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Ralph Vaughan Williams
Biography
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM (12 October 1872, Down Ampney, Gloucestershire – 26 August 1958, London) was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. 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.
Vaughan Williams spent most of his life in London. He studied the viola, piano and organ, and he wanted to compose, but his family discouraged him from an orchestral career. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, and studied composition at the Royal College of Music, as well as organ and piano with several teachers, Although he also studied abroad with Max Bruch and Maurice Ravel, his style remained individual and English. He was appointed organist at Lambeth, and his interest in English folk music dates from his stay there. He became good friends with Gustav Holst, and they often shared their works in progress with each other. His work on the English Hymnal greatly influenced his musical career.
He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in France during World War I. From the 1920s onward, he was in increasing demand as a composer and conductor. He composed simple pieces and grand orchestral works and is considered the outstanding composer of his generation in England. According to Hubert J. Foss in The Heritage of Music, “In Vaughan Williams we hear the historic speech of the English people. What he gives us in music is the language of the breakfast table. It is also the language that Shakespeare wrote.”
Works for Winds
Adaptable Music
- Folk Songs from Somerset (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
- My Bonny Boy (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
- Seventeen Come Sunday (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
All Wind Works
- Concerto for Bass Tuba (arr. Wick and Chambers) (1954/1992)
- Concerto Grosso (arr. Grechesky) (1924)
- Concerto in F minor for Tuba and Winds (arr. Hare) (1954/1992)
- England's Pleasant Land (arr. Noble) (1938/2017)
- English Folk Song Suite. See: Folk Song Suite
- English Folk Song Suite (arr. Villanueva) (1924/)
- Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (arr. Bocook) (1910/2006)
- Fantasia on Greensleeves (arr. Wagner) (1934/2011)
- Five English Folk Songs (arr. Feldman) (1913/2009)
- Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus" (arr. Gregson) (1939/2004)
- Flourish for Glorious John (or. Boyd) (1957/1998)
- Flourish for Wind Band (1939)
- Folk Song Suite (1924/2008)
- Folk Songs from Somerset (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
- Golden Vanity, The (arr. Wagner) (1933/2009)
- I Vow to Thee, My Country (as setter; ed. Grechesky) (1921/1988)
- Lark Ascending, The (tr. Silvester) (1914/1925/2003)
- Linden Lea (arr. Wagner) (1902/2013)
- Linden Lea (arr. Stout) (1902/1984)
- The Lowlands of Scotland (arr. Daehn) (1912/2006)
- March Past of the Kitchen Utensils (arr. Erwin) (1909/2010)
- My Bonny Boy (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
- Norfolk Rhapsody (tr. Robert O'Brien) (1905)
- Norfolk Rhapsody No. 2 in D minor (tr. O'Toole) (1906/2014?)
- Overture to "The Wasps" (tr. Frank Hudson) (1909)
- Prelude, 49th Parallel (arr. van der Beek) (1960/2018)
- Prelude: 49th Parallel (arr. Noble) (1941/2014)
- Prelude: 49th Parallel (arr. Winkler) (1941/1960)
- Prelude from "49th Parallel" (tr. Osmon) (1941/1960/1987/2002)
- Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes (arr. Curnow) (1954/1982)
- Prelude: The New Commonwealth (arr. Grauer) (1940/2006)
- A Ralph Vaughan Williams Portrait (arr. Wagner) (2018)
- Rhosymedre (tr. Beeler) (1920/1972)
- Rhosymedre (tr. Johnston) (1920/2011)
- Rhosymedre (tr. Baldwin) (1920/)
- The Running Set (arr. Daehn) (1933/2007)
- Running Set, The (tr. Silvester) (1933)
- Scherzo alla Marcia (1956)
- Sea Songs (1925)
- Sea Songs (arr. Longfield) (1925/2006)
- Seventeen Come Sunday (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
- Sine Nomine (arr. Cacavas) (1906/1998)
- Sine Nomine (arr. Houseknecht) (1906/1960)
- Sine Nomine (arr. Reed) (1906/1976)
- Songs of Travel (arr. Patterson) (1901-4)
- Three Dorset Songs (arr. Stotter) (1902-1903/2003)
- Three Studies in English Folk Song (arr. Harbinson) (1927/1999/2003)
- Toccata Marziale (1924)
- Toccata Marziale (ed Battisti) (ed. Battisti) (1924/2005)
- Variations for Wind Band (trans. Hunsberger) (1957/1988/1997)
- Vaughan Williams Christmas, A (arr. Wagner) (1999)
- Wassail (arr. Smith)
Resources
- Harris, Edward C. "Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 6, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 486-490. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2007.
- Howes, Frank. (1954) The Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams Digital Text.
- Johnson, Luke D. (2008). An examination of the works of Mother Earth by David Maslanka, English Folk Song Suite by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Symphony #1 In Memoriam Dresden – 1945 by Daniel Bukvich, and Concertino for B-flat clarinet by Carl Maria Von Weber, OP. 26/arranged by M.L. Lake. [Master's Thesis].
- Miles, Richard B., and Larry Blocher. (2010). Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 1. Chicago: GIA Publications. pp. 175.
- Pease, Andy. "English Folk Song Suite by Ralph Vaughan Williams." Wind Band Literature, 20 January 2011. Web. Accessed 25 June 2021
- San Jose (Calif.) Wind Symphony concert program, 9 March 2014