at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was Vaughan Williams' first of only two forays into incidental music...
(1909; to AristophanesAristophanesAristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
's play The WaspsThe WaspsThe Wasps is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient genre of drama called 'Old Comedy'. It was produced at the Lenaia festival in 422 BC, a time when Athens was enjoying a brief respite from The Peloponnesian War following a one...
; best known as an orchestral suite) - The BacchaeThe BacchaeThe Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC as part of a tetralogy that also included Iphigeneia at Aulis, and which...
(1911; to EuripidesEuripidesEuripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
's tragedy) - The Death of Tintagiles (1913; to Maurice MaeterlinckMaurice MaeterlinckMaurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also called Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life...
's 1894 play)
Ballets
- Old King Cole (1923)
- On Christmas Night (1926)
- Job: A Masque for Dancing (1930)
- The Running Set (1933)
- The Bridal Day (1938–39)
Orchestral
- Symphonies
- A Sea Symphony (Symphony No. 1), a choral symphonyChoral symphonyA choral symphony is a musical composition for orchestra, choir, sometimes with solo vocalists, which in its internal workings and overall musical architecture adheres broadly to symphonic musical form. The term "choral symphony" in this context was coined by Hector Berlioz when describing his...
on texts by Whitman (1903–1909) - A London SymphonyA London SymphonyA London Symphony is the second symphony composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The work is sometimes referred to as the Symphony No. 2, though it was not designated as such by the composer...
(Symphony No. 2) (1913) - A Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No. 3) (1921)
- Symphony No. 4 in F minorSymphony No. 4 (Vaughan Williams)The Symphony No. 4 in F minor by Ralph Vaughan Williams was dedicated by the composer to Arnold Bax.Unlike Vaughan Williams's first three symphonies it was not given a title, the composer stating that it was to be understood as pure music, without any incidental or external inspiration.In contrast...
(1931–34) - Symphony No. 5 in D majorSymphony No. 5 (Vaughan Williams)Symphony No. 5 by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was written between 1938 and 1943. In style it represents a shift away from the violent dissonance of the Fourth Symphony, and a return to the more romantic style of the earlier Pastoral Symphony...
(1938–43) - Symphony No. 6 in E minorSymphony No. 6 (Vaughan Williams)Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony in E minor, published as Symphony No. 6, was composed in 1946–47, during and immediately after World War II. Dedicated to Michael Mullinar, it was first performed by Sir Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra on April 21, 1948. Within a year it had received...
(1944–47, rev. 1950) - Sinfonia antartica (Symphony No. 7) (1949–52) (partly based on his music for the film Scott of the AntarcticScott of the Antarctic (1948 film)Scott of the Antarctic is a 1948 film about Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated expedition to be the first to the South Pole in Antarctica in 1910-12...
) - Symphony No. 8 in D minorSymphony No. 8 (Vaughan Williams)Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 8 in D minor was composed between 1953 and 1955. It was the first of his symphonies which Vaugham Williams allowed to be given a number. Sir John Barbirolli conducted the premiere of the piece on May 2, 1956, with the Halle Orchestra. Eugene Ormandy gave the...
(1953–55) - Symphony No. 9 in E minorSymphony No. 9 (Vaughan Williams)The Symphony No. 9 in E minor was the last symphony written by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. He composed it from 1956 to 1957 and it was given its premiere performance in London by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent on 2 April 1958, in the composer's...
(1956–57)
- A Sea Symphony (Symphony No. 1), a choral symphony
- Heroic Elegy and Triumphal Epilogue (1900)
- In the Fen CountryIn the Fen CountryIn the Fen Country is an orchestral tone poem written by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Vaughan Williams had completed the first version of the work in April 1904. He subsequently revised the work in 1905 and 1907...
, for orchestra (1904) - Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 in E Minor is an orchestral rhapsody by Ralph Vaughan Williams based on folk songs he had collected in the English county of Norfolk, in particular in the port town of King's Lynn and the surrounding region. It is one of a set of three orchestral rhapsodies of 1905–06 based...
