Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams was a central figure in the renaissance of English music that occurred in the first part of the 20th century. Using long, smooth lines and modal tonalities derived from folk sources, he deftly fashioned a unique style in the post-Romantic vein. At the core of his output are his nine symphonies and other orchestral compositions, such as his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and The Lark Ascending. His choral settings of hymns, carols, and folk songs -- some of which have become the standard setting -- appear in several collections that he co-edited.
Vaughan Williams, who lost his father early in life, was cared for by his mother. Related through his mother to both Charles Darwin and the Wedgwoods of pottery fame, he grew up without financial worries. He studied history and music at Trinity College, Cambridge, and finished up at the Royal College of Music, where he worked with Parry, Wood, and Stanford. In 1897, the year he married Adeline Fisher, Vaughan Williams traveled to Berlin to study with Max Bruch, also seeking out Maurice Ravel as a teacher several years later, despite the fact that the French composer was three years his junior. In 1903, he started collecting English folksongs; certain characteristics of English folk music, particularly its modal tonalities, in many ways informed his approach to composition. Vaughan Williams further developed his style while working as editor of the English Hymnal, which was completed in 1906. His work on the English Hymnal went beyond editing, for he contributed several new hymn tunes, most notably the Sine nomine, the tune for the hymn For All the Saints. The composer's interest in and knowledge of traditional English music is reflected in his song cycle On Wenlock Edge (1909), based on selections from A.E. Housman's immensely popular volume of poetry A Shropshire Lad. In his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, composed in 1910, Vaughan Williams introduced antiphonal effects within the context of modal tonality, juxtaposing consonant, but unrelated, triads. Composed in 1914, his Symphony No. 2, "A London Symphony" brings to life, with great charm, the sounds of London from dawn to dusk. That year, Vaughan Williams also wrote his pastoral The Lark Ascending, for violin and orchestra. When World War I broke out, the 41-year-old composer enlisted as an orderly in the medical corps, becoming famous for organizing choral singing and other entertainment in the trenches. He was commissioned from the ranks, ending his war service as an artillery officer. The war interrupted the composer's work but did not, it seems, disrupt the inner continuity of his creative development. The Symphony No. 3 ("Pastoral"), composed in 1922, conjures up a familiar world, effectively incorporating folksong motifs into sonorities created by sequential chords. While critics detected pessimistic moods and themes in the later symphonies, ascribing a shift to a darker vision to the composer's alleged general pessimism about the world, Vaughan Williams refused to attach any programmatic content to these works. However, the composer created a convincing musical description of a desolate world in his Symphony No. 7 "Sinfonia Antartica" (1952), which was inspired by the request to write the music for the film Scott of the Antarctic. In addition to his symphonies, Vaughan Williams composed highly acclaimed religious music, as well as works inspired by English spiritual literature, culminating in his 1951 opera The Pilgrim's Progress, based on the spiritual classic by John Bunyan. An artist of extraordinary creative energy, Vaughan Williams continued composing with undiminished powers until his death at age 87.
© Rovi Staff /TiVo
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Coverdale's Carol
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, William Vann
Christmas Music - Released by Albion Records on 22 Oct 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Simple Gifts: American and British Art Songs of the 20th Century
New York City Children's Chorus
Classical - Released by MSR Classics on 10 Nov 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Relax With Vaughan Williams
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 30 May 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
All people that on earth do dwell "The Old Hundredth" (Arr. for Choir, Congregation, Orchestra and Organ by Ralph Vaughan Williams)
The Band of the Household Cavalry, The Choir Of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Luke Bond
Classical - Released by CRD Records on 11 Aug 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Salutation Carol
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, William Vann
Christmas Music - Released by Albion on 22 Oct 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Classical Romance with Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir Neville Marriner, Robert Haydon Clark, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Consort of London
Lounge - Released by PMI Collins Classics on 1 Feb 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ralph Vaughan William: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis - Frank Martin: Polyptyque - Arthur Honegger: Simphony No. 2 for Strings and Trumpet, H. 153 (Live)
Chamber Music - Released by VDE-GALLO on 6 Mar 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blake's Cradle Song
Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Vann, Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea
Christmas Music - Released by Albion on 12 Oct 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Music in the Heart
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Albion on 1 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Psalm of Sion
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, William Vann
Christmas Music - Released by Albion on 22 Oct 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Classic Life - The Fourth Movement
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir Adrian Boult
Lounge - Released by Don't stop the music on 4 May 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Friends in Low Places
DePaul University Wind Ensemble
Classical - Released by Albany Records on 1 Jul 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Music for the Underdogs of the Orchestra
Gunther Schuller, New England Conservatory Orchestra
Concertos - Released by GM Recordings on 1 Jan 1984
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams, Holst & Parry: Choral Works
Sir David Willcocks, Sheila Armstrong, Teresa Cahill
Classical - Released by Lyrita on 1 Jan 1982
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mass in G Minor: Kyrie
Vokalensemblen Sundbyberg, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Rikard Lindberg Karlsson
Classical - Released by Swedish Society on 10 Jun 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams Gramophone Premieres
Classical - Released by Dutton Epoch on 12 Aug 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classical Symphonies Collection
Classical - Released by Classique Perfecto on 27 Sep 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classical's Coming Home
Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams
Classical - Released by PMI Collins Classics on 9 Jul 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Vaughan Williams Symphonies 4 In F Minor & 5 In D Minor - Overture "The Wasps" (Digitally Remastered)
Classical - Released by Avid Entertainment on 19 Jun 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Choral Classics
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 12 Apr 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo