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A leading British composer of the twentieth-century, Ralph Vaughan Williams was a lifelong exponent of choral music and singing. This two-part collection of new arrangements and editions features well-loved and lesser-known Vaughan Williams songs, anthems, and carols - for today's mixed-voice choir. It presents unison or treble pieces scored for SATB, creating new repertoire, and provides new accompaniment options and durations that widen the appeal of the pieces for church or concert use. The adaptations may introduce or give new light to the repertoire, yet are complementary to the original settings published as single pieces. John Leavitt, being an experienced conductor, composer, editor, and champion of Vaughan Williams, brings great sensitivity to this process, and knows how best to maximize rehearsal time with choirs of various types and sizes.
This four movement work for flute, discovered among Vaughan Williams's manuscripts after his death, seems to have been composed in 1913 for the French flautist Louis Fleury. It shows the composer beginning to experiment with the bitonality that would flavour his later works. The flute part is by turn expressive and virtuosic, making it an excellent showcase for more advanced flautists, especially those looking for British repertoire. Scores and parts for the string orchestra accompaniment are available on hire.
for SATB unaccompanied Vaughan Williams composed this setting of a poem by his wife Ursula in 1953 to form part of A Garland for the Queen, a collection of ten tributes to the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth II by leading British composers and poets. It is dedicated 'to the memory of Charles Villiers Stanford, and his Blue Bird', and reflects Stanford's masterpiece in its harmonic language, floating soprano part, unaccompanied scoring, and haunting atmosphere.
A leading British composer of the twentieth-century, Ralph Vaughan Williams was a lifelong exponent of choral music and singing. This two-part collection of new arrangements and editions features well-loved and lesser-known Vaughan Williams songs, anthems, and carols - for today's mixed-voice choir. It presents unison or treble pieces scored for SATB, creating new repertoire, and provides new accompaniment options and durations that widen the appeal of the pieces for church or concert use. The adaptations may introduce or give new light to the repertoire, yet are complementary to the original settings published as single pieces. John Leavitt, being an experienced conductor, composer, editor, and champion of Vaughan Williams, brings great sensitivity to this process, and knows how best to maximize rehearsal time with choirs of various types and sizes.
The film 'Scott of the Antarctic' was produced by Ealing Studios and released in 1948. It recounts Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated second expedition to the Antarctic in 1910-1913. The film is well-known for its score, composed by Vaughan Williams, which was later reworked to create his Sinfonia Antartica. Vaughan Williams's original score for the film was heavily edited in the studio and halved in length in order to create the final edit. It is now presented in its full, unedited form, assembled by the conductor Martin Yates, allowing listeners to hear the full grandeur of the composer's original for the first time. A recording of the work is available on the Dutton Epoch record label.
The one-act ballet Job has been described as one of Vaughan Williams's mightiest achievements. It is a work which, in a full production, combines painting, literature, music, and dance. The work was inspired by William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job, and includes quotations from the King James Bible. The result is a musical masterpiece, combining the ancient and the modern: Vaughan Williams's earlier style is in evidence, including tranquil pastoral melodies, but the work also anticipates the composer's later style. This new, scholarly edition, edited by Julian Rushton, will replace the existing OUP edition from 1934, and will include detailed preliminary matter, comprising a preface, sources and editorial method, and detailed textual notes.
Originally the title for Vaughan Williams's opera Sir John in Love, Fat Knight was conceived as a seven-movement orchestral suite that drew upon the opera and had, as its central character, Shakespeare's Falstaff. Vaughan Williams never completed the work and left only a two-piano score. It is from this score that the conductor Martin Yates has realised the Fat Knight suite, incorporating the orchestration from the completed opera.
