Six Studies on English Folksong

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1874-1956) composed the Six Studies in English Folksong in 1926, though his interest in the country’s folk traditions goes back to around 1900. In 1904 he toured the countryside gathering and transcribing folks songs as a way to preserve oral traditions that were disappearing from an increasingly print-based world. The Six Studies were originally scored for cello and piano, though the composer created and authorized numerous arrangements. He manages to remain faithful to the modal elements in such older music without slavishly burying his own expressive manner. These songs retain the melody in its original guise, but often the harmonic support is pure Vaughan Williams. All are slow in tempo except the last. The lush tonal language makes Vaughan Williams sound out of step with his times, but other works show his awareness of European avant-garde developments. Such progressive ideas simply would have overshadowed the primary purpose he had in producing these songs, which was to document the voice of common English men and women in a changing landscape.

(c) Jason Stell