News and Information

Zoom and You Tube Evening

SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC

Captain Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition and Vaughan Williams’s music for the film.

The Guest speakers with writer-broadcaster Andrew Green (RVW Society) will be:

• Sarah Airriess – Scott Polar Research Institute
• Anne Strathie – Biographer of Scott and his expedition photographer, Herbert Ponting
• Eric Saylor
• Kirsten Barker, Vaughan Williams’s latest biographer and specialist on RVW’s Antarctic music and that of Peter Maxwell Davies

Annual General Meeting and Recital 2023

Sunday 15 October 2023 at 14.00 UK time

You are invited to the Society’s Annual General Meeting, which will be held in the Music Department’s Llewellyn Room at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, on Sunday, 15 October 2023.
We welcome as our guest speaker Sir Mark Elder.
We are not going to attempt a live stream, but we plan to make a video recording of the event, which will be made available via our YouTube channel a few days later.

 AGM Papers 2023

Sir Mark Elder. ©Groves

‘PURER THAN PEARL’ AT CHAMPS HILL

Six internationally renowned singers and instrumentalists pay homage to the intensely romantic and beautiful music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. This wonderful programme of songs and duets for voices, violin and piano date from 1891 to 1935 and include an arrangement of Linden Lea for four voices and piano. Promises to be a truly inspiring evening.

Tickets on sale now
Book soon to avoid disappointment!

Tickets are not available on the door, only in advance via the website.

Alish Tynan
Soprano

Kitty Whately
Mezzo-soprano

William Morgan
Tenor

Johnny Herford
Tenor

Jack Liebeck
Violin

The 33rd Bard Music Festival

Vaughan Williams and His World

The Bard Music Festival returns for its 33rd season with an exploration of the life and work of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), one of the greatest symphonists of the 20th century.

Few figures have had such a formative and protean influence on their musical environment as the British composer. With an oeuvre that ranges from songs and hymns to opera, film music, and full-scale orchestral and choral works and includes popular works such as the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and The Lark Ascending as well as scores of uncompromising modernity, Vaughan Williams’s voice defined an era. The festival will explore the full scope of his work and set it in the context of his politics and the culture of the time. 

“Bright is the Ring of Words”

An evening with the RVW Players

Vaughan Williams devoured literature –not least poetry and was a master at setting words throughout his life.

Through readings of a variety of texts RVW set to music, recapture why they so appealed to him.

There will be both commentary and music, and texts will be:

• A Sea Symphony
• Songs of Travel
• On Wenlock Edge
• Pilgrim’s Progress
• Riders to the Sea
• Serenade to Music
• And more

Vaughan Williams folk songs reimagined

Currently 9 young musicians are working remotely but also having mentoring and shared digital sessions in preparation for 2 Showcase concerts which reimagine some of Vaughan Williams’ folk songs collected in East Anglia – some pieces will be new arrangements with the song tunes weaving throughout, others have been inspired to write their own tunes/songs.  These two Showcases feature at Folk East on Friday 18th August and again at Traditional Music Day on Saturday 2nd September in Stowmarket.

Taking Vaughan Williams folk songs to schools

We are in the process of also putting a digital map for each county on the website and have started to put resources such as links to EFDSS, scores of tunes and we hope various arrangements of the songs and tunes collected as sound files or videos.  We won’t be able to do the 400 plus songs in the time given to complete the project but that will be something we can grow afterwards.

Digital Map

We are in the process of also putting a digital map for each county on the website and have started to put resources such as links to EFDSS, scores of tunes and we hope various arrangements of the songs and tunes collected as sound files or videos.  We won’t be able to do the 400 plus songs in the time given to complete the project but that will be something we can grow afterwards.

For more information about Vaughan Williams in the East visit the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust website.
Click here

2 new releases from Albion Records

Ian Venables and Ralph Vaughan Williams: Portraits of a Mind

The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society commissioned a new work from IAN VENABLES, one of Britain’s most distinguished composers and a master of song composition. He has created a song cycle, Portraits of a Mind, using the same forces (tenor, piano and string quartet) as those specified for Vaughan Williams’s song cycle On Wenlock Edge. 

Ian Venables and Ralph Vaughan Williams Composers
Iain Farrington Arranger
Alessandro Fisher Tenor
The Navarra Quartet
William Vann Piano 

Click for more Information

The First Songs of Travel
The 1954 Richard Standen / Frederick Stone Recital

This was the first recording of the (then) entire Songs of Travel and includes premiere recordings of five of the songs. We now know the full cycle of nine songs, but only eight of them were published in the composer’s lifetime. The ninth song was not found until after the composer’s death, some four years after this recording was made. Standen’s performance of Songs of Travel was highly regarded by Vaughan Williams.

Click for more Information

Nationwide recordings of Skylark song to benefit researchers and composers

To round off its celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams, the RVW Society has joined forces with the Wildlife Sound Recording Society (WSRS) and the British Library’s Wildlife and Environmental Sounds collection to gather examples of Skylark song from across the UK (and further afield).

Taking its name from one of the most popular of all pieces of classical music, Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending, the project creates a new archive of Skylark recordings at the British Library which will be available to researchers, musicians and the public.

Larks Ascending is endorsed and supported by British violinist Tasmin Little, whose performances and recordings of the Vaughan Williams classic have captivated audiences around this country and abroad.

Larks Ascending aims to reflect in detail the rich variety in Skylark songs despite their apparent overall similarity. How might each individual song relate to factors such as location, weather and time of year?

It is hoped that composers will be inspired by the Larks Ascending archive to follow Vaughan Williams’s example and write music which showcases this iconic bird — using these new recordings in a variety of creative ways.

A significant sub-text to the project is the continuing need to raise awareness of the dramatic decline in Skylark numbers (estimated at around 70%) over the past fifty years, largely the result of changed farming practices, which have also had a major impact on other bird species and on wider wildlife. Various adapted farming methods have been shown to ameliorate this situation, but there is a long way to go.

