Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

by Em Marshall

‘The art of music above all other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation’ said Ralph Vaughan Williams, and how truly he spoke. Almost all English composers of the early twentieth century exude Englishness in their works – and by this I don’t mean that they all depict cows looking over gates, but that their music has captured something of the spirit of this country, and is recognisably English in style – and Vaughan Williams is most certainly not an exception. One need only listen to his exquisite Linden Lea or Oxford Elegy to find England personified therein! Yet he can be said to have had a healthy mix of both the English and the continental in his musical education. He studied under two of the musical ‘greats’ of their time, Parry and Stanford, at the Royal College of Music, as well as with Charles Wood at Trinity College, Cambridge. Abroad, he had a few lessons with Ravel in Paris and studied with Bruch in Berlin. His own music, however, stands firmly rooted in all that is best in English music – indeed, Ravel is said to have called him ‘my only pupil who does not write my music’. RVW himself said that ‘We pupils of Parry, if we have been wise, inherited the great English choral tradition which Tallis passed onto Byrd, Byrd Gibbons, Gibbons to Purcell, Purcell to Battishill and Greene, and they in turn through the Wesleys to Parry. He has passed on the torch to us and it is our duty to keep it alight’.

This love of Englishness and awareness of the importance of the English choral tradition manifested itself in many ways discernable throughout his works. Like his close friend Gustav Holst, RVW was fascinated with folk song and this shines through in lilting, singing melodies and dancing rhythms in a great deal of his output. Another way was through his work editing the new English Hymnal. Originally intended as a fairly swift task to be completed in a couple of months, he stretched it out for two years, in which time he made extensive use of his passion for collecting folk songs. He set out to return the hymns to their original state, reducing the Victorian distortions of the simple melodies. He composed a number of works himself for the hymnal and commissioned further tunes from his contemporaries.

At the start of the war he enlisted in the medical corps and was posted to France, although aged 41. He lasted the war period well, making the most of his mixture of experiences, which would later add to the rich fabric of his compositions. After the war he returned to his former college, the RCM, as a teacher and spent some time re-working earlier compositions  before turning his pen to what are considered to be his more mature and distinctive works.

He is one of only a handful of composers who continued developing musically well into his 80s, writing original and exciting works right until the end of his life. His oeuvre includes operas, nine symphonies, concerti, songs, ballet music, film scores, chamber and choral works, all of them innovative, evocative, moving and characterful, with an ability to surprise - sometime shock (his fourth and sixth symphonies for example) - and delight.

He lived to the ripe age of 86, composing, writing film scores, attending concerts, and supporting other composes, always remaining the unselfish, affectionate, eccentric character that his many close friends knew and dearly loved.