“Beyond Powers of Expression” (1914–1922)

Vaughan Williams volunteered for military service shortly after the Great War broke out, despite being over the age of conscription. He served first with the Royal Army Medical Corps in France and Greece, and then (after receiving a commission to second lieutenant) with the Royal Garrison Artillery and the British Expeditionary Forces in France. Vaughan Williams’s return home elicited a host of mixed feelings, relief at having survived foremost among them, but also the anticipation of coming back to his wife and music. Beyond returning to composition, he was fortunate to be appointed to a teaching position at the Royal College of Music, where he played a hugely influential role in shaping the next generation of British musicians. He also began consolidating his own style into an idiom often referred to as “pastoralism,” which emerged in several works left unfinished or unrevised at the start of the war (including The Lark Ascending and the Four Hymns), and three new ones: the Pastoral Symphony, The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains, and the Mass in G Minor. These works gained attention both at home and abroad, with the Vaughan Williamses traveling to the United States to see the Pastoral Symphony in performance, and the Mass garnering acclaim in Germany. Such performances helped establish Vaughan Williams as a significant player on the international stage as well as in England.