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Ralph Vaughan Williams

composer deposited in The British Library and else-
where), a Visiting Research Fellowship to Clare Hall,
The scores reveal a composer who Cambridge University and, subsequently, a Life Mem-
employed an idiosyncratically- bership there. Dr. Town is the author of An Imperishable
Heritage: British Choral Music from Parry to Dyson (Ashgate,
modern harmonic vocabulary 2012) and The Choral-Orchestral Works of Ralph Vaughan
within a mode of expression that is Williams: Autographs, Context, Discourse (Lexington, 2020).
comprehensible, imaginative, and He served as the Choral Journal book reviews editor and

thrilling. a member of the editorial board from 1991 to 2016.

NOTES

subjects the fourth motif (d)—introduced earlier in the 1 Vaughan Williams had a lifelong affection for amateur

second stanza for the dream-vision of the poet (vocal choirs and, thus, provided or authorized alternate
score, page 12)—to a process of transformation in the versions of his works for them to present. Roy Douglas,
long paragraph for chorus and orchestra (from four Working with Vaughan Williams (The British Library, 1988),
after letter T to seven after letter V) wherein the con- 7.

flation of the two poems occurs. Whereas before the 2 As a student in the 1890s, Vaughan Williams conducted a
fourth motif (d) appeared in a D-minor mode, now it small choral society, and in his position, as organist at
is presented in a C-sharp minor mode (an enharmon- St. Barnabas Church (South London) from 1895, he
ic re-spelling of the single simultaneity, D-fl at minor); was responsible for the pedagogical instruction of the
before the fourth motif was essayed briefly by a solo choir, and also founded a small choral society. When

instrument, now it unfolds in a protracted, gravely the Leith Hill Festival was created in 1905, Vaughan
beautiful, polyphonic and imitative rendition for word- Williams conducted the Festival Choirs. From 1903 he
less chorus and orchestra; before the fourth motif was had been a member of the Bach Choir and in 1921 he
associated with the beginning of the dream, now it is became its conductor.
recalled to represent a place revisited. The music con- 3 Michael Kennedy, A Catalogue of the Works of Ralph Vaughan
tinues ravishingly to the conclusion of the work. Williams, second edition (Oxford: Oxford University
These are but a few of the lesser-known or infre- Press, 1996), 126. The reader is referred to the published
quently-performed choral works of Vaughan Williams, score (Oxford University Press, 1941).
though others could be cited and discussed. Accessible 4 Ibid., 179.
for study or performance, the scores reveal a composer 5 Ibid., 168.
who employed an idiosyncratically-modern harmonic 6 Ibid., 228.
vocabulary within a mode of expression that is com- 7 It was presented subsequently at the Southwark Cathedral
prehensible, imaginative, and thrilling, as well as the (London) on 21 February 1931, with Joan Elwes
high artistic standards that he applied to each compo- (soprano), a Special Choir and members of the
sitional utterance in his oeuvre. London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of
Edgar T. Cook, and later at Queen’s Hall (London)
Stephen Town, Professor Emeritus of Music (1986- in July 1931—where it was labeled a masterpiece by
2022), Director Emeritus of the Tower Choir (1999- a critic as eminent as Eric Blom (1888-1959)—for the
2022), and Distinguished Faculty Awardee at North- International Festival for Contemporary Music (IFCM),
west Missouri State University, is a recipient of the with the National Chorus and the British Broadcasting
prestigious Ralph Vaughan Williams Fellowship (to Corporation Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult.
conduct archival research on the autographs of the These initial performances were important indeed in

CHORAL JOURNAL October 2022 Volume 63 Number 3 41