List of compositions by Ralph Vaughan Williams

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (May 2020)

This is a list of compositions by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

• Hugh the Drover, or Love in the Stocks (1910–14; revised 1924, 1933, 1956). Romantic ballad opera in 2 acts, with libretto by Harold Child (later revised by Ralph and Ursula Vaughan Williams)
  • A Cotswold Romance, Cantata for tenor, soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra, adapted from Hugh the Drover by M. Jackson (1950)
• Sir John in Love (1924–28). Opera in 4 acts, based on The Merry Wives of Windsor by Shakespeare with interpolations from other authors.
  • In Windsor Forest, Cantata for chorus and orchestra, adapted from Sir John in Love (1931)
  • Fantasia on "Greensleeves" for strings and harp, adapted from Sir John in Love by Ralph Greaves (1889-1966) in 1934;
• The Poisoned Kiss, or The Empress and the Necromancer (1927–29; revisions 1936–37 and 1956–57). Romantic Extravaganza in 3 acts, with libretto by Evelyn Sharp (later amended by Ralph and Ursula Vaughan Williams)
• Riders to the Sea (1925–32), from the play by J. M. Synge
• The Pilgrim's Progress (1909–51). Morality in Prologue, 4 acts and Epilogue, based on John Bunyan's allegory
  • The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains (1921). Libretto: Ralph Vaughan Williams (from John Bunyan) (Later incorporated, save for the final section, into The Pilgrim's Progress)
  • "Seven Songs from The Pilgrim's Progress" for voice and piano (1952)
  • "The 23rd Psalm" for soprano and chorus, arranged by John Churchill (1953)
  • Pilgrim's Journey, Cantata for soprano, tenor, baritone, chorus and orchestra adapted from The Pilgrim's Progress by Christopher Morris and Roy Douglas (1962)
• Thomas the Rhymer, Opera in 3 acts to libretto by Ursula Vaughan Williams, based on traditional ballads Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin. Uncompleted.

• The Wasps (1909): to Aristophanes's play The Wasps, Overture and 17 items
  • Aristophanic Suite for orchestra (1912)
• The Bacchae (1911): to Euripides's tragedy
• The Death of Tintagiles (1913): to Maurice Maeterlinck's 1894 play^[1]
• Incidental music to Shakespeare's plays (1913): The Merry Wives of Windsor; Richard II, Henry IV Part 2, Richard III, Henry V
• The First Nowell (1958): nativity play adapted from medieval pageants by Simona Pakenham; score completed by Roy Douglas

• Old King Cole (1923) for orchestra and optional chorus
• On Christmas Night (1926): masque adapted from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• Job: A Masque for Dancing (1930)
  • The Voice out of the Whirlwind, Motet for mixed choir and organ or orchestra; adapted from "Galliard of the Sons of the Morning" from Job
• The Running Set (1933): Traditional Dance Tunes for orchestra
• The Bridal Day (1938–39): masque founded on Epithalamion by Edmund Spenser
  • Revised as Epithalamion (1957), Cantata for baritone, chorus and small orchestra

