The Music of 1902–1908

Vaughan Williams’s creative efforts were enriched, directly and tangentially, by his engagement with musical styles, traditions, and performance practices beyond the academic curriculum and concert-hall repertory of his training, including those of the Anglican church, the Purcell Society, and amateur choristers, though none had a greater long-term impact than English folk music. But while folk songs consumed much of his time and energy, they were not his sole focus in the early 1900s. Vocal music—including solo songs, duets, part songs, and a cantata (Willow-Wood)—accounted for seventeen of Vaughan Williams’s twenty-one stand-alone works published or first performed between 1902 and 1903. The variety of music that he wrote and edited over the next several years, however, was enormous: orchestral works (such as the Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra, In the Fen Country, the three Norfolk Rhapsodies, and the Four Orchestral Impressions), choral music (Toward the Unknown Region, The English Hymnal), stage works (including incidental music for Pan’s Anniversary and scenes from The Pilgrim’s Progress), and a smattering of chamber pieces. The impact of some of these works would be felt for many years to come—such as The English Hymnal, the Pilgrim’s Progress music, and The Solent (one of the Four Orchestral Impressions)—and collectively, they helped advance Vaughan Williams to the front line of younger British composers.