Repertoire

Ralph Vaughan Williams together with his friend Gustav Holst, researched and resurrected the English folk song. Vaughan Williams is not remembered as one of the most important composers of the twentieth century only for this reason; his symphonies are bastions of grace and imagination. His first symphony, A Sea Symphony, set stanzas from the Whitman poems “After the Sea-Ship,” “On the Beach at Night Alone,” “Passage to India,” “Song for All Seas, All Ships,” and “Song of the Exposition.” Vaughan Williams remained profoundly moved by Whitman his entire life, as he later set several poems in cantata form titled Dona Nobis Pacem, wrote Three Poems by Walt Whitman for piano and voice, and individually set “Darest Thou Now O Soul.”

For more information about the life and music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, check out these other websites:

The Ralph Vaughan Williams Web Page

Maintained by Jaron Collis at The Queen’s University of Belfast, this site contains a compelte list of Vaughan Williams’ works, some biographical and bibliographical information, and links to concert events

The Nebraska Public Radio Network (NPRN) produces a block of programming devoted to the music of a single composer. The scripts and music selection are by David Breckbill, a professor of music at Doane College in Crete, NE. On October 2000, Ralph Vaughan Williams was the featured composer.