We are kicking off this year’s composer of the month with another English composer – Ralph Vaughan Williams. 

He came from the village of Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, where his father was a minister. His mother was the niece of Charles Darwin, the scientist who came up with the theory of evolution. When Ralph (pronounced “Rafe” in England) was a child, he already knew he wanted to be a composer. Vaughan Williams studied at the Royal College of Music in London, alongside Gustav Holst (another famous composer). 

Vaughan Williams was dedicated to collecting and studying English folk music to preserve it for the future. Traditionally, folk songs are passed on orally, that is, someone learns a song by listening to another person sing it. Vaughan Williams travelled around England, writing down folk songs. He collected over 800 of them! Those folk songs had such a big influence on him that many of them ended up in his compositions.

Because of his interest in old tunes, Vaughan Williams was asked to revise the official English Hymnal (collection of Hymns used by the church). One of the most famous orchestra pieces Vaughan Williams composed is based on a tune from that hymnal – a tune by 16th century British composer Thomas Tallis.

The composer never took his privileged background for granted and he viewed music as being part of everyone’s everyday life, rather than being the preserve of an elite.

Vaughan Williams’ most popular piece, The Lark Ascending, was written in 1914 but the outbreak of World War I meant he had to put its premiere on hold. It was given in 1921 by the violinist Marie Hall – the woman for whom Vaughan Williams had written it.

Aged 41 when World War I began, Vaughan Williams served in France and Salonika. Prolonged exposure to gunfire began a process of hearing loss that eventually caused severe deafness in his old age.

Vaughan Williams was rather sentimental about military bands which he recognized as being crucially important to the UK’s cultural and community life. In 1923 he composed English Folk Songs Suite for them.

Vaughan Williams was still composing great music into his 80s. Williams works include nine symphonies, operas and film scores At the age of 85, he was set to supervise the first recording of his Ninth Symphony with Sir Adrian Boult (a very famous composer). But his death on 26 August 1958, the night before the recording sessions were to begin, prompted the conductor to announce to the musicians that their performance would be a memorial to the composer.

Lark Ascending  

Overture to the Wasps

English Folk Song Suite

Fantasia on Greensleeves Toronto Orchestra or Fantasia on Greensleeves – chamber group 

Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis

March of the Kitchen Utensils