Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams was one of the greatest English composers of the twentieth century. He was at home in many styles, including symphonies, chamber music, opera, song, choral works, works for organ, and film scores. He was also a collector of traditional folksongs and musical editor of the 1904 English Hymnal. The English music critic Alexander Fuller Maitland (editor of the first Grove Dictionary of Music) said of Vaughan Williams' musical style, "one is never quite sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new."