(1906, rev. 1914)) - The WaspsThe Wasps (Vaughan Williams)The Wasps is incidental music composed by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909. It was written for a production of Aristophanes' The Wasps at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was Vaughan Williams' first of only two forays into incidental music...
, an AristophanicAristophanesAristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
suite (1909; see Incidental music above) - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910, rev. 1913 and 1919)
- March: Sea Songs (1923), arr. for orchestra 1924 by the composer
- Prelude and Fugue in C minor (1930)
- The Running Set (1933)
- Fantasia on "GreensleevesGreensleeves"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, a ground of the form called a romanesca.A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves". It then appears in the surviving A Handful of...
" (1934) - Two Hymn Tune Preludes (1936)
- Partita for Strings (1938)
- Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (1939)
- Household Music (1940)
- Concerto GrossoConcerto Grosso (Vaughan Williams)Concerto Grosso is a work for string orchestra by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Originally composed in 1950 for a performance by the Rural Schools Music Association conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, the piece is unique in that the orchestra is split into three sections based on skill: Concertino , Tutti ,...
, for three parts of strings requiring different levels of technical skill (1950) - Prelude on an Old Carol Tune (1952)
- Flourish for Glorious John (1957)
Concerti
- Violin
- The Lark AscendingThe Lark AscendingThe Lark Ascending is a work by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, inspired by George Meredith's 122-line poem of the same name about the skylark. The work was written in two versions: violin and piano, written in 1914; and violin and orchestra, written in 1920. The orchestral version...
for violin and orchestra (1914) - Concerto Accademico for violin and orchestra (1924–25)
- The Lark Ascending
- Viola
- Flos CampiFlos CampiFlos Campi: suite for solo viola, small chorus and small orchestra is a composition by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, completed in 1925. Its title is Latin for "flower of the field". It is neither a concerto nor a choral piece, although it prominently features the viola and a...
for viola, wordless chorus and small orchestra (1925) - Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra (1934)
- Romance for viola and piano (1925–1934 circa)
- Flos Campi
- Piano
- Piano Concerto in C majorPiano Concerto (Vaughan Williams)The Piano Concerto in C is a concertante work by Ralph Vaughan Williams written in 1926 and 1930-31 . During the intervening years, the composer completed Job: A Masque for Dancing and began work on his Fourth Symphony...
(1926–31) - Concerto for Two Pianos and OrchestraConcerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (Vaughan Williams)Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra is a piano concerto by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. He wrote his solo Piano Concerto in the years between 1926 and 1930, which was first performed in 1933 under Adrian Boult...
(c. 1946; a reworking of Piano Concerto in C)
- Piano Concerto in C major
- Oboe Concerto in A minorOboe Concerto (Vaughan Williams)Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote his Concerto in A minor for Oboe and Strings for soloist Léon Goossens in 1944. This pastoral piece is divided into three movements:# Rondo Pastorale # Minuet and Musette...
, for oboe and strings (1944) - Fantasia (quasi variazione) on the Old 104th Psalm Tune for piano, chorus, and orchestra (1949)
- Romance in D-flat major for harmonica and orchestra (1951) (written for Larry AdlerLarry AdlerLawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler was an American musician, widely acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled harmonica players. Composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud and Arthur Benjamin composed works for him...
) - Tuba Concerto in F minor (1954)
Choral
- A Cambridge Mass, mass for SATB, double chorus & orchestra (1899); Doctoral exercise, first performed 3 March 2011.,,
- Toward the Unknown Region, song for chorus and orchestra, setting of Walt WhitmanWalt WhitmanWalter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
(1906) - Five Mystical SongsFive Mystical SongsThe Five Mystical Songs are a composition by Ralph Vaughan Williams, written between 1906 and 1911. The work sets four poems by George Herbert, from his 1633 collection The Temple: Sacred Poems. While Herbert was a priest, Vaughan Williams himself was an agnostic, though this did not prevent his...
for baritone, chorus and orchestra, settings of George HerbertGeorge HerbertGeorge Herbert was a Welsh born English poet, orator and Anglican priest.Being born into an artistic and wealthy family, he received a good education that led to his holding prominent positions at Cambridge University and Parliament. As a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in...