• Symphonies
  • Symphony No. 1 A Sea Symphony (1903–1909) (with chorus, on texts by Whitman)
  • Symphony No. 2 A London Symphony (1911–13; revised 1918, 1920 and 1933)
  • Symphony No. 3 Pastoral Symphony (1921)
  • Symphony No. 4 in F minor (1931–34)
  • Symphony No. 5 in D major (1938–43)
  • Symphony No. 6 in E minor (1944–47, rev. 1950)
  • Symphony No. 7 Sinfonia antartica (1949–52) (partly based on his music for the film Scott of the Antarctic)
  • Symphony No. 8 in D minor (1953–55)
  • Symphony No. 9 in E minor (1956–57)
• Serenade in A minor (1898)
• Heroic Elegy and Triumphal Epilogue (1900)
• Bucolic Suite (1901)
• Burley Heath, impression for orchestra (1902–03)^[2]
• The Solent, impression for orchestra (1902–03)^[3]
• In the Fen Country, for orchestra (1904)
• Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1, for orchestra (1906, rev. 1914)^[4]
• Norfolk Rhapsody No. 2, for orchestra (1906, subsequently withdrawn; reconstructed and recorded in 2002 - see Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1)
• Harnham Down, impression for orchestra (1904–07)^[5]
• Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910, rev. 1913 and 1919)
• Fantasia on "Greensleeves" (1934)^[6] (for string orchestra and harp; arranged by Ralph Greaves from Vaughan Williams's treatment of folk tunes in his opera Sir John in Love)
• Two Hymn Tune Preludes (1936) for small orchestra: 1. Eventide; 2. Dominus regit me
• Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (1939) for strings and harp
• Partita for Double String Orchestra (1948), rewritten from Double Trio for string sextet with new finale
• Concerto Grosso, for three groups of strings, each requiring different levels of technical skill (1950)
• Flourish for Glorious John (1957)

• Fantasia for piano and orchestra (1896)
• The Lark Ascending for violin and orchestra (1914)
• Concerto Accademico for violin and string orchestra (1924–25)
• Flos Campi for viola, wordless chorus, and small orchestra (1925)
• Piano Concerto in C major (1926–31)
  • Arranged as Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1946) by Joseph Cooper in collaboration with the composer
• Fantasia on Sussex Folk Tunes (1929) for cello and orchestra; withdrawn by the composer
• Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra (1934)
• Sketches for Cello Concerto (1942–43); incomplete
  • 2nd movement completed by David Matthews (2009) as Dark Pastoral
• Oboe Concerto in A minor, for oboe and strings (1944)
• Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1946)
• Fantasia (quasi variazione) on the Old 104th Psalm Tune for piano, chorus, and orchestra (1949)
• Romance in D-flat major for harmonica and orchestra (1951) (written for Larry Adler)
• Tuba Concerto in F minor (1954)

• Three Elizabethan Songs , partsongs for chorus 1. Sweet Day (setting by George Herbert) 2. The Willow Song (Othello) 3. O Mistress Mine (Twelfth Night) (1896)
• The Garden of Proserpine, cantata for soprano, chorus & orchestra, setting of Algernon Charles Swinburne (1899)^[7]
• A Cambridge Mass, Missa brevis for SATB, double chorus & orchestra (1899); Doctoral exercise, first performed 3 March 2011.^{[8][9][10][11]}
• "Rest", for unaccompanied SSATB (1902)
• Willow-Wood, Cantata for baritone, women's chorus and orchestra (1903, revised 1909), setting texts by Rossetti from The House of Life^[12]
• Toward the Unknown Region, song for chorus and orchestra, setting of Walt Whitman (1906)
• The truth sent from above arranged for unaccompanied chorus (1909)
• Five Mystical Songs for baritone, chorus, and orchestra, settings of George Herbert (1911)
• Fantasia on Christmas Carols for baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1912); arranged also for reduced orchestra of organ, strings, percussion)
• Five English Folk Songs freely arranged for Unaccompanied Chorus (1913)
• O clap your hands, motet for chorus and orchestra, text from Psalm 47 (1920) ^[13]
• Lord, thou hast been our refuge, motet for chorus, semi chorus and orchestra (or organ); text from Psalm 90 (1921)
• "Ca' the yowes" for tenor and chorus (1922), a setting of the folk song by Isabel Pagan/Robert Burns^[14]
• Mass in G minor for unaccompanied choir (1922)
• Sancta Civitas (The Holy City) oratorio, text mainly from the Book of Revelation (1923–25)
• Te Deum in G major (1928)
• Benedicite for soprano, chorus, and orchestra (1929)
• Three Choral Hymns (1929)
• Magnificat for contralto, women's chorus, and orchestra (1932)
• O How Amiable (1934) arrangement of a hymn for chorus and organ, originally written for the Abinger Pageant
• Five Tudor Portraits for contralto, baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1936)
• Dona nobis pacem, text by Walt Whitman and other sources (1936)
• Festival Te Deum for chorus and orchestra or organ (1937)
• Serenade to Music for sixteen solo voices and orchestra, a setting of Shakespeare, dedicated to Sir Henry Wood on the occasion of his Jubilee (1938)
• "Six Choral Songs To Be Sung In Time Of War" (1940)
• A Song of Thanksgiving (originally Thanksgiving for Victory) for narrator, soprano solo, children's chorus, mixed chorus, and orchestra (1944)
• An Oxford Elegy for narrator, mixed chorus, and small orchestra (1949)
• Folk Songs of the Four Seasons, Cantata for women's voices with orchestra or piano (1949).
  • Suite for small orchestra from Folk Songs of the Four Seasons, arranged by Roy Douglas (1956)
• Three Shakespeare Songs for SATB unaccompanied, composed for The British Federation of Music Festivals National Competitive Festival (1951)
• The Sons of Light (1950), Cantata for chorus and orchestra; text by Ursula Vaughan Williams
  • Sun, Moon and Stars (1955), Cycle of four songs from The Sons of Light with strings or piano
• O taste and see, a motet setting of Psalm 34:8. The original SATB version was composed for the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in June 1953. (1953)
• Hodie, a Christmas cantata (1954)
• A Choral Flourish for unaccompanied SATB chorus, composed for a large choral event in the Royal Albert Hall at the invitation of (and dedicated to) Alan Kirby (c. 1952).^[15]
• Nine Carols for Male Voices arrangements made during the Second World War at the request of the British Council for performance by H.M. Forces in Iceland.^[16]