The project’s focus on this much-loved bird and its ever-exuberant song will hopefully widen appreciation of how real are the continuing threats to bird and animal life in the British countryside.

These new Skylark recordings will be made through the spring and summer. Individuals with good sound recording skills are invited to add their contributions to those of WSRS members.

For more information and how to proceed contact Andrew Green at: gardengreen333@yahoo.co.uk
or the WSRS (secretary@wildlife-sound.org).

Updated: 24 March 2023

Vaughan Williams LIVE

• Symphony No.5 in D major – World premiere (1943)

• A London Symphony [No2] (1946)

• Symphony No.5 in D major (1952)

• Dona Nobis Pacem (1936)

Ralph Vaughan Williams CONDUCTOR

Renée Flynn (soprano), Roy Henderson (baritone) London Symphony Orchestra (London), London Philharmonic Orchestra (sym 5), BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus (Pacem)/Ralph Vaughan Williams  rec. 13 November 1936 (Pacem), BBC Studios London; 31 July 1943 (sym 5 premiere), 24 June 1946 (London), 3 September 1952 (sym 5), Royal Albert Hall, London  Vaughan Williams Live Volume 3 SOMM RECORDINGS ARIADNE5019-2 [2 CDs: 146]

Click for more details

New Recording.
Bebbington and The Royal Philharmonic

• Piano Quintet (1904)

• The Lark Ascending (original version for violin and piano)

• Romance for viola and piano

• Fantasia (Quasi Variazione) on the old 104th Psalm Tune, for solo piano, choir and orchestra

Mark Bebbington piano
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Hilary Davan Wetton conductor
City of London Choir
Duncan Riddell violin
Abigail Fenna viola
Richard Harwood cello
Benjamin Cunningham double bass

For the inclusion of an almost totally neglected orchestral work of around 15 minutes, the Fantasia (Quasi Variazione) on the Old 104th, for solo piano, choir and orchestra, pianist Mark Bebbington is joined by the City of London Choir and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor, Hilary Davan Wetton, in what is the first recording in 50 years.

>Click for Podcast

Major Vaughan Williams publisher Oxford University Press donates substantial archive to the British Library.

The collection will include music copyists’ full scores prepared for initial (pre-publication) performance, items with amendments in Vaughan Williams’s own hand, proof copies, manuscripts, and full scores marked by the conductors who gave early performances of his works.

For more information click here:

To find out more on YouTube: Ralph Vaughan Williams: Preserving a publishing legacy (Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press)
Click here.

Vaughan Williams Song Prize for the Best Interpretation of Songs in English by a British Composer

The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society has, for the second year, sponsored the Vaughan Williams Song Prize for the Best Interpretation of Songs in English by a British Composer, as part of the 2022 Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition.

The prize-winner was Vinicius Costa da Silva (bass-baritone) who performed with pianist Pierre-Nicolas Colombat.

The works performed during the Competition were:
Autumn Muriel Herbert
David’s Lament for Jonathan Muriel Herbert
Hymns from the Rig Veda, Ushas (Dawn) Gustav Holst

Vinicius Costa began his singing studies in Brazil at the Guri Santa Marcelina Project and eventually moved to Switzerland where he studies at the Basel College of Music. He was a member of the São Pedro Theatre Opera Studio and Municipal Theatre. He has performed Simone in Gianni Schicchi, Dandini in La Cenerentola, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte and Zuniga in Carmen. In 2020, he was awarded First Prizes in the Brazilian and Latin American editions of the Linus Lerner Singing Competition. In 2022 he performed in the Basel Theatre’s production of Bach’s St Matthew Passion as Petrus, Pontifex, Pilatus and Judas, and as Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Click to visit

Previously, the 2019 Prize-winner was Clara Osowski from Minnesota.

London Song Festival
Masterclass with Sir Thomas Allen and British Art Song Competition (BASC).

Sponsored by the British Music Society and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society.

Two sessions; at 10:30 and 14:00.
Sir Thomas will be asked to select the best duo, who will receive a cash prize and be invited to give a recital as part of the 2023 London Song Festival.

https://www.londonsongfestival.org/masterclasses

Ralph Vaughan Williams Society – 150 Commission

Portraits of the Mind (World premiere) by Ian Venables

Friday 21 October 2022
13:00 – 14:00

Holywell Music Room, Holywell St, Oxford OX1 3BN
Book tickets: https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/event/1470

Alessandro Fisher tenor
William Vann pianist
Navarra Quartet

Also: On Wenlock Edge

Commissioned by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society to mark the 150th birthday of Vaughan Williams, Portraits of the Mind is a companion piece scored for the same forces – tenor, string quartet and piano – as On Wenlock Edge. Renowned tenor Alessandro Fisher, a former Oxford Lieder Young Artist, performs both works with the Navarra Quartet and pianist William Vann.

All seating is unreserved; please arrive in good time to take your seat.
The event duration is approximately 1 hour and there will be no interval.
Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

Prior to the performance:
Ian Venables and Leah Broad: In Conversation
The distinguished British composer Ian Venables speaks to Leah Broad about his musical life, interests and influences ahead of the premiere of his new song cycle for tenor, string quartet and piano at today’s lunchtime concert.

St Edmund Hall: The Old Dining Hall, Queen’s Lane OX1 4AR
11:00 – 12:00

FREE but please book ticket:
https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/event/1469

David Trimble

The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society notes with sadness the passing of David Trimble (Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey). As an active member of the Society since 1997, he was a frequent attender of Society and other musical events, which were enriched by his gentle humour and love of a broad spectrum of music. Our condolences go to his wife, Daphne and their family.

‘Vaughan Williams on Brass’ now available

Albion Records presents the Tredegar Town Band, conducted by Ian Porthouse and Martyn Brabbins in a programme of works by Vaughan Williams written or arranged for brass band. Ross Knight joins them as the Tuba soloist in the Tuba Concerto.