(1911) - Fantasia on Christmas CarolsFantasia on Christmas CarolsFantasia on Christmas Carols is a 1912 work for baritone, chorus, and orchestra by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. First performed at the 1912 Three Choirs Festival at Hereford Cathedral, the work is a single movement of roughly twelve minutes which consists of the English folk carols...
for baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1912); arranged also for reduced orchestra of organ, strings, percussion) - Mass in G minorMass in G Minor (Vaughan Williams)The Mass in G minor is a choral work by Ralph Vaughan Williams written in 1921. It is perhaps notable as the first mass written in a distinctly English manner since the sixteenth century. The composer dedicated the piece to Gustav Holst and the Whitsuntide Singers at Thaxted in north Essex, but...
for unaccompanied choir (1922) - Sancta CivitasSancta CivitasSancta Civitas is an oratorio by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Written between 1923 and 1925, it received its first performance in Oxford in May 1926, during the General Strike. Although its title is in Latin, the libretto is entirely in English, based upon texts from Revelation, as well as Taverner's...
(The Holy City) oratorio, text mainly from the Book of RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
(1923–25) - Te Deum in G major (1928)
- Benedicite for soprano, chorus, and orchestra (1929)
- In Windsor Forest, adapted from the opera Sir John in LoveSir John in LoveSir John in Love is an opera in four acts by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The libretto, by the composer himself, is based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. Vaughan Williams originally titled his opera The Fat Knight...
(1929) - Three Choral Hymns (1929)
- Magnificat for contralto, women's chorus, and orchestra (1932)
- Five Tudor Portraits for contralto, baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1935)
- Dona nobis pacemDona nobis pacem (Vaughan Williams)Dona nobis pacem, , is a cantata written by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1936 and first performed on 2 October 1936. The work was commissioned to mark the centenary of the Huddersfield Choral Society. Vaughan Williams produced his plea for peace by referring to recent wars during the growing fears...
, text by Walt WhitmanWalt WhitmanWalter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
and other sources (1936) - Festival Te Deum for chorus and orchestra or organ (1937)
- Serenade to MusicSerenade to MusicSerenade to Music is a work by Ralph Vaughan Williams for 16 vocal soloists and orchestra, composed in 1938. The text is an adaptation of the discussion about music and the music of the spheres in Act V, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Vaughan Williams later arranged...
for sixteen solo voices and orchestra, a setting of Shakespeare, dedicated to Sir Henry Joseph Wood on the occasion of his Jubilee (1938) - "Six Choral Songs To Be Sung In Time Of War" (1940)
- A Song of Thanksgiving (originally Thanksgiving for Victory) for narrator, soprano solo, children's chorus, mixed chorus, and orchestra (1944)
- An Oxford ElegyAn Oxford ElegyAn Oxford Elegy is a work for narrator, small mixed chorus and small orchestra, written by Ralph Vaughan Williams between 1947 and 1949. It uses portions of two poems by Matthew Arnold, The Scholar Gipsy and Thyrsis...
for narrator, mixed chorus and small orchestra (1949) - Three Shakespeare SongsThree Shakespeare SongsThree Shakespeare Songs is a piece of classical choral music written for an a cappella SATB choir. It was written in 1951 by the British classical composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The work comprises three short pieces which are settings of text from two plays by the English playwright William...
for SATB unaccompanied, composed for The British Federation of Music Festivals National Competitive Festival (1951) - O Taste and See, a motet setting of Psalm 34:8. The original SATB version was composed for the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in June 1953. (1953)
- HodieHodieHodie is a cantata by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Composed between 1953 and 1954, it is the composer's last major choral-orchestral composition, and was premiered under his baton at Worcester Cathedral, as part of the Three Choirs Festival, on September 8, 1954. The piece is dedicated to Herbert...
, a Christmas oratorio (1954) - Folk songs of the Four Seasons A Cantata for Women's Voices with Orchestra or pianoforte accompaniment (1950).
