Ralph Vaughan Williams

A prolific composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams embarked on a path of typically English and resolutely modern music, illustrating himself in all forms and leaving among his greatest works nine symphonies and a popular piece, The Lark Ascending. Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in Down Ampney (Gloucestershire) on October 12, 1872, the son of an Anglican clergyman and an heiress to the Wedgwood dynasty of famous porcelain manufacturers, who was also Charles Darwin's niece. Fatherless from the age of two, he was educated by his mother at Leith Hill Place, Surrey, in an affluent and cultured environment where music was very important. He learnt to play the piano, which was not his preferred instrument, preferring the violin, before studying at Charterhouse School and then at the Royal College of Music in London (1890-1892), where his teachers included Francis Edward Gladstone (harmony), Walter Parratt (organ) and Hubert Parry (composition), one of the leading English composers of the time. He continued his training in history and music at Trinity College, Cambridge, for three years in Charles Wood's class, rubbing shoulders with philosophers and meeting his fiancée Adeline Fisher. He completed his studies at the Royal College of Music with Charles Villiers Stanford, whose conservatism he disliked, contradicting his liberal, social and progressive ideas. He also made the acquaintance of Gustav Holst, whose friendship was to last for many years. From 1895 to 1899, he worked as organist and choirmaster at the London church of St. Barnabas, married in 1897 and spent several months in Berlin, taking lessons from composer Max Bruch. As well as writing his first pieces, such as the song Linden Lea, Vaughan Williams devoted his time to researching sacred hymns, which he compiled in The Hymnal Book (1906), and folk melodies, which were to have a major influence on his composing. In 1905, he founded the Leith Hill Musical Festival, becoming its principal conductor for five decades. Two years later, he went to Paris to study for three months with Maurice Ravel, of whom he was one of the few pupils. Between his interest in Elizabethan music, his borrowing of popular tunes and his taste for modernity, Vaughan Williams forged his own style, which began to blossom in his first notable works, including the song cycle On Wenlock Edge and the incidental music The Wasps (1909), followed by two of his most famous compositions, Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis and his first symphony, A Sea Symphony, premiered in 1910, one at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral and the other at the Leeds Festival. The latter, with its vocal and choral dimensions, large orchestra and length, established the composer's reputation among music critics. In 1914, he unveiled his next work, A London Symphony, which underwent several revisions. The same year saw the first version, for violin and piano, of The Lark Ascending, later reworked into the world-famous version for violin and orchestra. The composer was 42 when he enlisted in the First World War as a stretcher-bearer, serving in France and Greece before being appointed a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. He lost many friends, including the composer George Butterworth, and began to suffer from hearing problems due to the noise of the cannons. He then turned to teaching at the Royal College of Music and conducting The Bach Choir in London, before turning his attention to composing A Pastoral Symphony (1922), a reminiscence of the war, whose premiere was conducted by Adrian Boult. During the interwar period, Vaughan Williams pursued all three activities simultaneously, composing the Mass in G minor (1922), the ballet Old King Cole (1923), the operas Hugh the Drover (1924) and Sir John in Love (1928), the suite for viola, chorus and orchestra Flos Campi dedicated to Lionel Tertis (1925) and the oratorio Sancta Civitas (1926). In 1929, the couple settled in Dorking, Surrey, until the wife's death in 1951. 1931 saw the premiere of the ballet Job: A Masque for Dancing, inspired by William Blake's Book of Job and with a dark, violent tone. Vaughan Williams' music adopted a new dissonant, polyrhythmic style, as demonstrated by Symphony No. 4 (1935), which he recorded two years later. In 1932, he was elected president of the English Folk Dance and Song Company, promoting folk music. Perceived as the leader of English music after the deaths of Elgar, Delius and his friend Holst, Vaughan Williams supported the new generation and continued his modernization enterprise with the pacifist cantata Dona nobis pacem (1936) and the contemplative Symphony No. 5 (1941). In 1938, he completed the Serenade to Music and began an adulterous relationship with the poet Ursula Wood, who became his muse and second wife in 1953. Active as a civilian during the Second World War, he composed his first film score 49th Parallel (1941), then resumed his cycle with the bold and dramatic Symphony No. 6 (1948). His last opera, The Pilgrim's Progress, based on John Bunyan's allegorical novel (1678), premiered at Covent Garden on April 26, 1951. It was poorly received by the public, and is still rarely performed. In 1953, Vaughan Williams and his new wife moved to Hanover Terrace in London's Regent's Park. He wrote an arrangement of O Taste and See for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and traveled extensively between continental Europe and the United States. His final years saw the premieres of Three Shakespeare Songs (1951), the cantata Hodie (1954), Ten Blake Songs for voice and oboe (1957) and the three final symphonies, Sinfonia Antartica (1953), inspired by his own music for the 1948 feature film Scott of the Antarctic, Symphony No. 8 conducted by John Barbirolli in Manchester on May 2, 1956 and Symphony No. 9 by Malcolm Sargent in London on April 2, 1958. Four months later, Ralph Vaughan Williams died of a heart attack on August 26, 1958, at the age of 85.