The album includes the composer’s three pieces for brass band – Henry the Fifth Overture, Prelude on Three Welsh Hymns and Variations for Brass Band.  In addition we hear the brass band version of the Tuba Concerto and many new arrangements of popular pieces by Paul Hindmarsh (who curated and produced the album) and Phillip Littlemore.

For more information or to purchase click here.>>

The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains –
A Detective Story

Is it Vaughan Williams’s Secret Salute to the Fallen of the Great War?

Tuesday, July 12th 2022 @ 7.30 pm

Join Andrew Green, writer & broadcaster with historians Jessica Meyer & David Stevenson for the inside story of the music and its post-war background.
(Includes a complete recorded performance of the opera set against haunting images of the conflict that inspired it.)
Live on both Zoom and YouTube.

The fascinating detective story uncovering how Vaughan Williams pulled together his text for The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains makes up in very large part for his customary refusal to talk about his music. What seems to be merely a slip of an opera turns out to warrant consideration as one of the most moving and meaningful of all Vaughan Williams’s war-related works.

YouTube link on the day: https://youtu.be/-ji3ZloJi6c

Updated 25 June 2022

Vaughan Williams’ Folk Song Collections to be Resurrected Across East Anglia

The East Anglian Traditional Music Trust is awarded a £65,938 grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund for the project “Vaughan Williams’ Folk” to resurrect the Folk Songs Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams across East Anglia.

Thanks to National Lottery players, the project aims to bring folklorists and song researchers together to share their knowledge of Vaughan Williams’ folk song collecting in East Anglia and to resurrect the songs and music through work with young musicians, schools and community groups.

Further information
For further information, images and interviews please contact:
Nicky Stockman, Project Co-ordinator, 07747025557,
Email: nicky.stockman@me.com
Or
Alex Bartholomew, East Anglian Traditional Music Trust, 07495054669,
Email: info@eatmt.org.uk

Exploring Vaughan Williams

A course to celebrate the 150th birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), not only a composer of the utmost importance for English music but also one of the great symphonists of the C20th.

June 19th at 18:30 to June 21st at 13:30
Higham Hall, Bassenthwaite Lake, Cockermouth CA13 9SH

A course to celebrate the 150th birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), not only a composer of the utmost importance for English music but also one of the great symphonists of the C20th.

We hope to include a little English Music recital beforehand.

Tutor: John Francis, Ralph Vaughan Williams Society

Residential: £270 Non-residential: £200
http://highamhall.com/course/exploring-vaughan-williams/

New Titles

New books from Nigel Simeone, Caroline Davison, Eric Saylor and Stephen Connock

Insight from the recent publication of Vaughan Williams’s letters by Hugh Cobbe, together with celebrations of the composer’s 150th anniversary, has sparked a number of must-read publications.

Ralph Vaughan Williams
and Adrian Boult

Nigel Simeone

The first detailed study of the working relationship and productive friendship between Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) and Adrian Boult (1889-1983).

The Captain’s Apprentice

Caroline Davison

The Captain’s Apprentice is the story of how this mysterious song ‘opened the door to an entirely new world of melody, harmony and feeling’ for Vaughan Williams. With this transformational moment at its heart, the book traces the contrasting lives of the well-to-do composer and a forgotten King’s Lynn cabin boy who died at sea, and brings fresh perspectives on Edwardian folk-song collectors, the singers and their songs.

Vaughan Williams
(Master Musicians Series)

Eric Saylor

Includes new primary source materials and scholarship on Vaughan Williams’s life and work. Portrays Vaughan Williams in both a national and international light. Analyses both his life and works in a single, compact volume.

Vaughan Williams Today

BBC Radio 3 and Donald Macleod celebrate RVW 150 with twenty lunchtime programmes about the life of Vaughan Williams.

>>More details are here.

Vaughan Williams Choral Marathon

Celebrate RVW 150 with Make Music Day

Make Music Day in 2022 is encouraging organisation individuals to get involved in creating various Music Marathons including a Vaughan Williams Choral Marathon. The ambition is to create a comprehensive video featuring as much of Vaughan Williams’ choral repertoire as possible. This will be launched on the Make Music Day website and their YouTube channel on 21 June. This exciting project will form part of RVW150 – a celebration of Ralph Vaughan Williams 150 years after his birth.
If you would like to take part in this project first send an email to: paul@makemusicday.co.uk

>>More details are here.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Vocal Music

An Exploration

The Hampsong Foundation (set up by the baritone Thomas Hampson in 2003) has added a page exploring Vaughan Williams’s vocal music to their website in this 150th birthday year.  This has been put together in partnership with The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, and a number of the trustees were interviewed for it by presenter Jon Tolansky. Even our President, Sir Andrew Davis, took part, and some of the musical clips were supplied by our recording arm, Albion Records.

>>Click here for more information

Violinist’s RVW150 project

Dual language recording from violinist Midori Komachi

Violinist, writer and composer, Midori Komachi, who has developed a diverse career in bridging UK and Japanese cultures through music, is on a mission to bring the music of British composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, to a wider audience during ‘RVW150’ in 2022; the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. As part of her ‘RVW Project’, a new album is to be released in the summer, alongside a Japanese translation of the composer’s biography by Simon Heffer, to be published in Japan, and tie-in concerts in both countries.

To be released during summer 2022 on her own label, MusiKaleido, Vaughan Williams: Complete Works for Violin and Piano’ features Komachi and her recording partner, Simon Callaghan, in repertoire encompassing the wide-ranging styles of Vaughan Williams’s music, from those rooted in folksong to dramatic symphonic sonorities reflecting the composer’s life experiences.