Vaughan Williams was the musical editor^[17] of the English Hymnal of 1906, and the co-editor with Martin Shaw of Songs of Praise of 1925 and the Oxford Book of Carols of 1928, all in collaboration with Percy Dearmer. In addition to arranging many pre-existing hymn tunes and creating hymn tunes based on folk songs, he wrote several original hymn tunes:

• Original hymn tunes included in The English Hymnal (1906)
  • "Come Down, O Love Divine": entitled Down Ampney in honour of Vaughan Williams's birthplace
  • "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" (Randolph)
  • "Hail Thee, Festival day" (Salva festa dies)
  • "For All the Saints" (Sine nomine)
• Original hymn tunes included in Songs of Praise (1925)
  • "Saviour, again to Thy dear name" (Magda)
  • "The night is come like to the day" (Oakley)
  • "Servants of God" (Cumnor)
  • "England Arise! the long, long night is over" (Guildford)
  • "At the Name of Jesus" (King's Weston)
• Original tunes included in Oxford Book of Carols (1928)
  • The Golden Carol ("Now is Christmas y-come")
  • Wither's Rocking Hymn ("Sweet baby, sleep!")
  • Snow in the Street ("From far away we come to you")
  • Blake's Cradle Song ("Sweet dreams, form a shade")
• Extra original hymn tunes included in the enlarged edition of Songs of Praise (1931)
  • "Into the woods my master went" (Mantegna)
  • "Servants of the great adventure" (Marathon)
  • "I vow to thee my country" (Abinger)
  • "Let us now praise famous men" (Famous Men)
  • "Fierce raged the tempest" (White Gates)

