VAUGHAN-WILLIAMS, RALPH. (1872-1958). English composer. Signed score. (“R. Vaughan Williams”). 100pp. 4to. N.p., 1954 or later. (To Buffalo organist Hans Vigeland.) The piano vocal score of his Christmas Cantata This Day (Hodie) inscribed on the title page “With best regards from...”
The son of a parish priest, Vaughan-Williams drew on England’s long and varied musical tradition to compose works of great beauty and elegance. Folk tunes, renaissance songs, and traditional ballads all found expression in his instrumental and vocal compositions. Such giants of English literature as Shakespeare and John Bunyan provided sources for his operas. Among his best-known works are Fantasia for Double Stringed Orchestra on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, the opera Sir John in Love and Symphony No. 6.
Premiered on September 8, 1954, under his baton at the Three Choirs Festival at Worchester Cathedral, Hodie was Vaughan Williams’ final major composition for voice and orchestra. Although critics derided it for being overly simple in structure, the work was the culmination of his artistic style.
Vigeland was an organist and choirmaster at Buffalo’s Westminster Presbyterian Church from 1949-1975 who played with the Buffalo Philharmonic. He corresponded with Vaughan Williams prior to his fall 1954 visit to the United States and met him while he was a visiting professor of music at Cornell University. During that time, he conducted the Buffalo Philharmonic on November 10 at Cornell and again on November 21 at Buffalo’s Kleinhans Music Hall.
In overall fine condition with a faint paperclip mark and Vigeland’s ownership signature on the front cover.