The Lark Ascending (1914)
Romance and Pastorale (1912-14)
Six Studies in English Folksong (1926)
Violin Sonata in A minor (1954)

The following events will be included:

• The Recording ‘Vaughan Williams: Complete Works for Violin and Piano’ will be released on the MusiKaleido label on Friday 1 July 2022 on CD and through download channels.

• A film will be released featuring Vaughan Williams’s ‘Romance’ for violin and piano, with its local connections to Leith Hill Place in Surrey.

• The Launch concert will take place on 9 July 2022 at Leith Hill Place, Vaughan Williams’s childhood home now in the care of the National Trust.

• In the Autumn, Simon Heffer’s biography of the composer will see its Japanese publication by Artes Publishing.

• A 150th Birthday celebration Concert will take place on 12 October at Leith Hill Place, Surrey

For more information visit www.midorikomachi.com 

The Garden of Proserpine 

American premiere!

Opus One
Berks Chamber Choir

Available online from Sun, May 22 – Sun, June 12

www.OpusOneChamberChoir.com

Ralph Vaughan Williams – The soul of a nation

lllustrated talk and recital.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter

Raymond Calcraft (speaker)
Hilary Boxer (cello)
David Davies (piano)

https://exeterramm.admit-one.eu/?p=tickets&perfCode=4761&ev=4404

BBC Radio 3 Celebrates Ralph Vaughan Williams at 150.

Vaughan Williams at 150 – The Festival Celebrates!

Highlights include:

• A complete Vaughan Williams’ Symphony Cycle broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in Concert over six programmes, featuring performances by BBC Philharmonic and the Hallé (2 March – 12 May)
• A four-week series of Composer of the Week, dedicating twenty hour-long episodes to Vaughan Williams (2-27 May)
• Between The Ears: The Lark Descending featuring a new electronic re-imagining of Vaughan William’s beloved piece, where a sampled lark performs its renowned violin solo (29 May)
• Breakfast explores Vaughan Williams’ Folk Songs and Hymns (weekday 2-13 May & Sunday Breakfast 1-29 May)
• In Tune Mixtape presenting special Vaughan Williams (inspired playlists using works by the composer, or inspired by him 9-13 May)
• Record Review’s Building a Library feature focuses on Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 4 (14 May)
• Essential Classics devotes five Essential Moments to Vaughan Williams (23 to 27 May)
• Opera on 3 presents an archive performance of the opera Sir John in Love first broadcast from English National Opera in 2006 (14 May)
• Royal Northern College of Music Brass Band Festival Highlights celebrating Vaughan Williams amongst some of Britain’s finest 20th-century contributors to brass band repertoire (2 March)

Click for more details

Investec International Music Festival in the Surrey Hills

Vaughan Williams at 150 – The Festival Celebrates!

A series of concerts celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Booking and more information: https://iimf.co.uk/boxoffice/

Also:

FRIDAY MAY 6
Leith Hill & Christ Church, Abinger Road, Coldharbour, Dorking RHS 6HF
Investec Music Festival in the Surrey Hill

In the footsteps of RVW … Guided Walk & Talk

Talk with writer & broadcaster Richard Wigmore

11am Walk & 12.45 Talk
£15 Walk & Talk (incl coffee/tea);  £10 talk only
Booking and more information: https://iimf.co.uk/boxoffice/

‘Not Lambkins Frisking’

An evening on Zoom/YouTube to mark the precise 100th anniversary of the first performance of A Pastoral Symphony.
26th January 2022 at 7.30pm

Click button for YouTube link.

Reflecting Vaughan Williams’s Great War service on the Western Front, 1916 & 1918.

Andrew Green (L), writer and broadcaster, considers Vaughan Williams’s refusal to explain how this ‘Pastoral Symphony’ describes his experience of war. Jessica Meyer (University of Leeds) and David Stevenson (R) (LSE) bring to life the composer’s wartime experiences.

+ eye-witness visions of the Pastoral from the Western Front.

New from Albion Records  –
RVW FROM AMERICA

Forgotten Recordings of the 50s

This compilation from Albion records brings a number of première recordings of works by Ralph Vaughan Williams from the LP era to a digital format for the first time.

Click for track list and more information 

Updated 23 June 2021

Annual General Meeting 2021

Sunday 17 October 2021 at 14.00 UK time

The Society’s Annual General Meeting, will be held in the Music Department’s Llewellyn Room at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, on Sunday, 17 October 2021.

Please use the Prince’s Avenue entrance, postcode GU7 2DE, if arriving by car. The meeting will be followed by a recital by the Vaughan Williams Singers.

Charterhouse was Vaughan Williams’s school from 1887-1890, though the Llewellyn Room is a lot more recent than that.

We are somewhat more confident that we can meet in person than we were last year. Even so, please check this page before setting out for Godalming! You will find details of the programme to be sung by the Vaughan Williams Singers on the attached pdf. We shall be sending out an email update, and intend to ‘live stream’ the event again if possible.

If coming by car, please use the Prince’s Avenue entrance. If you have a satnav, the postcode GU7 2DE should get you there. Then follow signs to the Llewellyn Room. There will be a few parking spaces there for those with mobility problems, but the main car park is a short walk away beyond the chapel. Attendees are requested to keep off the grass. 

Godalming Station is on the London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour line. There are taxis available outside the station. At the time of writing, rail services are restricted, so check what is running before you set off. 

We look forward to seeing you!

 AGM Papers 2021

Vaughan Williams and Holst in Gloucester
A Concert of Part Songs
Saturday 11 September 2021 at 1.15pm

This was originally to be a double programme arranged for Saturday 26 June, which had to be postponed due to Covid.