- Epithalamion for baritone solo, chorus, flute, piano, and strings (1957)
- A Choral Flourish for unaccompanied SATB chorus, composed for a large choral event in the Royal Albert Hall at the invitation of (and dedicated to) Alan Kirby (c. 1952)
- O How Amiable (1934) An arrangement of a hymn for chorus and organ, originally written for the Abinger Pageant
Arrangements of Christian hymns
Vaughan Williams was the musical editor of the English HymnalEnglish Hymnal
The English Hymnal was published in 1906 for the Church of England under the editorship of Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The preface to the hymnal began with the statement, "A collection of the best hymns in the English language." Much of the contents was used for the first time at St...
of 1906, and the co-editor with Martin Shaw
Martin Shaw (composer)
Martin Edward Fallas Shaw OBE, FRCM, DMus was an English composer, conductor and theatre producer...
of Songs of Praise
Songs of Praise (hymnal)
Songs of Praise is a 1925 hymnal compiled by Percy Dearmer, Martin Shaw and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The popular English Hymnal of 1906 was considered too 'High church' by many people, and a new book, on broader lines was indicated. It was initially to be called 'Songs of the Spirit' but in the...
of 1925 and the Oxford Book of Carols
Oxford Book of Carols
The Oxford Book of Carols was published in 1928 by Oxford University Press. Its influence derives from its anthologists Percy Dearmer, Martin Shaw and Ralph Vaughan Williams and their choice of carol tunes, provision of new words for old tunes and the continuing reinvigoration of English church...
of 1928, all in collaboration with Percy Dearmer
Percy Dearmer
Percy Dearmer, was an English priest and liturgist best known as the author of The Parson's Handbook, a liturgical manual for Anglican clergy. A lifelong socialist, he was an early advocate of the public ministry of women and concerned with social justice...
.
- A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing
- All Creatures of Our God and King
- Alleluia, Sing to Jesus
- Amid the Thronging Worshippers
- At the Name of Jesus
- "Come Down, O Love Divine" original hymnody by Bianco of Siena (1434)"Discendi, Amor santo"and entitled "Down AmpneyDown AmpneyDown Ampney is a medium-sized village located in Cotswold district in Gloucestershire, in England.It is off the A417 which runs between Cirencester and Faringdon on the A420, and about 5 km north of Cricklade,...
" in honour of Vaughan Williams's birthplace - Come, Let Us with Our Lord Arise an Easter anthem
- Come Thou Long Expected Jesus a carol for the season of AdventAdventAdvent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on Advent Sunday, called Levavi...
- For All the Saints harmonised from "Sine Nomine"
- God Be With You Till We Meet Again
- I Love You Lord, My Strength, My Rock
- I Sing the Mighty Power of God
- Jesus, Lord, Redeemer
- "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep SilenceLet All Mortal Flesh Keep SilenceLet all mortal flesh keep silence is an ancient chant of Eucharistic devotion based on the verses taken from Habakkuk 2:20 "Let all the earth keep silence before Him"taken from one of the books of the 12 minor prophets of Bible...
", text of the Cherubic hymn of Liturgy of St JamesLiturgy of St JamesThe Liturgy of Saint James is the oldest complete form of the Eastern varieties of the Divine Liturgy still in use among certain Christian churches....
, harmonised to the French folk tune PicardyPicardy (hymn)"Picardy" is a hymn tune used in Christian churches, based on a French carol; it is in a minor key and its meter is 8.7.8.7.8.7. Its name comes from the province of France from where it is thought to originate. The tune dates back at least to the 17th century, and was originally used for the folk...
(1906) - Make Room Within My Heart, O God
- My God, My God, O Why Have You Forsaken Me? a lament for Good FridayGood FridayGood Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
services during PassiontidePassiontidePassiontide is a name for the last two weeks of Lent, beginning on Passion Sunday and ending on Holy Saturday.... - O Come to Me, the Master Said
- "O Little Town of BethlehemO Little Town of Bethlehem"O Little Town of Bethlehem" is a popular Christmas carol. The text was written by Phillips Brooks , an Episcopal priest, Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. He was inspired by visiting the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his...
