Ralph
Vaughan Williams (1872 –
1958) Marking the 50th
Anniversary of his
death in 1958, and his Birthday on Sunday 12th
October.
Vaughan
Williams was arguably the
greatest composer Britain has seen since the days of Henry Purcell.
In a long and extensive career, he composed music notable for its
power, nobility and expressiveness, representing, perhaps, the
essence of ‘Englishness’.
He was
born on 12th October
1872 in the Cotswold village of Down Ampney. Educated at Charterhouse
School, then Trinity College, Cambridge, he was later a pupil of
Stanford and Parry at the Royal College of Music. For a brief period
Vaughan Williams studied with Ravel in Paris. At the turn of the
century he was one of the very first to travel into the countryside
to collect folk-songs and carols from singers, notating them for
future generations to enjoy. As musical editor of The English Hymnal,
he composed many hymns that are now worldwide favourites (including For
all the Saints, and Come Down O
Love Divine).
Later he also helped edit Songs of Praise and
The Oxford
Book of Carols with similar success.
Vaughan
Williams volunteered for duty
in the Field Ambulance service in Flanders for the 1914-18 war. The
loss of close friends in that war, such as George Butterworth,
affected him deeply.
Vaughan
Williams was appointed a member
of The Order of Merit in 1935, and died on 26th
August
1958. His ashes are interred in Westminster Abbey, near Purcell.
Serenade
to Music
This work
was composed for and
dedicated to Sir Henry J. Wood on the occasion of his Jubilee, in
grateful recognition of his services to music. It was performed for
the first time on 5th October 1938.
Although
initially written for sixteen
solo singers and orchestra, the work was written by Vaughan Williams
so that it could be performed with a chorus.
The words
are taken from Act V, Scene I
of The Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare.
The
following singers gave the first
performance:
Isolbel
Baillie Parry Jones
Stiles
Allen Heddle Nash
Elsie
Suddaby Frank Titterton
Eva
Turner Walter Widdop
Margaret
Balfour Norman Allin
Muriel
Brunskill Robert Easton
Astra
Desmond Roy Henderson
Mary
Jarred Harold Williams
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