We are now having just the one concert at 1.15pm on Saturday 11th September. Venue will be the Chapter House which adjoins Gloucester Cathedral.
The programme will be as follows:-

Gustav Holst Part Songs
The Stars are with the Voyager
Spring, it is Cheery
O Lady, Leave thy Silken Thread
Come away, Death
Now Rest Thee from all Care
Diverus and Lazarus
In Youth is Pleasure
It was a Lover and his Lass
Gustav Holst Part Songs
Playground Song
O England my Country
Roadways

The Edge of Beyond – Ralph Vaughan Williams in the First World War

The Edge of Beyond – Ralph Vaughan Williams in the First World War is the first book to cover in detail Ralph Vaughan Williams’s experiences in the First World War. The book includes original research on the composer’s period of service in the British Army between 31 December 1914 and his final demobilisation on 15 July 1919. There is also a pivotal chapter, called ‘With rue my heart is laden’, that explores the impact of the war on Vaughan Williams’s music, focusing on the Pastoral Symphony, Sancta Civitas and Riders to the Sea. Stephen Connock refers to these three inspired works as the composer’s ‘Great War Trilogy’.

For more information visit the Albion Music website

Updated 23 March 2021

Joyce Kennedy

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our Vice-President, Joyce Kennedy (1 July 2021).

Together with her husband, Vaughan Williams biographer and music critic Michael Kennedy, Joyce was a huge friend and advisor to the Society. She will be deeply missed.

Updated 2 July 2021

New from Albion Records  – FOLK SONGS 2

This is the second in a series of four albums recording all 80 of the folk songs in English that Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged for voice and piano or violin. 57 of the 80 songs have not previously been recorded in these arrangements.

Click for track list and more information 

Updated 16 February 2021

David Briggs

Symphony No 5 – Online at the Cathedral of St John Divine, New York

The Ralph Vaughan William Society has commissioned on organ transcription of Vaughan Williams’s 5th Symphony from David Briggs. The plan was to record it in Truro Cathedral at the end of this month, but travel restrictions currently imprison David in New York where he is Artist in Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Our own recording in Truro is now deferred to next August, and Thomas Gould will be playing the violin.

Instead, David is giving an online performance of the transcription from the empty cathedral, and you can buy a ticket for the event for only $10.

The concert will take place on 13th October, at 7 pm (UK time), with a pre-concert interview with Kent Tritle, the cathedral’s Music Director, at 6 pm.  The link will continue to work for 48 hours which gives you time to catch up.

The concert includes three works:

Overture to The Wasps (as recorded on our earlier double album)
The Lark Ascending (with Cyrus Beroukhim, violin)
Symphony Number 5

Click here to purchase a ticket>>.

Evolution of Sound talks series: Ralph’s Rustic Revolution

Thursday 3 Sept, 2020, 2pm 

Leith Hill Place

Vaughan Williams collected over 800 folk songs from so-called ‘ordinary people’ around Britain in the years before the Great War. His encounters with this vanishing musical resource utterly revolutionised his work as a composer…and his thinking about what a British ‘national music’ should sound like. But what of criticisms that this was all backward-looking rustic romanticism? Music includes the famous Bushes and Briars, the Norfolk Rhapsodies, the opera Hugh the Drover and Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus.

Click for more information and tickets.

(Details may be subject to change)

The Future

(World Premiere)

A visionary masterpiece for chorus and orchestra that’s never been heard before

Special rates are available for Society members.
Contact the Publicity Officer for more details.

Conductor, Martin Yates, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra are to give the World Premiere performances of a major lost work by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The Future is a large-scale visionary masterpiece for soprano, large chorus and orchestra. Two performances are to take place in Glasgow and Edinburgh on 8th and 9th November 2019.

Martin Yates, who is no stranger to Vaughan Williams or to completing the composer’s unfinished works, said “RVW was working on The Future during 1908, between writing Toward the Unknown Region (1906/7) and probably alongside A Sea Symphony which premiered in 1909, and I feel the work very much relates to the profound consciousness of both.”

With its themes of time, space and sea, which were to continue to inspire Vaughan Williams’s works, Matthew Arnold’s portentous poem The Future forewarns of the erosion of the natural world, from a Victorian perspective, as traditional ways become overwhelmed by industrialisation and the growth of civilisation.

“RVW edited the text to suit what he was doing”, explained Martin Yates. “The work was left unfinished in short score with a few instrumental cues, and literally runs out about two thirds of the way through. I have completed and scored it and it has a playing time of 35 minutes. I have no idea why RVW left it incomplete because the music he has written is absolutely first class!”

For the World Premiere performances of The Future, Martin Yates will conduct the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus, with whom he regularly performs and records, and soprano soloist, Ilona Domnich, who has previously featured in his performances of works by Vaughan Williams and Holst. Edinburgh and Glasgow will each host a performance as part of a programme which pairs two popular Vaughan Williams favourites: The Wasps Overture and The Lark Ascending, with soloist Sharon Roffman; Ravel’s Pavane pour un infante défunte and the 1945 version of Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite.

The concerts are being supported by the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust: the body set up to promote knowledge and performance of the composer’s works.

Updated 23 October 2019

Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea

Earth & Sky: the choral music of Ralph Vaughan Williams

Wren Chapel,
Royal Hospital,
Chelsea, SW3 4SR
Wednesday 6 November 2019, 19:00
Prices from £15.00 to £30.00
All tickets include a glass of wine in the interval (18 years +)

This performance, in the beautiful setting of the Royal Hospital’s Wren Chapel, promises to be unmissable.

Programme:

Mass in G minor
O Clap your Hands
Te Deum in G Major
England, My England
A Call to the Free Nations
The Airmen’s Hymn
A Hymn of Freedom
The Old 100th
O Taste and See
O Praise the Lord of Heaven
Valiant for Truth
The New Commonwealth
Three Gaelic Songs
Antiphon (Let all the World in Every Corner Sing)

Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea
Benjamin Newlove organ
William Vann conductor

Updated 18 July 2019

Annual General Meeting

Sunday 13 October 2019

St Stephen’s Church, London

Members are invited to the Society’s Annual General Meeting, which will be held in St. Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road, London SW7 4RL on Sunday, 13 October 2019. Please note the slightly earlier starting time of 2.30 p.m. this year. The meeting will be followed by a recital by Kitty Whately (mezzo soprano) and William Vann (piano) – two of the artists featured on Albion’s recording The Song of Love which will be released in September.
We look forward to seeing you there.

