You can follow along with a score of “Fantasia on Christmas Carols” available here (http://waltercosand.com/CosandScores/Composers%20Q-Z/Vaughan%20Williams,%20Ralph/Fantasia_on_Christmas_Carols__orch._score_.pdf) and there’s some really interesting history and analysis of this piece available to read for free here (https://archive.org/details/musicofralphvaug000664mbp/page/n141/mode/2up)
#SymSat #RalphVaughanWillaims #RVW #CecilSharp

Next we have “Fantasia on Christmas Carols”, a single movement folk song-based choral composition by Ralph Vaughan Williams 🇬🇧 (https://youtu.be/KaTxLnvM3UA?si=L07Q2saH80dMrmuu). It’s part of a series of English folk carols collected and arranged by RVW and his friend & collaborator musicologist Cecil Sharp (November 22, 1859-June 23, 1924)🇬🇧. It features several quotations of other carols (“The First Nowell”, etc).
#SymSat #RalphVaughanWillaims #RVW #CecilSharp

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Folk Songs of the Four Seasons” (https://youtu.be/dWetJEGQlU4?si=kQThG6lsmfleffDx) is a cantata written for women/treble voices grouped into the four seasons based on English folk songs from the late medieval period (one of RVW’s special interests) this is “Autumn” which is comprised of the songs “John Barleycorn”, “The Unquiet Grave” and “An Acre of Land”. You can follow along with a free score available here (https://archive.org/details/folksongsoffours00unse/page/30/mode/2up)
#SymSat #RalphVaughanWilliams #RVW

If this sounds a little RVW-y in parts it’s likely because Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst were besties who influenced each other. Here’s a really cool 2017 BBC documentary about their friendship and their works (https://youtu.be/azkV3iZJzFQ?si=hH4DbIbY_azGJwdW) A book about their friendship featuring their letters “Heirs and Rebels” can be read for free here (https://archive.org/details/heirsrebelslette0000gust)
#SymSat #GustavHolst #RalphVaughanWilliams #RVW