- Born:
- October 12, 1872, Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England
- Notable Works:
- “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis”
- “The Lark Ascending”
- Movement / Style:
- nationalistic music
- Subjects Of Study:
- folk music
Ralph Vaughan Williams
-
Who was Ralph Vaughan Williams?
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) was a leading English composer of the early 20th century and a founder of the English nationalist music movement.
Vaughan Williams studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, the Royal College of Music, and with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris. Around 1903, he began collecting folk songs. From 1904–06, he served as musical editor for The English Hymnal, where he wrote the celebrated hymn tune "Sine Nomine".
His compositions include orchestral, stage, chamber, and vocal works, and his style incorporated modal elements and rhythmic freedom, drawing from English folk song and Tudor-period music.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What type of music did he compose?
Ralph Vaughan Williams, a 20th-century English composer, is known for founding the nationalist movement in English music. His compositions spanned a range of genres, including orchestral, stage, chamber, and vocal works.
Williams's notable works include his nine symphonies, such as A London Symphony and Sinfonia Antartica, which was adapted from his film score for Scott of the Antarctic. He also composed concerti for various instruments, like the piano, oboe, and tuba, as well as the Romance for harmonica and orchestra. His stage works include The Pilgrim’s Progress and Job, a masque for dancing, reflecting his mystical interests, and the ballad opera Hugh the Drover. Additionally, Vaughan Williams wrote numerous songs, choral works, part-songs, and hymn and folk song settings.
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Why is Ralph Vaughan Williams important in English music history?
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) was a pivotal English composer and the founder of the nationalist movement in English music.
Williams broke ties with the continental European musical styles that had dominated Britain for two centuries. He drew inspiration from English folk songs and Tudor-period music, incorporating modal elements and rhythmic freedom into his compositions. His unique style is both deeply personal and distinctly English.
His notable works include The Lark Ascending, A London Symphony, and Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Vaughan Williams' compositions spanned various genres, including orchestral, stage, chamber, and vocal works, leaving a lasting impact on English music.
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What are some of his most famous works?
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) was a leading English composer and a founder of the nationalist movement in English music. He is celebrated for his ability to weave elements of English folk song and Tudor-period music into his compositions, creating a deeply personal and English style.
Some of Vaughan Williams's most famous works include:
* A London Symphony (1914)
* Sinfonia Antartica (1953)
* The Lark Ascending (1914)
* Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910)
* Five Mystical Songs (1911)
* Dona Nobis Pacem (1936)3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How did English folk music influence his compositions?
Ralph Vaughan Williams's deep dive into English folk music and Tudor-era compositions significantly shaped his unique style. Around 1903, he started collecting folk songs, and from 1904 to 1906, he served as the musical editor for The English Hymnal, where he composed the well-known "Sine Nomine".
His immersion in folk songs and early English music enriched his talent, enabling him to integrate modal elements and rhythmic flexibility. This fusion resulted in a musical style that was both deeply personal and distinctly English. His Norfolk Rhapsodies showed his distinctive melodic and harmonic style, incorporating folk song elements.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How did his music change the way people viewed English classical music?
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) broke from the German-influenced Continental tradition that had dominated English music for two centuries. Instead, he drew inspiration from English folk songs and Tudor-period music. This enabled him to create a personal and distinctly English musical style by incorporating modal elements and rhythmic freedom.
Like nationalist composers such as Modest Mussorgsky, Bedřich Smetana, and Manuel de Falla, Vaughan Williams turned to folk song as a source of native musical style. His works include orchestral, stage, chamber, and vocal compositions.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Ralph Vaughan Williams (born October 12, 1872, Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England—died August 26, 1958, London, England) was an English composer in the first half of the 20th century, and the founder of the nationalist movement in English music.
Vaughan Williams studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in London at the Royal College of Music under two major figures of the late 19th-century renaissance of English music, Sir Charles Stanford and Sir Hubert Parry. In 1897–98 he studied in Berlin under the noted composer Max Bruch and in 1909 in Paris under Maurice Ravel. About 1903 he began to collect folk songs, and in 1904–06 he was musical editor of The English Hymnal, for which he wrote his celebrated “Sine Nomine” (“For All the Saints”). After artillery service in World War I, he became professor of composition at the Royal College of Music.
His studies of English folk song and his interest in English music of the Tudor period fertilized his talent, enabling him to incorporate modal elements (i.e., based on folk song and medieval scales) and rhythmic freedom into a musical style at once highly personal and deeply English.
Vaughan Williams’s compositions include orchestral, stage, chamber, and vocal works. His three Norfolk Rhapsodies (numbers 2 and 3 later withdrawn), notably the first in E minor (first performed, 1906), were the first works to show his assimilation of folk song contours into a distinctive melodic and harmonic style. His nine symphonies cover a vast expressive range. Especially popular are the second, A London Symphony (1914; rewritten 1915; rev. 1918, 1920, 1934), and the seventh, Sinfonia Antartica (1953), an adaptation of his music for the film Scott of the Antarctic (1949). Other orchestral works include the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910); concerti for piano (later arranged for two pianos and orchestra), oboe, and tuba; and the Romance for harmonica and orchestra (1952).
Of his stage works, The Pilgrim’s Progress (1951) and Job (1931), a masque for dancing, reflect his serious, mystical side. Hugh the Drover (1924), a ballad opera, stems from his folk song interest. Riders to the Sea (1937) is a poignant setting of John Millington Synge’s play.
He wrote many songs of great beauty, including On Wenlock Edge (1909), set to poems of A.E. Housman and consisting of a cycle for tenor, string quartet, and piano (later arranged for tenor and orchestra) and Five Mystical Songs (1911), set to poems of George Herbert. Particularly notable among his choral works are the Mass in G Minor, the cantatas Toward the Unknown Region (1907) and Dona Nobis Pacem (1936; Grant Us Peace), and the oratorio Sancta Civitas (1926; The Holy City). He also wrote many part-songs, as well as hymn and folk song settings.
Vaughan Williams broke the ties with continental Europe that for two centuries through George Frideric Handel, Felix Mendelssohn, and lesser German composers had made Britain virtually a musical province of Germany. Although his predecessors in the English musical renascence, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Hubert Parry, and Sir Charles Stanford, remained within the Continental tradition, Vaughan Williams, like such nationalist composers as the Russian Modest Mussorgsky, the Czech Bedřich Smetana, and the Spanish Manuel de Falla, turned to folk song as a wellspring of native musical style.
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