Ralph Vaughan Williams Catalogue

Christmas Choral
As Joseph was a-walking
TTBB unaccompanied
Available from Banks Music Publications
Children’s Christmas Song
Two-part and piano or orchestra
Vocal score 9780193437920
Available from Banks Music Publications
The First Nowell
TBarB unaccompanied
Vocal score 9780193404519
4 minutes
ed. Roy Douglas
The First Nowell
Christmas Choral
Soprano and baritone soloists, SATB choir, and full
orchestra, or strings, piano and organ
Full orch: 2 fl, ob, 2 cl, bn, 2 hn, 2 tpt, 2 tbn, timp, hp, str
Scores and parts on hire 9780193389533
Folk Songs of the Four Seasons
(Winter)
Upper-voice chorus and full orchestra
2 fl (II + picc), 2 ob, 2 cl, 2 bn, 4 hn, 2 tpt, 3 tbn, tba, timp, 2
perc (glock, tri, SD), hp, cel, org, str
Scores and parts on hire 9780193390874
This is the final part of Vaughan Williams’s appealing
cantata, featuring four carol settings: ‘Children’s Christmas
Song’, ‘Wassail Song’, ‘In Bethlehem City’, and ‘God bless the
Master’. The first song showcases melancholy beauty; the
second is a hearty Christmas drinking song; the third is a
tender unaccompanied setting; and the fourth is a warm
and uplifting hymn-like carol.
Children’s Christmas Song • Wassail Song • In Bethlehem
City • God bless the Master
13 minutes
God rest you merry, gentlemen
from English Traditional Carols
SA and piano
Vocal score 9780193857209
This is a rousing setting of the popular Christmas tune. The
first and fourth verses are in unison, the second and fifth
feature a gentle descant, and the third and sixth verses are
in stirring harmony.
3 minutes
In Bethlehem City
SSA unaccompanied
Vocal score 9780193437968
Available from Banks Music Publications
Lullaby from Hodie
Soprano soloist, SSA choir, and piano
Vocal score 9780193854482
This tender lullaby sets William Ballet’s well-known text
‘Sweet was the song the Virgin sang’.
2.5 minutes
Nine Carols for male voices
TTBB unaccompanied
Vocal score 9780193859401
This masterfully crafted set of carols features a mixture of
popular carols and lesser-known but equally enjoyable
carols such as the Mummer’s Carol. The arrangements were
made during the Second World War at the request of the
British Council for performance by H.M. Forces in Iceland.
God rest you merry, gentlemen • As Joseph was a-walking
• Mummer’s Carol • The first Nowell • The Lord at first •
Coventry Carol • I saw three ships • A Virgin most pure •
Dives and Lazarus
On Christmas Night
Mezzo-soprano and baritone solists, SATB choir,
and chamber orchestra
fl (+picc), ob, cl, bn, hn, tpt, tbn, 2 perc (timp, SD, sus cym,
tri, xyl), hp, cel (opt), pn, str; offstage: perc (xyl, bells), pn
Vocal and instrumental scores on hire 9780193391833
This masque is loosely based on Charles Dickens’ A
Christmas Carol, conveying an adaptation of the perennially
popular story through a combination of dancing and
singing. Well-known Christmas carols are woven into the
score. The score radiates warmth and humour, making it
a charming seasonal work for amateur and professional
groups alike.
30 minutes
This is the truth
from English Traditional Carols
SA and piano
Vocal score 9780193857193
3 minutes
Two carols
SATB unaccompanied
Vocal score 9780193395459
Available from Banks Music Publications
Christmas Choral
Scores and parts on hire - str, pno & org 9780193389540
Vocal score* 9780193389519
Libretto* 9780193389526
Vaughan Williams composed this musical ‘nativity play’ in
the final year of his life, yet it is full of vitality and Christmas
spirit, recalling his earlier folk song settings in its musical
style and lightness of mood. The libretto, written by
Simona Pakenham, is based on various medieval pageants,
and the music is founded on traditional Christmas tunes.
Vaughan Williams’s recastings of these familiar melodies
are beautifully crafted, ranging from gently expressivity to
stirring grandeur in tone. The final portion of the work was
not finished upon the composer’s death, so his amanuensis
Roy Douglas completed the work on the basis of the
existing sketches.
*Available from Banks Music Publishing
50-minute stage version; 30-minute concert version
Hodie (This Day)
Soprano, tenor, and baritone soloists, SATB choir,
and orchestra
3 fl (II opt, III+picc), 2 ob (II opt), ca, 2 cl, 2 bn, cbn (opt), 4 hn
(III&IV opt), 3 tpt (III opt), 3 tbn, tba, timp, 3 perc (SD, BD, TD,
tri, cym, glock, tbell), cel, hp (opt), pn, org (opt), str
Vocal score 9780193395510
Chorus part 9780193870017
Vocal and instrumental scores on hire 9780193395534
In this Christmas cantata, Vaughan Williams uses a wide
range of musical styles to create a compelling, vivid, and
highly original retelling of the Christmas story. Composed
in 1953-4, Hodie (This Day) was Vaughan Williams’s final
large-scale choral-orchestral work, and was premiered
under his own baton in Worcester Cathedral as part
of the 1954 Three Choirs Festival. It comprises sixteen
movements, including ‘narrations’ of words from the Bible,
chorales, and a variety of other forms for both soloists
and choir. The words are taken from diverse sources, with
sacred texts from the Vespers of Christmas Day and the
Bible interspersed with secular texts by poets including
John Milton, Thomas Hardy, and Ursula Vaughan Williams.
ed. David Willcocks
O little town of Bethlehem
from Carols for Choirs 1 and 100 Carols for
Choirs
SATB and piano/brass quintet/strings/chamber
orchestra
Brass quintet: 2 tpt, hn, tbn, tba; Chamber orchestra: 2 fl, 2
ob, 2 cl, 2 bn, 2 hn, 2 tpt, str; OR strings only
Score and parts on hire - brass quintet 9780193441798
Score and parts on hire - orchestra 9780193441781
6 minutes
O My Dear Heart
SSSAAA unaccompanied
Vocal score 9780193364905
This is a beautiful arrangement of the old German tune
‘Lasst uns das Kindlein Wiegan’, setting words adapted
from an old Scots poem by Ursula Wood.
3 minutes
Two songs of winter
from Folk Songs of the Four Seasons
Unison voices (with descant) and piano
Vocal score 9780193857612
These two settings from the Winter section of Folk Songs of
the Four Seasons are full of Christmas spirit. ‘God bless the
master’ is a hymn-like setting of a folk song that Vaughan
Williams collected in Hampshire in 1909, while ‘Wassail
Song’ is full of joie de vivre. The latter evokes the merriness
of wassailing, in which people went from door to door
singing carols and exchanging mulled cider for gifts.
God bless the Master • Wassail Song
6.5 minutes
We’ve been a while
from Carols for Choirs 1
SATB and string orchestra
Score and parts on hire 9780193442092
6 minutes
50 minutes
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