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Ralph Vaughan Williams:
A champion
of British cultural heritage in his own way, he died at the age of 85
in 1958, and his ashes are fittingly interred in Westminster Abbey.
Vaughan Williams received his training from Hubert
Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford, both composers influenced by Brahms.
Early Vaughan Williams works have their moments of Brahms and sometimes
Wagner, but it is also very original, due to Vaughan Williams' interest
in English folksong (he was a major collector). His original pieces and
arrangements of British folksongs and hymn tunes are some of the most
songful and durable in the English language.
Vaughan Williams influences are diverse. Stravinsky,
Brahms, Parry, Debussy, Ravel, Bach, Byrd, and Hindemith -- and yet his
style remained unique. He absorbed French impressionism ("In the Fen Country,"
String Quartet No. 1) and studied for a short time with Ravel (who called
him "the only pupil who does not write my music"). But then he came into
his own with the incidental music to a production of Aristophanes' "The
Wasps," the song cycle "On Wenlock Edge," and the classic "Fantasia on
a Theme by Thomas Tallis." These works show a Vaughan Williams where his
voice is unmistakably his own. |
Ralph (pronounced "Rafe") Vaughan Williams was born in Gloucestershire in 1872, and was
arguably the greatest British composer of the 20th century.
