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Vaughan Williams' Incidental Music for Film and Radio

  • 49th Parallel (1940)

  • Coastal Command (1942)

  • The People's Land (1943)
    A documentary about the National Trust; score used traditional folksongs.

  • The Story of a Flemish Farm (1943)

  • Stricken Peninsular (1944)
    A wartime information film about the recently liberated South of Italy, the score used Italian folk music played by an Italian brass band.

  • The Loves of Joanna Godden (1946)

  • Scott of the Antarctic (1948)

  • Dim Little Island (1949)
    A 10 minute documentary film, this also includes narration by RVW.

  • Bitter Springs (1950)
    A film about a trek in the Australian Outback. Composed in collaboration with Ernest Irving.

  • The England of Elizabeth (1955)

  • The Vision of William Blake (1958)
    See the entry for Ten Blake Songs.


Incidental Music for Radio



Background Information


All Vaughan Williams' film score and radio music is unpublished in original form. However the score for the film "Scott of the Antarctic" was used as the basis for the 7th Symphony - the "Sinfonia Antartica". Some other film score music was also rearranged for orchestral suites.

However recently the music from "Story of a Flemish Farm", "49th Parallel", "Coastal Command" and "Three Portraits from The England of Elizabeth" was recorded by the RTE Concert Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Penney. It's on the Marco Polo label. CD catalogue number 8 223665.

Some information on the films themselves is available here through the Internet Movie Database.





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