Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.
Vaughan Williams c. 1920
Leith Hill Place, Surrey, Vaughan Williams's childhood home
Hubert Parry, Vaughan Williams's first composition teacher at the Royal College of Music
Charles Villiers Stanford, Vaughan Williams's second composition teacher at the RCM
The folk music of England is a tradition-based music which has existed since the later medieval period. It is often contrasted with courtly, classical and later commercial music. Folk music traditionally was preserved and passed on orally within communities, but print and subsequently audio recordings have since become the primary means of transmission. The term is used to refer both to English traditional music and music composed or delivered in a traditional style.
Original score of Pastime with Good Company (c. 1513), held in the British Library, London.
The first page of an 1840 printed version of "Barbara Allen" one of the most widely collected English language folk ballads.
Cecil Sharp
Pentangle performing in 1969