Six Studies in English Folk Song for Cello

Composed :	1926
Movements :	I - Adagio, ( E modal minor ) ... folksong source : "Lovely on the Water" II - Andante sostenuto, ( E flat ) ... "Spurn Point" III - Larghetto, ( D modal minor ) ... "Van Dieman's Land" IV - Lento ... "She borrowed some of her mother's gold" V - Andante tranquillo ( C major ) ... "The Lady and the Dragoon" VI - Allegro vivace ... "As I walked over London Bridge"
Duration :	10 minutes
Other versions :	For cello and small orchestra - arranged by Arnold Foster, 1957.

The composer created several versions of the solo part of this work, for violin, viola, clarinet and of course, cello. In all cases the accompaniment is provided by a piano. It was originally written in 1926 for the cellist May Mukle, to whom it is dedicated. The studies are not simply arrangements of the original folksongs, which can reputedly be identified within the work.

Phantasy Quintet

Composed :	1912
Movements :	I - Prelude; lento ma non troppo II - Scherzo; prestissimo III - Alla Sarabanda IV - Burlesca; allegro moderato
Duration :	16 minutes
Other versions :	Third movement arranged for organ by Henry Ley, 1922.

"Vaughan Williams says hello to Elizabethan consort music one more time, though a bit less memorably than in the Tallis Fantasia. Still, you can't dismiss the work, which still shares some of the Fantasia's nobility and passion. Incidentally, this was a Cobbett commission - a British millionaire who loved the Elizabethan fantasia and paid composers to write their own. It's a fairly distinguished group, including works by Howells and Moeran and, perhaps most notably, Britten's Fantasy Quartet for oboe and string trio." -- Steve Schwartz

String Quartet No. 1 in G

Composed :	1908, revised 1921
Movements :	I - Allegro moderato II - Minuet and Trio III - Romance; andante sostenuto IV - Finale; rondo capriccioso
Duration :	28 minutes

"Vaughan Williams did not write much instrumental chamber music, his two string quartets lie about thirty years apart. He completed the first after studying with Ravel ( although a friend said it sounded more like he'd "been having tea with Debussy") and it does seem kin to Ravel's own quartet, though not at quite the same level of blazing masterpiece. Still, it's very attractive indeed and imaginatively laid out for the players." -- Steve Schwartz

String Quartet No. 2 in A

Composed :	1942-44
Movements :	I - Prelude; Allegro appassionato (A minor) II - Romance; Largo (G minor) III - Scherzo; Allegro (F minor) IV - Epilogue "Greetings from Joan to Jean"; andante sostenuto (D minor)
Duration :	28 minutes

This work was written for the violist Jean Stewart, ( hence the obscure subtitle "For Jean on her birthday" ). The main theme of the scherzo was taken from RVW's own music for the film "49th Parallel" . For the epilogue, RVW reused music he had written for a film about Joan of Arc, which was never made ... he always did hate wasting good tunes.

"The second quartet comes from the same acerbic world as the Sixth Symphony. Each movement opens with a solo passage for the instrument. It's a fine work, if not as searing as Bartok or Shostakovich, and definitely worth investigating. The English and the Medici Quartets have recorded both, on the same disks as the Phantasy Quintet." -- Steve Schwartz