Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Ralph Vaughan Williams.

From the period sources

R. Vaughan Williams was recognized as a “living and rising composer” by the early 20th century, with his work in song-writing noted by Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians in 1904, 1908, and 1922. This reference work placed him among a “band of earnest young song-writers” whose accompaniments were praised for their “pains and skill,” reflecting a contemporary shift where the accompaniment was “rightly held to be an integral part of the whole composition.” His compositions were also specifically written for the Madrigal Society, which, according to Grove’s Dictionary (1906), commissioned works from him and other notable figures like Sir Hubert Parry and Sir Charles Stanford. In 1906, Vaughan Williams was elected a member of the Madrigal Society, which had been founded by Immyns, an attorney and later lutenist to the Chapel Royal.