" a popular Christmas Carol penned by the American Phillips BrooksPhillips BrooksPhillips Brooks was an American clergyman and author, who briefly served as Bishop of Massachusetts in the Episcopal Church during the early 1890s. In the Episcopal liturgical calendar he is remembered on January 23...
adapted to the English tune "Forest Green" - O Sing a Song of Bethlehem
- On Christmas Night All Christians Sing
- When the Church of Jesus
Vocal
- "Linden Lea", song (1901)
- The House of Life, six sonnets by Dante Gabriel RossettiDante Gabriel RossettiDante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
, set to music (1904) - Songs of TravelSongs of TravelSongs of Travel is a song cycle of nine songs originally written for baritone voice composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, with poems selected from the Robert Louis Stevenson collection of the same name. A complete performance of the entire cycle lasts between 20 and 24 minutes.They were originally...
(1904) - "The Sky Above The Roof" (1908)
- On Wenlock Edge, song cycle for tenor, piano and string quartet (1909)
- Along the Field, for tenor and violin
- Three Poems by Walt WhitmanWalt WhitmanWalter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
for baritone and piano (1920) - Four Poems by Fredegond ShoveFredegond ShoveFredegond Shove was an English poet.Fredegond was the daughter of the historian Frederic William Maitland and his wife Florence Henrietta Fisher. She married the economist Gerald Shove....
: for baritone and piano (1922) - Four Hymns: for tenor, viola obbligato and piano (1914)
- Merciless Beauty for tenor, two violins, and cello
- Four Last SongsFour Last Songs (Vaughan Williams)Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Four Last Songs cycle is made up of four songs: "Procris," "Tired," "Hands, Eyes, and Heart," and "Menelaus." All of the songs were composed between 1954 and 1958...
to poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams - Ten BlakeWilliam BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
songs, song cycle for high voice and oboe (1957)
Chamber and Instrumental
- String Quartet in C minor (1897) (early composition)
- String Quartet No. 1 in G minor (1908)
- String Quartet No. 2 in A minor ("For Jean, on her birthday," 1942–44)
- Phantasy Quintet for 2 violins, 2 violas and cello (1912)
- Piano Quintet in C minor for violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano (1903)
- Sonata in A minor for violin and piano (1952)
- RomanceRomance for viola and piano (Vaughan Williams)The Romance for viola and piano was one of many pieces found in Ralph Vaughan Williams' library after his death in 1958. It is probable that it was written and dedicated to the great English violist, Lionel Tertis, along with Vaughan Williams' other pieces for viola, Flos Campi and the Suite for...
for viola and piano (undated) - Six Studies in English Folk SongSix Studies in English Folk SongSix Studies in English Folk Song is a piece of chamber music written by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1926. It is a collection of six English folk songs set for cello and piano...
, for violoncello and piano (1926)
Organ
- Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes (Bryn CalfariaBryn CalfariaBryn Calfaria is a Welsh hymn tune written in 8,7,8,7,4,4,4,7,7 meter. The melody, written by William Owen, is used as a setting for several hymns, most notably the English "Lord, Enthroned in Heavenly Splendor" and the Welsh hymn "Laudamus"...
, RhosymedreRhosymedre (hymn tune)Rhosymedre is the name of a hymn tune written by the 19th-century Welsh Anglican priest John David Edwards. Edwards named the tune after the village of Rhosymedre near Ruabon in north-east Wales, where he was the vicar from 1843 until his death in 1885. The hymn tune is seven lines long, with a...
, HyfrydolHyfrydolHyfrydol is a Welsh hymn tune which appears in a number of Christian hymnals in various arrangements. Composed by Rowland Prichard in 1844, it was originally published in the composer's handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal Cyfaill y Cantorion...
) (1920) - Prelude and Fugue in C minor (1921)
- A Wedding Tune for Ann (1943)
- The Old One Hundredth Psalm Tune, harmonisation and arrangement (1953)
- Two Organ Preludes (The White Rock, St. David's Day) (1956)
Film, radio, and TV scores
- 49th Parallel49th Parallel (film)49th Parallel is the third film made by the British writer-director team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It was released in the United States as The Invaders. Despite the title, no scene in the movie is set at the 49th parallel, which forms much of the U.S.-Canadian border...