How to get to St Stephen’s Church
St. Stephen’s Church is served by Gloucester Road Tube Station (Piccadilly, District and Circle lines), and bus route numbers 74 and 49. It stands at the junction of Gloucester Road and Southwell Gardens; the entrance is in Southwell Gardens at the West end of the church. Street parking is feasible on a Sunday.

Order of Events

14.00 Tea/Coffee
14.30 Annual General Meeting:

• Welcome by the Chairman
• Apologies for absence
• Chairman’s Annual Report
• Membership Officer’s Report
• Treasurer’s Report
• Adoption of the Annual Report and Accounts of The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society for 2018-2019
• Election or re-election of trustees and Independent Examiner
• Any other business
• 15.30 Recital by Kitty Whately and William Vann
• 16.30 Refreshments / Close

Election and Re-Election of Trustees
The trustees of the Society are as detailed in the annual accounts of The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society.
The Society’s Constitution specifies a minimum number of six trustees, but no maximum. All the present trustees are eligible and present themselves for reelection.
Please send any expressions of interest for consideration for election as a trustee to the Secretary, Martin Murray, at the Society’s registered office: North House, 198 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1BE to arrive by no later than Friday, 29 September 2018 or email us at: rvwinformation@hotmail.com
The Society is assisted by a number of “officers” who do not wish to be trustees. We welcome expressions of interest from members to help support the Society in pursuing its objectives, whether as a trustee or in other ways.

Viola Fantasia

Now available to pre-order

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) learned the piano and violin from an early age, but took to the viola while still at school and continued to play it all his life; this instrument is associated with his most romantic and impassioned music. His contemporary, the great viola virtuoso Lionel Tertis, was the inspiration for two of the works presented here. The Cello and Piano arrangement of the Fantasia on Sussex Folk Tunes has been transcribed for Viola and Piano by Martin Outram, and this is its première recording.

Track list:

Suite for viola and piano
Romance for viola and piano
Six Studies in English Folk Song
Fantasia on Greensleeves
Fantasia on Sussex Folk Tunes
Four Hymns for Tenor, Viola and Piano

Martin Outram ~ viola
Julian Rolton ~ piano
Mark Padmore ~ tenor

Updated 13 April 2019

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s A London Symphony: Dazzle Meets Desperation?

LEITH HILL PLACE: NATIONAL TRUST

Saturday 31st August. 6pm

At Vaughan Williams’s childhood home, writer and broadcaster Andrew Green explores the background to one of the great musical depictions of London.

The last of three talks by Andrew Green linking Vaughan Williams with views around the Surrey Hills.

Tickets (including glass of wine or Pimms): £15.00.

To book in advance
Telephone: 0344 249 1895 or email: leithhillplace@nationaltrust.org.uk. 

Also see www.nationaltrust.org.uk/leith-hill-place/whats-on

Leith Hill Place, Leith Hill Lane, Dorking RH5 6LY. Car park off the main road, above the house. 

Updated 20 June 2019

The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society Annual General Meeting 2018

The AGM was held at Denbies, Dorking, on Sunday 14th October 2018. Formal notice of the meeting can be downloaded from below, as well as the Annual Report and Accounts.

Chairman Simon Coombs was unavoidably absent, as he was caring for his wife, Laura. Laura’s death on 26 October is reported in a News item below.

Vice-Chairman John Francis took the chair and – with a view to making this, our first AGM video, more interesting – asked a number of the officers and trustees of the Society to talk about their areas of work and current topics. Inevitably we did not manage technical perfection this first time. We used one camera for Section one which did not focus well, but we changed camera thereafter and achieved better results! This is an opportunity for all Society members to put faces to names and to learn something of what we all do.

We got off to a false start – which accounts for the laughter as John attempts to introduce the meeting in a dignified manner for the second time around. The whole meeting is divided into four sections, so you need to click on them in succession in order to witness the entire event. Here is an outline of what happened in each:

SECTION 1 (a bit blurred, 18’03”)
Click here for You Tube link
Introduction from John Francis, Vice Chairman and Treasurer
Leith Hill Place – Dr. Christopher Batt, trustee
Surrey Performing Arts Library – Graham Aslet, trustee

SECTION 2 (13’35”)
Click here for You Tube link
Concerts – John Treadway, Concert Resources Officer
The Journal – Martin Murray, Hon. Secretary
Newsletter and events – Karen Fletcher, Publicity and Events Officer

SECTION 3 (9’30”)
Click here for You Tube link
AGM planning – Roy Bexon, Trustee
Comprehensive Discography – Jonathan Pearson, Trustee
Selective Discography – John Francis
Albion Records Report – John Francis as Chairman of Albion Records

SECTION 4 (13’42”)
Click here for You Tube link
Recent recordings;
The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society English Song Prize
(to be given at The Wigmore International Song Competition)
– William Vann, Trustee
Membership – Mark Hammett, Membership Officer
The Accounts – John Francis
Formal business of the AGM: adoption of the accounts; election of trustees;
reappointment of the Independent Examiner; final questions.

We are grateful to Derek Butler (https://derekbutler.tv) for post production work in the videos.

Feel free to let John have your comments by emailing him at: johnfrancis@albionrvw.co.uk

 AGM Papers 2018

 Trustees’ Report 2018

Laura Coombs

It is with regret and sadness that we report the death of Mrs Laura Coombs on 26th October 2018, from cancer.

Laura was married to the Society’s Chairman, Simon Coombs, but was also a trustee of the Society – recently working on ‘merchandise’; she leaves behind a number of ideas yet to be fulfilled. She has played an active part in the Society’s meetings and events for many years, and will be much missed by all who knew her.

