Ralph Vaughan Williams – A Choral Celebration
This summer, the JCS celebrates the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams – RVW – one of England’s greatest composers – and also commemorates Queen Elizabeth’s extraordinary 70 years on the throne. Our programme includes the short anthem O Taste and See that RVW wrote for the Coronation in 1953, as well as his Silence and Music, with words by Ursula Vaughan Williams, which was his contribution to that year’s A Garland for the Queen offered by British composers.
We link this with a new piece by Sarah Cattley, an imaginative setting of Ursula’s poem O Western Wind, interspersed by phrases from the ancient song. Another poetic link is with RVW’s Rest, a setting of a Christina Rossetti poem, which is paired with a premiere performance of a setting of her poem Earth grown old by our newly appointed Composer in Association, Zoe Dixon.
The rarest item in the programme is from the final part of his life. Written in 1956, A vision of Aeroplanes is a setting of a passage from the Book of Ezekiel, and in many ways recalls RVW’s 4th Symphony, although it has echoes of Sancta Civitas as well. The vocal and organ parts paint a complex, swirling and intense sound world – certainly not a pastoral picture! Our organist is the prize-winning Jeremiah Stephenson, who will also join us for Lord, Thou has been our refuge – RVW’s setting of Psalm 90 combined with Isaac Watts’ metrical translation, the hymn O God our help in ages past.
Our programme includes some of RVW’s folk song arrangements – collecting such pieces was so much part of his life and was shared by his great friend Holst; we feature a couple of Holst’s arrangements in our programme. RVW’s friendship with Finzi was also very close, and in some ways Finzi filled the gap left by Holst’s death. Finzi’s anthem God is gone up and two of his part songs are included in the programme.
The Three Shakespeare Songs written in 1951 are echoed by three of Havergal Brian’s songs, though these were not written as a group – JCS and others are in the process of recording all of Brian’s choral songs. The two composers knew each other and corresponded – RVW thanked him for his help with Sancta Civitas.
Our performance on Saturday 9th July 2022 starts at 7pm – there will be a free pre-concert talk at 6.30pm and refreshments will be available to add to your enjoyment of the event.
Tickets can be bought online from www.eventbrite.co.uk and on the door.
Do join us – and download and share our RVW150 Dorking flyer !
RVW photo credits: The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust, Allan Chappelow
The JCS is most grateful to The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust for its generous support for this performance.