, 1940, his first, talked into it by Muir MathiesonMuir MathiesonJames Muir Mathieson was a Scottish conductor and composer. Mathieson was almost always described as a "Musical Director" on a large number of British films.-Career:...
to assuage his guilt at being able to do nothing for the war effort - Coastal CommandCoastal Command (film)Coastal Command is a 1942 British film made by the Crown Film Unit for the Ministry of Information. The movie, distributed by RKO, dramatised the work of RAF Coastal Command. It was made under the supervision of Ian Dalrymple, with the full cooperation of the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy...
, 1942 - BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
adaptation of The Pilgrim's ProgressThe Pilgrim's ProgressThe Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been...
, 1942 - The People's Land, 1943
- The Story of a Flemish FarmThe Story of a Flemish FarmThe Story of a Flemish Farm is an orchestral suite by British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, written as the score for the 1943 film The Flemish Farm - a wartime drama set in occupied Europe, and written when Vaughan Williams was 70....
, 1943 - Stricken Peninsula, 1945
- The Loves of Joanna GoddenThe Loves of Joanna GoddenThe Loves of Joanna Godden is a 1947 British historical drama film directed by Charles Frend and produced by Michael Balcon. The screenplay was written by H E Bates and Angus McPhail from the novel by Sheila Kaye-Smith. It stars Googie Withers, Jean Kent, John McCallum, Derek Bond, Chips Rafferty...
, 1946 - Scott of the Antarctic, 1948, partially reused for his Sinfonia antartica (Symphony No. 7)
- The England of ElizabethThe England of ElizabethThe England of Elizabeth is a 1957 documentary about the Elizabethan age, directed by John Taylor for British Transport Films. It is particularly noted for its score composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams...
- Bitter SpringsBitter Springs (film)Bitter Springs is a 1950 Australian-British film directed by Ralph Smart. An Australian pioneer family buy a piece of land from the government in the Australian outback and hire two inexperienced British men as drovers...
, 1950
Band
- Rhosymedre (based on a Welsh hymn tune for organ) for concert band (1920)
- (English) Folk Song SuiteEnglish Folk Song SuiteWritten in 1923, the English Folk Song Suite is one of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams's most famous works for military band. Although it is commonly known by the title given above, it was actually published as "Folk Song Suite" - the title which is used on the score and parts...
for military band (1923) - Sea SongsSea SongsSea Songs is an arrangement of three British sea-songs by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. It is based on the songs "Princess Royal", "Admiral Benbow" and "Portsmouth". The work is a march of roughly four minutes duration...
(1923) - Toccata Marziale for military band (1924)
- Overture: Henry V for brass band (1933/34)
- Flourish for Wind Band (1939)
- Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes arranged from the organ piece for brass band (1955) and published by Salvationist Publishing and Supplies
- Variations for brass band (1957)
Recordings
Vaughan Williams enjoys an extensive recorded legacy. Early recordings of individual symphonies made by Henry Wood (London), John BarbirolliJohn Barbirolli
Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
(Fifth), Adrian Boult
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
and Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
(both in the Sixth), and the composer's own recording of the Fourth, preceded several complete cycles. Stokowski's 1943 NBC Symphony broadcast of the Fourth Symphony has also been issued on CD, as has his 1964 Proms performance of the 8th with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Sir Eugene Goossens recorded the 1920 edition of A London Symphony
A London Symphony
A London Symphony is the second symphony composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The work is sometimes referred to as the Symphony No. 2, though it was not designated as such by the composer...
with the Cincinnati Orchestra for RCA Victor in 1941, the only recording of that version of the score ever made. Boult taped the first cycle (Symphonies 1–8) for Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
in the early 1950s, completing it with No. 9 for the Everest label in 1958; he re-recorded all nine for EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
between 1967 and 1972. Other cycles have followed from André Previn
André Previn
André George Previn, KBE is an American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world, and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings. -Early Life:Previn was born in...