• "Summum bonum", song (1891), setting text by Browning
• "To daffodils", song (1895), setting text by Herrick^[18]
• "Dirge for Fidele", duet (1895), setting text by Shakespeare from Cymbeline, published 1922
• "Rondel", song (1896), setting text by Swinburne
• "How can the tree but wither", song (1896), setting text by Thomas, Lord Vaux
• "Claribel", song (1896), setting text by Tennyson
• "Linden Lea", song (1901); from the William Barnes poem “My Orcha’d in Lindèn Lea”
• "Blackmwore by the Stour", song (1902); from the William Barnes poem “Blackmwore Maïdens”
• "Boy Johnny", song (1902), setting text by Christina Rossetti
• "Whither Must I Wander", song (1902)
• "If I were a Queen", duet (1903), setting text by Christina Rossetti
• "When I am dead, my dearest", song (1903), setting text by Christina Rossetti
• "Tears, idle tears", song (1903), setting text by Tennyson
• "The Splendour Falls", song, setting text by Tennyson
• "The Winter's Willow", song (1903); from the William Barnes poem of the same name
• "Adieu", duet, translated from German by Arthur Foxton Ferguson (1903)
• "Think of Me", duet, translated from German by Arthur Foxton Ferguson (1903)
• "Orpheus with his Lute", song (1904), setting text by Shakespeare
• The House of Life, six sonnets by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1904): 1. Lovesight; 2. Silent noon; 3. Love's minstrels; 4. Heart's haven; 5. Death-in-Love; 6. Love's last gift
• Two Vocal Duets, for soprano, baritone and violin with piano, setting texts by Walt Whitman (1904)
• Songs of Travel, song cycle for baritone and piano, setting texts by R. L. Stevenson (1901–04). Includes "The Vagabond".
  • Songs 1 3 8 arranged for baritone and orchestra (1905)
  • "I have trod the upward and the downward slope" was added to the original eight songs in 1960, after the composer's death
  • Songs 2 4 5 6 7 9 arranged for baritone & orchestra by Roy Douglas (1962)
• "Dreamland", song, setting text by Christina Rossetti (1906)
• "Nocturne", for baritone and orchestra, setting of "Whispers of Heavenly Death" by Walt Whitman (1908)^[19]
• "The Sky Above The Roof", song (1908), setting translation by Mabel Dearmer of Paul Verlaine poem 'Le ciel est pardessus le toit'
• On Wenlock Edge, song cycle (1909) for tenor, piano and string quartet, setting texts by A. E. Housman
• Four Hymns: (1914) for tenor and piano (or strings) with viola obbligato
• Merciless Beauty, three rondels for tenor, two violins and cello (1921)
• Four Poems by Fredegond Shove: for baritone and piano (1922–25): 1. Motion and Stillness; 2. Four Nights; 3. The New Ghost; 4. The Water Mill
• Two Poems by Seumas O'Sullivan (1925): 1. The Twilight People; 2. A Piper;
• Three Songs from Shakespeare (1925): 1. Take, O take those lips away; 2. When icicles hang by the wall; 3. Orpheus with his lute
• Three Poems by Walt Whitman for baritone and piano (1925): 1. Nocturne; 2. A Clear Midnight; 3. Joy, Shipmate, Joy!
• "Along the Field", for tenor and violin, setting texts by A. E. Housman (1927)
• "In the Spring", song (1952); from the William Barnes poem of the same name
• Ten Blake Songs, song cycle for high voice and oboe (1957), written for film The Vision of William Blake
• Four Last Songs (1954–58) to poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams: 1. Procris; 2. Tired; 3. Hands, Eyes and Heart; 4. Menelaus
• Three Vocalises (wordless) for soprano and clarinet (1958)

• String Quartet in C minor (1898)
• Quintet in D major for clarinet, horn, violin, cello, and piano (1898)
• Piano Quintet in C minor for violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano (1903)
• Scherzo for string quintet (1904)
• Nocturne & Scherzo for string quintet (1906)^[20]
• String Quartet No. 1 in G minor (1908)
• Phantasy Quintet for 2 violins, 2 violas, and cello (1912)
• Suite de Ballet for flute and piano (1913–24)
• Romance and Pastorale for violin and piano (1914)
• Romance for viola and piano (undated; possibly 1914)
• Six Studies in English Folk Song, for cello (or clarinet, violin, viola) and piano (1926)
• Double Trio for string sextet (1938): withdrawn and revised as Partita for Double String Orchestra
• Suite for Pipes (1939)
• Household Music: Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes for string quartet or other instruments (1941): 1. Fantasia, Crug-y-bar; 2. Scherzo, St. Denio; 3. Variation, Aberystwyth
• String Quartet No. 2 in A minor ("For Jean, on her birthday," 1942–44. Dedicated to the violist Jean Stewart^[21])
• Sonata in A minor for violin and piano (1952)

