Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams (* October 12, 1872, Down Ampney, Gloucestershire; † August 26, 1958, London) significantly influenced modern English music as both a scholar and a composer. Ralph Vaughan Williams was the son of a vicar and, after his father's early death, was raised by his aunt, who also gave him his first music lessons. Serious studies led him to the Royal College of Music in 1890, then to Trinity College in Cambridge. He befriended Gustav Holst, took lessons from Max Bruch in Berlin in 1897, and initially worked as an organist. Fascinated by the power of folk music, Vaughan Williams began collecting and editing English songs ("Bushes and Briars," 1903). Around the same time, he discovered the music of the Tudor period and, above all, Henry Purcell, whose oeuvre would greatly influence his own compositional work in the following years. Ralph Vaughan Williams' first comprehensive work was "A Sea Symphony" (1910), a cantata for choir, orchestra, and soloists with texts by Walt Whitman. Shortly before, he had taken lessons from Maurice Ravel in Paris and been introduced to the impressionistic sound world. Vaughan Williams became a composition teacher at the Royal College of Music in London in 1919, directed the Bach Choir from 1920–28, and subsequently traveled internationally as a lecturer, composer, and conductor. His commitment to German emigrants during the Nazi era led to his works no longer being performed in Germany until 1945. Ralph Vaughan Williams' compositions tend towards a transparent and clearly differentiated tonal language, oriented towards both early music and late Romantic and folk music elements. He wrote a total of nine symphonies, numerous other orchestral and chamber works, oratorios, choral works, songs (including cycles such as "The House Of Life," 1903, and "Ten Blake Songs," 1957), ballets, stage, and film scores. His operas, such as "Hugh the Drover" (1910–14) or "Sir John in Love" (1924–28), were not very successful during his lifetime, but the unfinished "The Pilgrim’s Progress" (1949) became a widely acclaimed work. Vaughan Williams had a great influence on subsequent English composers such as Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett and also provided important impulses as an essayist ("National Music," 1934).