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Vaughan Williams' Keyboard Works

Organ Music
  • Prelude and Fugue in C minor
  • Three preludes on Welsh hymn tunes (Bryn Calfaria, Hyfrydol and Rhosymedre)
  • Two Organ Preludes (founded on Welsh folk songs)


Music for 1 or 2 Pianofortes

  • Hymn tune prelude on `Song 13'
  • Introduction and Fugue for 2 pianofortes
  • Job, a masque for dancing (arr. Lasker)
  • The lake in the mountains (from music to "49th Parallel")
  • The Running Set (for 2 pianofortes, arr. Lasker* and Bidder)
  • Six teaching pieces
  • English folk song suite (arr. Mullinar)
  • Suite of six short pieces



Background Information

Prelude on "Rhosymedre"

"The most popular of his Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn-Tunes for organ, this work has achieved an independent life in Arnold Foster's arrangment for strings. Either form is wonderful, although I give the edge to the original. It strikes me that VW is one of the few composers who successfully learned from Bach how to compose an organ prelude. It invites thriving comparison to such monuments as "Wachet auf," "Jesu, joy of man's desiring," and "Sheep may safely graze." I cannot find a current listing in the Schwann, although (predictably) EMI had put out a performance with Marriner and the ASMF which they withdrew. My favorite performance, no longer available, is by organist Timothy Farrell on British RCA Gold Seal." -- Steve Schwartz

Recommended Recording:
Timothy Farrell, organ. British RCA Gold Seal (lp) GL 25016


* Vally Lasker was a very competent pianist and a member of staff at St. Paul's Girls' School, which had also employed Gustav Holst. She arranged several of Vaughan Williams' works for Piano.




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