Vaughan Williams

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Includes bibliographical references and indexes."This desperate attempt to get a living"(1872-1901) -- Early Works (1890-1901) -- "I think I am improving" (1902-1908) -- The Music of 1902-1908 -- "The best thing I have done"(1909-1914) -- The Music of 1909-1914 -- "Beyond powers of expression" (1914-1922) -- The Music of 1914-1922 -- "New heights and depths and mysteries" (1923-1929) -- The Music of 1923-1929 -- "An awful responsibility" (1930-1936) -- The Music of 1930-1936 -- "One has to write as one feels" (1937-1943) -- The Music of 1937-1943 -- "I live a very quiet life now" (1943-1951) -- The Music of 1943-1951 -- "Worthy of the cause which he serves" (1951-1958) -- The Music of 1951-1958 -- Appendix A: Calendar -- Appendix B: List of works -- Appendix C: Personalia -- Appendix D: Select bibliography."This single-volume life-and-works biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams provides a contemporary reassessment of one of the twentieth century's most versatile, influential, and enduringly popular British musicians. Throughout his wide-ranging career-as composer, conductor, editor, scholar, folksong collector, teacher, author, administrator, and philanthropist-Vaughan Williams worked tirelessly to improve the standards and quality of British musical life. His compelling and original musical language-inspired in part by elements drawn from English folksong, French impressionism, Wagnerian post-chromaticism, Tudor-era sacred music, and Anglican hymnody-presented a distinctively British response to musical modernism over his sixty-year-long career, and in works ranging from art songs for amateurs to perhaps the finest symphonic cycle of the twentieth century. Alternating between biographical and analytical chapters, it draws upon previously inaccessible primary sources alongside a wealth of secondary material to craft a concise and engaging overview of Vaughan Williams's life and music"--