Ralph Vaughan Williams
(mid 20th-century, Britain)
Born: October 12, 1872, Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, Eng
Died: August 26, 1958, London
The son of a clergyman, Ralph Vaughan
Williams attended the Royal College of Music and then took music degrees at
Trinity College, Cambridge University. He also studied in Berlin with Max Bruch
and in Paris with Maurice Ravel. On his return to England, Vaughan Williams
served as organist and choirmaster in several churches and was a teacher of
composition at the Royal College of Music.
In 1904 Vaughan Williams joined the
English Folk Song Society, and for several years he was active in collecting
and arranging old English melodies. He also became familiar with the music of
William Byrd and Henry Purcell, English composers of the 16th and 17th
centuries. The modal melodies of the folk songs and the free rhythms and smooth
counterpoint of the early composers became important elements of Vaughan
Williams's compositions.
The Fantasia on a Theme by Tallis for string quartet and double string orchestra
(1908, revised 1913) is one of Vaughan Williams's most important early
compositions. With this piece English music shook off 2 centuries of German
domination and tapped a rich source of indigenous music. The
cool modal harmonies and antiphonal string writing contrast strongly with the
lush, feverish music that was being composed in France and Germany at this
time. The London Symphony (1914) is another important piece in Vaughan
Williams's development. Its sprightly rhythms and street tunes, the
impressionist evocation of autumn mist on the Thames in the second movement,
the chimes of Big Ben at the end - all this was new in 20th-century English
music.
Vaughan Williams continued to write
symphonies throughout his life; the last, his Ninth, was written shortly before
his death when he was 86. In these works one can follow the composer's steady
development. The Fourth (1935) and Sixth (1948) symphonies are perhaps his
strongest, and most dissonant, statements.
Vocal music, both solo and choral, also
played an important role in Vaughan William's output. Early in his career he
edited and contributed to the English Hymnal (1906). His setting of A. E.
Housman's poems, On Wenlock Edge, for tenor and
string quartet (1909) is frequently performed, as is his Mass in G Minor for
double a cappella chorus (1923). His operas include Hugh the Drover
(1911-1914), which incorporates folk songs, and Sir John in Love (1929), based
on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. In the latter work Vaughan Williams
used the Elizabethan song "Greensleeves,"
which helped to make it one of the most familiar "folk" tunes of the
20th century.
Although he did not follow the newer
trends and musical fashions of his day, Vaughan Williams created a thoroughly
original style based on English folk music, 16th-and 17th-century polyphony,
and informal music of his own times, including jazz. He stated his credo as a
composer in his book National Music (1934): "Music is above all things the
art of the common man--the art of the humble--What the ordinary man will expect
from the composer is not cleverness, or persiflage, or an assumed vulgarity--he
will want something that will open to him the 'magic casements.'-- The art of
music above all other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation-- any
community of people who are spiritually bound together by language,
environment, history and common ideals, and, above all, a continuity with the
past."
Works Summary
5 Operas
3 "Incidental music" works
(performed during plays)
5 Ballets
9 Symphonies and 16 other orchestral works
including his fantasies on "Greensleeves"
and "A Theme by Thomas Tallis")
14 Concertos
30 Choral works and over 20 Arrangements
of Christian hymns
12 Song setting for solo voice
3 String Quartets, a piano quintet, and 4
other chamber works
5 Works for Organ
10 scores for Film, radio, and TV
8 works for Band
Featured Works on the Dalton Wednesday Series
Valiant-For-Truth
(10/19 concert)