, Bernard Haitink
Bernard Haitink
Bernard Johan Herman Haitink, CH, KBE is a Dutch conductor and violinist.- Early life :Haitink was born in Amsterdam, the son of Willem Haitink and Anna Haitink. He studied music at the conservatoire in Amsterdam...
, Bryden Thomson
Bryden Thomson
Bryden Thomson was a Scottish conductor.Bryden Thomson was born in Ayr. He led several British orchestras, including the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra from 1977 to 1985...
, Vernon Handley
Vernon Handley
Vernon George "Tod" Handley CBE was a British conductor, known in particular for his support of British composers. He was born of a Welsh father and an Irish mother into a musical family in Enfield, London. He acquired the nickname "Tod" because his feet were turned in at his birth, which his...
, Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Edward Slatkin is an American conductor and composer.-Early life and education:Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His father Felix Slatkin was the violinist, conductor and founder of the Hollywood String Quartet,...
and Richard Hickox
Richard Hickox
Richard Sidney Hickox CBE was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music.-Early life:Hickox was born in Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire into a musical family...
.
Several other foreign conductors have also recorded individual Vaughan Williams symphonies: Dimitri Mitropoulos and Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
both recorded the Fourth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic, the same orchestra with which Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
had made the first recording of the Sixth Symphony in 1949. This work was also recorded by Maurice Abravanel
Maurice Abravanel
Maurice Abravanel was aSwiss-American Jewish conductor of classical music. He is remembered as the conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years.-Life:...
and the Utah Symphony in 1966. Paavo Berglund
Paavo Berglund
Paavo Allan Engelbert Berglund is a Finnish conductor.Born in Helsinki, Berglund studied the violin as a child, and played an instrument made by his grandfather. By age 15, he had decided on music as his career, and by 18 was playing in restaurants...
also recorded the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies and, among other CD releases, the Portuguese premiere of the Ninth Symphony, with Pedro de Freitas Branco conducting the National Symphony Orchestra of Portugal, has also been issued. Similarly, the US premiere of the Ninth Symphony, given by Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
in Carnegie Hall in 1958 'In Memoriam Vaughan Williams' has also been released on CD by Cala Records.
A first official release of the Symphony No. 5
Symphony No. 5 (Vaughan Williams)
Symphony No. 5 by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was written between 1938 and 1943. In style it represents a shift away from the violent dissonance of the Fourth Symphony, and a return to the more romantic style of the earlier Pastoral Symphony...
conducted by the composer in 1952 was recently issued in the U.K. by Somm Recordings.
David Willcocks recorded much of the choral output for EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
in the 1960s and 1970s. Award-winning performances of the string quartets have followed on Naxos
Naxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
, which along with the Hyperion
Hyperion Records
Hyperion Records is an independent British classical record label.-History:The company was named after Hyperion, one of the Titans of Greek mythology. It was founded by George Edward Perry, widely known as "Ted", in 1980. Early LP releases included rarely recorded 20th century British music by...
and Chandos
Chandos Records
Chandos Records is an independent classical music recording company based in Colchester, Essex, in the United Kingdom, founded in 1979 by Brian Couzens.- Background :...
labels have recorded much neglected material, including works for brass band and the rarely performed operas.
EMI Classics has issued a budget 30-CD set (34+ hours) with virtually all of Vaughan Williams's works, including alternative settings.
External links
- 1956 audio interview with Vaughan Williams on his editing of the English HymnalEnglish HymnalThe English Hymnal was published in 1906 for the Church of England under the editorship of Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The preface to the hymnal began with the statement, "A collection of the best hymns in the English language." Much of the contents was used for the first time at St...
(from the BBC) - The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society
- Vaughan Williams Phantasy Quintet Soundbites and discussion of work (on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the composer's death)
- "Famous names in the First World War—Ralph Vaughan Williams" from The National Archives, includes extracts from his army service record, and his 1901 Census returnUnited Kingdom Census 1901A nationwide census was conducted in England and Wales on 31 March 1901. It contains records for 32 million people and 6 million houses, It covers the whole of England and Wales, with the exception of parts of Deal in Kent. Separate censuses were held in Scotland and Ireland...
.