Background
The son of a clergyman, Ralph Vaughan Williams was born at Down Ampney in Gloucestershire, England on October 12, 1872.
(Vaughan Williams' setting of poems from George Herbert's ...)
Vaughan Williams' setting of poems from George Herbert's 1633 collection, "The Temple: Sacred Poems" was done between 1906 and 1911. The premiere was given under the composer's direction on September 14, 1911 at the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester. This new edition of the vocal score by Richard Sargeant has been prepared with chorus' needs in mind. The layout is vastly improved over the original 1911 score, with the vocal staves at full size while the piano reduction is produced in smaller type. Printed in a convenient, easy to hold size which fits comfortably in any choir folder - and enables the lowest priced score on the market.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160874048X/?tag=2022091-20
((Boosey & Hawkes Voice). A new, easier to read music engr...)
(Boosey & Hawkes Voice). A new, easier to read music engraving of these perennial voice studio favorites with recorded audio accompaniment for practice and historical introduction.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1480386472/?tag=2022091-20
('Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Research and Information Guide...)
'Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Research and Information Guide' presents themost extensive annotated bibliography of its subject yet produced. Itoffers comprehensive coverage of the English composer's prose works andaccounts for over 1,000 secondary sources from all critical andscholarly eras. A single-numbering format and substantial indexesfacilitate efficient searches of what is the most complete bibliographyof Ralph Vaughan Williams since Neil Butterworth's guide to research was published by Garland in 1990.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1138792713/?tag=2022091-20
(for solo violin and orchestra or piano This serene romanc...)
for solo violin and orchestra or piano This serene romance is one of Vaughan Williams's most enduring popular works. Taking its title from a poem by George Meredith, the music perfectly evokes the lark's 'chirrup, whistle, slur, and shake'. This beautifully presented new edition of the violin and piano score includes a preface by Michael Kennedy.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0193360098/?tag=2022091-20
The son of a clergyman, Ralph Vaughan Williams was born at Down Ampney in Gloucestershire, England on October 12, 1872.
He attended the Royal College of Music and then took music degrees at Trinity College, Cambridge University. He studied in Berlin with Max Bruch (1896 - 1897).
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.
Vaughan Williams is among the best-known British symphonists, noted for his very wide range of moods, from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious to exuberant. He founded the nationalist movement in English music. Among the most familiar of his other concert works are Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910) and The Lark Ascending (1914).
('Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Research and Information Guide...)
(Vaughan Williams' setting of poems from George Herbert's ...)
(for solo violin and orchestra or piano This serene romanc...)
((Boosey & Hawkes Voice). A new, easier to read music engr...)
Quotations: "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. "
