Ralph Vaughan Williams - capturing the sounds of the English countryside

Vaughan Williams was born to a well-to-do family. He showed musical talent in early childhood and a modest private income allowed him to pursue composition as a young man. He studied at the Royal College of Music with fellow student Gustav Holst. The two became lifelong friends, and helpful critics of each other's work. Vaughan Williams later studied under Maurice Ravel.

Vaughan William's works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. He also composed the music for the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic.

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, to what might be called English Romantic music.

Two episodes made notably deep impressions on Vaughan Williams's personal life. The First World War, in which he served in the army, had a lasting emotional effect. Twenty years later, though in his sixties and devotedly married, he was reinvigorated by a love affair with a much younger woman, who later became his second wife.

He went on composing through his seventies and eighties, producing his last symphony months before his death at the age of eighty-five in 1958. His works have continued to be a staple of the British concert repertoire, and all his major compositions and many of the minor ones have been recorded.

Further reading

• The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society
• Vaughan Williams: 15 facts about the great composer - Classic FM
• Vaughan Williams - British Library