• Pezzo Ostinato for piano (1905)
• Three Preludes for Organ founded on Welsh hymn tunes (1920); 1. Bryn Calfaria, 2. Rhosymedre, 3. Hyfrydol
  • No. 2 & No. 3 arranged for orchestra by Arnold Foster
  • Arranged for two pianos by Leslie Russell (1939)
• Suite of Six Short Pieces for piano (1921)
  • Arranged for string orchestra by James Brown in collaboration with the composer as The Charterhouse Suite (1923)
• Prelude and Fugue in C minor for organ (1921)
  • Version for orchestra (1930)
• Hymn Tune Prelude on 'Song 13' by Orlando Gibbons for piano (1930)
  • Arranged for string orchestra by Helen Glatz
• Six Teaching Pieces for piano (1934)
• A Wedding Tune for Ann for organ (1943)
• A Winter Piece for piano (1943)
• Introduction and Fugue for two pianos (1947)
• The Old One Hundredth Psalm Tune, harmonisation and arrangement (1953)
• Two Organ Preludes founded on Welsh Folk Songs (1956): 1. Romanza, The White Rock; 2. Toccata, St. David's Day

• 49th Parallel, 1940, his first, talked into it by Muir Mathieson to assuage his guilt at being able to do nothing for the war effort
  • Song The New Commonwealth (1943) adapted from Prelude to 49th Parallel, words by Harold Child
  • The Lake in the Mountains for piano, based on episode from 49th Parallel (1947)
  • Prelude to 49th Parallel for orchestra, published 1960
• Coastal Command, 1942
• The People's Land, 1943 ^[22]
• The Flemish Farm, 1943
  • Suite The Story of a Flemish Farm in 7 movements (1945)
• Stricken Peninsula, 1945
• The Loves of Joanna Godden, 1946
• Scott of the Antarctic,^[23] 1948
  • Partially reused for his Sinfonia antartica (Symphony No. 7)
• The Dim Little Island, 1949 ^[24]
• Bitter Springs, 1950 (music composed jointly with Ernest Irving)^[25]
• The England of Elizabeth, 1955
  • Three Portraits from The England of Elizabeth: concert suite (1. Explorer; 2. Poet; 3. Queen) adapted by Muir Mathieson
  • Two Shakespeare Sketches from The England of Elizabeth adapted by Muir Mathieson

• BBC adaptation by Edward Sackville-West of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, 1942
  • Some of this music was later used in the Morality Play The Pilgrim's Progress
• Richard II (1944); not used
• Incidental music to BBC production of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, 1951
  • Prelude on an Old Carol Tune (1953) was adapted from this incidental music

• Rhosymedre (based on a Welsh hymn tune for organ) for concert band (1920)
• English Folk Songs, Suite for military band (1923)
  • Arranged for brass band by Gordon Jacob (1924)
  • Arranged for orchestra by Gordon Jacob (1942)
  • Arranged for piano by Michael Mullinar (1949)
• Sea Songs, Quick march for military and brass bands (1923)
  • Arranged by composer for orchestra (1942)
• Toccata Marziale for military band (1924)
• Overture: Henry V for brass band (1933/34)
• Flourish for Wind Band (1939)
• Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes for brass band (1955): 1. Ebenezer; 2. Calfaria; 3. Hyfrydol
• Variations for brass band (1957)
  • Arranged for orchestra by Gordon Jacob (1960)

• Kennedy, Michael: A Catalogue of the Works of Vaughan Williams^[26]
• List of works by category on the website of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society [1]
• The Da Capo Catalog of Classical Music Compositions^[27]