Ralph
Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire on 12 October 1872. He was related to the Darwin and Wedgwood families and grew up in an atmosphere of Liberalism, in which he was encouraged to pursue his musical interests. He read History at Cambridge University and went to the Royal College of Music where his teachers were Parry, Wood, and Stanford. He then went on to study with Bruch in Berlin, and Ravel in Paris. Vaughan Williams’s wide-ranging musical activities greatly enhanced English musical life but they have also contributed to the mistaken view that his compositional output was in some way parochial. He believed in the value of music education and wrote practical competition pieces and serviceable church music. Additionally, with 49th Parallel (1940–1) he found a new outlet in writing for film. His profoundly disturbing Symphony No.6 (1948) received international acclaim with more than a hundred performances in a little over two years. Although one of his first works to achieve success, Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 (1906), makes use of folksong, he rarely incorporated such material directly into his orchestral and instrumental compositions. However, his enthusiasm for folksong (he collected over 800 examples) undoubtedly influenced his compositional language, as did his interest in Elizabethan and Jacobean music. His sensitivity to the twentieth-century human condition, his flexibility in writing for all levels of music-making, and his great imagination combine to make him one of the key figures in twentieth-century music. Vaughan Williams died on 26 August 1958 and his ashes were interred at Westminster Abbey. ed. David Matthews Symphony No. 4 in F minor Full orchestra 3 fl (II+picc, III opt), 3 ob (III+ ca opt), 2 cl, bcl (opt), 2 bn, cbn (opt), 4 hn, 2 tpt, 3 tbn, tba, timp, 2 perc (SD, tri, cym, BD), str Full score 9780193519671 Study score 9780193404748 Score and parts on hire 9780193694118 Described by Walton as the ‘greatest symphony since Beethoven’, Vaughan Williams’s fourth symphony was composed in 1935 and is noted for its abrasively dissonant harmonic language, unlike much of the composer’s other work. 34 minutes ed. Peter Horton Symphony No. 5 in D major Full orchestra 2 fl (II+picc), ob, ca, 2 cl, 2 bn, 2 hn, 2 tpt, 3 tbn, timp, str Full score 9780193359420 Study score 9780193368248 Score and parts on hire 9780193694163 Despite having been composed in the years 1938–43, when Europe was ravaged by war, this work radiates peace and serenity. It marks the peak of the lyrical modalism of works such as the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910), Flos Campi (1925), and Job (1931). Although it is not a programme symphony, it draws heavily on John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress for inspiration, featuring several themes that were sketched for, and eventually used in, Vaughan Williams’s 1951 opera. In addition, Bunyan’s words ‘He hath given me rest by his sorrow and life by his death’ were originally inscribed over the third movement. 38 minutes Orchestral Works ed. David Lloyd-Jones Symphony No. 6 in E minor Full orchestra 3 fl, 2 ob, ca, 2 cl, bcl/tsax, 2 bn, cbn, 4 hn, 3 tpt, 3 tbn, tba, timp, 3 perc (SD, BD, tri, cym, xyl), 2 hp (II opt), str Full score 9780193376335 Study score 9780193379497 Score and parts on hire 9780193694217 Vaughan Williams’s sixth symphony was composed immediately after the Second World War and its dramatic, at times violent, musical language was long felt to be a comment on that conflict (though the composer denied it had any programmatic intent). Its power and invention were immediately recognized and it has remained part of the concert repertoire ever since. 34 minutes ed. David Matthews Sinfonia Antartica (Symphony No. 7) Soprano solo, SSA chorus, and full orchestra 3 fl (III doubling picc.), 3 ob (III doubling cor anglais), 3 cl (III doubling bass cl.), 3 bsn (III doubling contra), 4 hn, 3 tpt, 3 tbn, tba, timp, perc, cel, hp, pno, org, soprano solo, women’s voices, str Study score 9780193385887 Scores and parts on hire 9780193694262 Symphony No. 7, the Sinfonia Antartica, was drawn from the music Vaughan Williams provided for the film Scott of the Antarctic in 1947 and was completed in 1952. The composer skilfully evokes the sparse beauty and grandeur of the landscape with a large orchestra and percussion section, including—famously—a wind machine, to create a work of great power and intensity. 42 minutes Orchestral Works This catalogue presents all of the works published by Oxford Unviersity Press, except the hymn tunes and hymn books. For more information about these, please contact us at music.enquiry.uk@oup.com. Listen to orchestral music by Ralph Vaughan Williams on Spotify Listen to choral music by Ralph Vaughan Williams on Spotify 2 3
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