Ralph Vaughan Williams

I gained first awareness of the composer Vaughan Williams as a child. Aged 9, (in what would now be school Year 5) I was chosen to sing the opening verse of "Linden Lea" to open a whole school concert. Bearing in mind this was a school which went from ages 3-18, and could summon a large audience of parents and governors, I should have been somewhat daunted at the prospect. (I certainly would be now.) But children either possess an uncanny self confidence or are completely oblivious of occasion,  which keep nerves completely at bay and I don't remember being remotely nervous. I knew the song and enjoyed singing - so what was the problem?! (I do however remember wondering how the composer's name was pronounced and being rather grateful I was not called upon to read any introduction!)

Biography
Born 12 October 1872 Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer whose works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his work marked a "clear break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century." (Wikipedia)

A student at Charterhouse, he entered the Royal College of Music rather than completing his education, briefly transferring to Trinity College, Cambridge to study music. Vaughan Williams' first composition teacher at the RCM was Hubert Parry, whom he idolised. In his "Musical Autobiography" of 1950 Vaughan Williams describes a quote from Parry which gives perspective to his choral work.

Parry once said to me: "Write choral music as befits an Englishman and a democrat". We pupils of Parry have, if we have been wise, inherited from him the great English choral tradition, which Tallis passed on to Byrd, Byrd to Gibbons, Gibbons to Purcell, Purcell to Battishill and Greene, and they in their turn through the Wesleys, to Parry. He has passed on the torch to us and it is our duty to keep it alight."

At Cambridge Vaughan Williams studied composition with Charles Wood, and after graduating in 1894 he returned to the RCM to find Charles Villiers Stanford as his new professor of composition. Once a maverick who blazed a trail, Stanford had become musically deeply conservative and the two clashed frequently, although it's acknowledged Stanford held Vaughan Williams in deep affection, recognising his talent. Vaughan Williams became a friend and fellow critic of Gustav Holst, a fellow student who became a lifelong friend.

Initially Vaughan Williams focussed on collecting folk songs, building on his passion for Tudor music and tight modal style. His mature style developed as he produced choral music, orchestral works and chamber music. Born into a family with a strong morality and progressive social outlook his aim was to make music accessible, rather than focus on the ornate and challenging.

Despite being forty one in 1914 Vaughan Williams volunteered for active service in the Great War, and stopped composing during the war years. Older than most the war took a huge emotional toll on him and contributed to deafness which he suffered in later years. By 1936 the shadow of war was looming again and he was compelled to write Dona nobis pacem as a plea for peace.

He died suddenly, (in rude health despite reaching the age of 85) on 26th August 1958. His ashes were interred near the burial plots of Purcell and Stanford in the north choir aisle of Westminster Abbey.

Music
At the turn of the century Vaughan Williams was among the first to travel into the countryside to collect folk songs and carols from singers, preserving them for future generations to enjoy. As musical editor of The English Hymnal he composed several hymn tunes that remain popular (including Sine Nomine, “For all the Saints” and Down Ampney, “Come down O love Divine”). But is perhaps as a composer of symphonies that he is best known. Although Vaughan Williams did not complete the first of them until he was thirty-eight years old, the nine symphonies span nearly half a century of his creative life.

Charles Villiers Stanford

Biography
Much has been written about Stanford, undoubtedly one of the leading musicians of his generation who had a profound effect on the development and history of English music as a performer, conductor, composer, teacher and writer.

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor. Born and raised in Dublin, he was the only son of a prosperous Protestant lawyer. Stanford was educated at the University of Cambridge, initially as an organ scholar at Queen's College, before studying music in Leipzig and Berlin. While still an undergraduate, Stanford was appointed organist of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1882, aged 29, he was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music, where he taught composition for the rest of his life. From 1887 he was also Professor of Music at Cambridge. You can read more on the pages of the Stanford Society here.

As a teacher Stanford was sceptical about modernism, and based his instruction predominantly on classical principles as exemplified in the music of Brahms. (Brahms' music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. The diligent, highly constructed nature of his works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Embedded within his meticulous structures, however, are deeply romantic motifs.)

Stanford was a traditionalist during his teaching career. Ironically though his own rejection of conservatism in his youth in favour of Brahms' style was precisely the route adopted by many of his pupils, who diverged from the path he instructed them on and with considerable success. Surely this is the fundamental role of the teacher though, to provide a secure foundation for pupils from which to launch their own careers? This was certainly the view of George Dyson.

"In a certain sense the very rebellion he fought was the most obvious fruit of his methods. And in view of what some of these rebels have since achieved, one is tempted to wonder whether there is really anything better a teacher can do for his pupils than drive them into various forms of revolution."

Among his pupils were rising composers whose fame went on to surpass his own, such as Herbert Brewer, George Dyson, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Charles Wood. (The latter succeeded him as Professor of Music at Cambridge University.) As Professor at the Royal College of Music Stanford taught Herbert Howells, and also Ivor Gurney and George Butterworth, both casualties of the Great War. His legacy in my view is as the grandfather of twentieth century Anglican music.


Music
Stanford's best-remembered pieces are his choral works for church performance, composed in the Anglican tradition. (Choral Wiki has a list here. )He was a prolific composer, although many of his non-ecclesiastical works declined in popularity after his death this was not true of his church compositions. Anthems such as "Beati Quorum Via", "Justorum Animae", "Coelos Ascendit Hodie" and "For lo I raise up" are staples in the repertoire of many churches and cathedrals.  Who hasn't sung his Evening Canticles in B flat, C and G? His services in A (1880), F (one whilst at Queen's, Cambridge and known as the "Queen's Service" (1872), a second in F Op36 (1889) and C (1909) are less well known to me, although considered the most important and enduring according to historical musicologist Nicholas Temperley. His second Magnificat in F is beautiful, listen to it here . 

As with all composer's, Stanford's style did change over time - no matter how conservative his stylistic views. Compare his Queen's Service Magnificat in F (Op2) written in 1889 here :-



With his well known Magnificat in B flat written in here :-




Here is his Magnificat in A Major, complete with score to sing long to :-