A full appreciation will follow in the February 2019 edition of the Society Journal.

To send Simon a message, follow this link.

Updated 26 October 2018

Discography

Produced by Jonathan Pearson

Ralph Vaughan Williams Society member, Jonathan Pearson has updated his Vaughan Williams discography. This is a work in progress, a labour of love and the culmination of many years work. Jonathan invites interested parties to comment. It is free to use. The only thing that we ask is that should you use it, please credit Jonathan and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society and to please let Jonathan know by sending an e-mail to: rvwinformation@hotmail.com The Discography is available in two formats. Click below for preferred format.

Updated 9 September 2018

Ralph Vaughan Williams

On the composer’s birthday and 60 years after his death
Celebratory Vocal and Choral Concert

Launching two new recordings from Albion Records:

Earth and Sky: choral premières
A Vaughan Williams Christmas

Friday, 12 October 2018 at 7.00 pm.
St. Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road
London, SW7 4RL
(Gloucester Road Station, Buses 74 and 49).

Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea
William Vann ~ Director
Gareth Brynmor John ~ Baritone

Works to include:
Five Mystical Songs
Valiant for Truth
Greensleeves
And many more songs and arrangements by Vaughan Williams

All seats unreserved: £20 including a glass of wine or soft drink at the interval.

Updated 14 August 2018

We Will Remember Them: Vaughan Williams’s Secret Salute to the Fallen of the Great War: ‘The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains’

Saturday, September 8th 2018 at 5.30pm

Leith Hill Place (National Trust) near Dorking, Surrey: RVW’s childhood home.

A talk by writer and broadcaster Andrew Green to mark the centenary of the Armistice, focusing on new research linked to Vaughan Williams short opera The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains and the sixtieth anniversary of Vaughan Williams’s death.

Vaughan Williams famously remained all but silent about his horrific experiences on the Western Front in the Great War. Andrew Green’s analysis of the text of his short 1922 opera The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains strongly suggests that this is his tribute to the fallen of the Great War and an offering of consolation to the bereaved…while also containing memories of the pastoral landscape in which Vaughan Williams served in 1916 and 1918.

Booking: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/events/fcdc3df8-a797-4724-8bdc-6326b07eb3d9/pages/details

Updated 25 July 2018

A Weekend of Celebration

7th/8th July 2018

St. Martin’s Church, Dorking

The William Cole Church Music Trust at St. Martin’s Church is putting on a weekend of celebration on 7th/8th July 2018.  On 7th July at 12 noon, Dan Collins, countertenor from “The 16” is singing a selection of Vaughan William songs. This recital is free with retiring collection and lasts about 40 minutes. In the evening “The Martineau Singers” are singing a selection of songs related to Vaughan Williams and his associates. Tickets are available on the door at £10 a ticket. On Sunday evening St. Martins choir are performing Choral evensong, again with a Vaughan Williams theme.

Updated 27 May 2018

Toward the Sun Rising

Ralph Vaughan Williams Remembered

Stephen Connock

It might surprise many members of the RVW Society that a book of recollections about Vaughan Williams should emerge sixty years after the composer’s death. Its author, Stephen Connock began collecting detailed memories in 1996, working in close collaboration with the composer’s second wife, Ursula Vaughan Williams who gave him introductions to people such as: Simona Pakenham, Michael Kennedy, Roy Douglas, Sir David Willcocks, Ruth Gipps, Jill Balcon and Robert Armstrong. The interviews involved those who knew him as relatives, friends or musical colleagues during his long life. There were even then, a great many people around in the mid-1990s who still remembered him.

Stephen began to tape-record the recollections of these individuals and then, with the welcome help of John Whittaker, a member of the RVW Society, began to film contributors. Most of this work was undertaken between 1996 and 2003 and, in total, there are now 67 individual recollections. These are what Stephen calls ‘Primary Memories’ – recollections directly commissioned for his book – and 46 have been transcribed in full in Toward the Sun Rising – Ralph Vaughan Williams Remembered. To these ‘Primary Memories’ Stephen added 39 of what he calls ‘Additional Memories’, ranging from Larry Adler to Virginia Woolf. These were taken mainly from published books, magazine articles and broadcasts (UK and USA) and also from unpublished sources in the Vaughan Williams Collection at the British Library in London. These ‘Additional Memories’ are generally provided by people who had died before Stephen began his work.

The book brings all this material together in a comprehensive Introduction. In this 77-page Note, recollections are placed in a broadly chronological order, touching on the main developments in Vaughan Williams’s life. This section also includes separate paragraphs on Adeline Fisher, Ursula Wood, the First and Second World Wars, Vaughan Williams as teacher and conductor and brief comments on Vaughan Williams and religion as well as politics.

Alongside the ‘Memories’, other material has been added, mainly from unpublished sources in the British Library and from Stephen Connock’s collection of the letters of Ursula Vaughan Williams which she gave him for use in this book. Toward the Sun Rising also includes 110 photographs and a number of other illustrations, mostly given to the author by Ursula Vaughan Williams. Some of these have not been published before. Available from Albion Music Ltd, the price is £30.00 plus £5.00 postage and packing.
https://www.albionmusic.com

Updated 14 April 2018

The Vaughan Williams Society Exhibition at Leith Hill Place

The new Ralph Vaughan Williams Society exhibition is now open. Check opening times with Leith Hill Place.

Updated 30 March 2018

Surrey Performing Arts Library – update and how to support a solution

Many of our members will know the Surrey Performing Arts Library, situated at Denbies, in Dorking. A number of our AGMs have been held there. It is a superb resource, containing thousands of books, documents, manuscripts, CDs, videos and sheet music. More importantly, it holds a comprehensive archive of Vaughan Williams material which has been zealously put together by Society member and former chief librarian, Graham Muncy. The archive contains books, magazines, photographs, vinyls and CDs, as well as some genuine ephemera donated by local citizens and the composer’s wife, Ursula. The collection also includes material that was used over the last hundred years at the Leith Hill Musical Festival of which VW was the conductor. Now, with the recent cut backs and Surrey County Council’s financial woes, the library is facing closure. More worrying is the possibility that the Vaughan Williams Collection will be dispersed. A number of options have been put forward but time is running short. Please click on the link below to read the options and to lend your support. Click this link to visit the website

Updated 23 February 2018

Vaughan Williams’s letters

If you are familiar with Hugh Cobbe’s Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams 1895–1958, you will understand the gargantuan nature of the task. If in doubt, examine the handwriting (not his worst!) in VW’s letter to Holst below and you will appreciate the scale of the achievement. Now, all RVW’s extant correspondence is being published on-line. The work goes far beyond the published book – a lot of the work was done before the publication so that there were 3,288 letters to select from for the publication. However, quite a few letters have come to light since then so that the current total is 4,358. The editors of the project are now Katharine Hogg and Colin Coleman. Hugh Cobbe OBE is formerly Head of Music Collections at the British Library and editor of Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams 1895–1958 and Chairman of the RVW Trust, of the National Folk Music Fund, a former chairman of the Gerald Coke Handel Foundation, and a Past President of the Royal Musical Association. Visit the website: http://vaughanwilliams.uk/letters-table

Updated 22 December 2017

Beyond My Dream: Music for Greek Plays

“Music of undeniable beauty.” The Globe, 25 May 1912 In 1911, Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote music for three plays by Euripides – The Bacchae, Electra and Iphigenia in Tauris – then newly translated into English verse. Isadora Duncan had danced for the composer and asked him to write music for her to dance to within The Bacchae, and he also worked with the translator, Gilbert Murray. A planned production of Iphigenia in Tauris did not come off, but there was a public performance of the music alone in May 1912. It was described at the time as being music of ‘undeniable beauty’ and Gilbert Murray wrote that the music was set ‘in my judgement extraordinarily well’. The mezzo soprano soloist, Heather Lowe in her recording debut, sometimes sings and sometimes recites the words of the choruses, accompanied by female voices (and additional soloists) from Joyful Company of Singers and by Britten Sinfonia conducted by Alan Tongue. Alan Tongue transcribed the music from parts and scores in the British Library, realising some of it from short score. Albion Records is proud to present more than an hour of unknown but lovely music, from the early maturity of Vaughan Williams, now recorded for the first time. Order Now. Shipping from 18 November 2017.

Updated 14 November 2017

Vaughan Williams in Norfolk Vol 2 CD-ROM

Digital book with embedded MIDI files, by Alan Helsdon This is Volume 2 of the Vaughan Williams in Norfolk CD-ROM (MTCD253), that was published in 2014.  It covers the three Norfolk collecting trips Ralph Vaughan Williams made in April 1908, October 1910 and December 1911.  He met some 22 singers and collected 93 songs from them.  As before, they are presented in staff notation, with full texts, and with link to MIDI sound files of the tunes, and there’s a very substantial page of information on the singers. MTCD254   £12.00 Visit: http://www.mtrecords.co.uk/mt_rec.htm

Updated 28 January 2018

I Love My Love

A Folk Song Collection Arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Cecil Sharp, Lucy Broadwood, Percy Grainger, Gustav Holst, Ethel Smyth and others The English Singers, Glasgow Orpheus Choir, Fleet Street Choir, onchita Supervia, Steuart Wilson, Frederick Ranalow, Leon Goossens, Adrian Boult, Malcolm Sargent, Hugh Roberton.

Updated 9 August 2017

‘Discoveries’ nominated for Grammy

Our recent CD Discoveries (Three Nocturnes, A Road all Paved with Stars, Stricken Peninsula and Four Last Songs) has been nominated for ‘Best Classical Compendium’ in the forthcoming round of Grammy Awards. This is really thrilling news, and all the people who were involved in the long process of conceiving, recording and finally releasing Discoveries are to be warmly congratulated.

This is not the first time an Albion recording has been nominated: our very successful recording The Solent (Andrew Kennedy, Roland Wood, Paul Daniel and the RLPO) was nominated in the same category a couple of years ago. It didn’t win, but we were pleased (as we are once again) to be nominated. Here is the full list of nominees in that category (and I would describe at least some of the competition as pretty stiff – we are in seriously good company): “Daugherty: Tales of Hemingway; American Gothic; Once Upon A Castle” — Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Tim Handley, producer “Gesualdo” — Tõnu Kaljuste, conductor; Manfred Eicher, producer “Vaughan Williams: Discoveries” — Martyn Brabbins, conductor; [Andrew Walton, producer]“Wolfgang: Passing Through” — Judith Farmer & Gernot Wolfgang, producers; (Various Artists) “Zappa: 200 Motels – The Suites” — Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor; Frank Filipetti & Gail Zappa, producers

Updated 7 December 2016

A Road all Paved with Stars

(Study score arranged by Adrian Williams) Jointly commissioned by The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust and Oxford University Press, A Road All Paved with Stars is a single-movement orchestral work incorporating the finest music of Vaughan Williams’s opera The Poisoned Kiss. Using material from the most memorable songs and sections, including Blue larkspur in a garden, Love breaks all rules, and of course the ‘Kiss’ climax and its aftermath, Adrian Williams has created an orchestral synthesis befitting the composer’s own musical vision. Orchestration: 2fl(II+picc), 2ob, 2cl, 2bn, 4hn, 2tpt, 2tbn, tba, timp, 3perc, hp, str RRP £12.95 (20% discount for RVW Society members) Contact Mark Caddick: Tel: +44 (0)1865 355052 Mobile: +44 (0)7850 289551 Email: mark.caddick@oup.com http://www.oup.com/uk/music 

Updated 28 July 2016