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Vaughan Williams'Solo Songs and Song Cycles

For the lyrics of these songs, see the excellent recmusic.org archive.

  • Along the field (cycle)
  • L'amour de Moy
  • Bird's song (from Pilgrim's Progress)
  • Blackmwore[sic] by the Stour
  • Boy Johnny
  • Buonaparty
  • Claribel
  • A cradle song
  • Darest thou now, O soul (same Whitman poem as used in Toward the Unknown Region)
  • Dreamland
  • Four hymns
  • Four last songs
  • Four nights
  • Four poems by Fredegond Shove
  • The House of Life (cycle, setting of poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
  • How can the tree but wither ?
  • If I were a queen
  • In the spring
  • Let us now praise famous men
  • Linden Lea
  • Mercilous Beauty
  • On Wenlock Edge (cycle, setting of poems by A.E. Houseman (A Shropshire Lad))
  • Orpheus with his lute
  • Pilgrim's psalm (from Pilgrim's Progress)
  • A Piper
  • Reveille-vous, Piccars
  • The sky above the roof
  • Song of the leaves of life (from Pilgrim's Progress)
  • Song of the Pilgrim (from Pilgrim's Progress)
  • Song of Vanity Fair (from Pilgrim's Progress)
  • Songs of Travel
  • Take, O those lips away
  • Tears, idle tears
  • Ten Blake Songs ( from music to the film "The Vision of William Blake" )
  • Three poems by Walt Whitman
  • Three Shakespeare Songs
  • Twenty-third psalm (from Pilgrim's Progress)
  • Two poems by Seamas O'Sullivan
  • Watchful's song (from Pilgrim's Progress)
  • Wedding chorus (`See the chariot at hand' from Sir John in love)
  • When I am dead, my dearest
  • When icicles hang
  • Willow-wood (cycle)
  • The winter's willow
  • Woodcutter's song (from Pilgrim's Progress)

Note : All works that are described above as Song Cycles consist of several songs; their individual titles are not given here.


Unpublished Songs

  • Jean Renaud


Background Information


Merciless Beauty

"From his teacher Hubert Parry, Vaughan Williams learned to take his texts from the greatest writers in the English language. Here, the author was thought to have been Chaucer, though he wasn't. Whoever may turn out to be the real author aside, these three rondels are among the most exquisite love poems ever written. Vaughan Williams takes tenor and string trio and fashions a work described quite well by its title. Its beauty holds you and doesn't let you go. The work has recently been reissued on CD." -- Steve Schwartz

Recommended Recordings :
  • Ian Partridge, tenor; Music Group of London; EMI (lp) HQS 1325.
  • Philip Langridge, tenor; members of the Endellion String Quartet; EMI CDC 7 64730 2.

    Songs of Travel

    "An early song cycle - Michael Kennedy calls it an "English Winterreise" - to texts by Robert Louis Stevenson. There are lingering traces of Vaughan Williams's fin-de-siecle 'Rossetti' style, but most of the songs take the first steps to the idiom he's known for. A few individual songs have found independent life in recital. I first heard John Shirley-Quirk do the complete cycle, but that recording is long gone. An orchestration exists, the composer responsible for dressing up three of the songs and his long-time assistant Roy Douglas coming up with the rest, but I prefer the piano accompaniment. The orchestrations blow away the intimacy of the cycle. A very good performance comes from Benjamin Luxon and David Willison with other cycles as well, including the wonderful 4 Poems by Fredegond Shove." -- Steve Schwartz

    Recommended Recordings :
  • John Shirley-Quirk, baritone. Saga / Emergo Classics. SAGA EC 3339-2
  • Benjamin Luxon, baritone; David Willison, piano. Chandos CHAN 8475

    Ten Blake Songs

    "A late work, written for a film on the English poet and painter William Blake and using only oboe and voice, this is Vaughan Williams's music stripped to its essentials. The songs show the intensity of melody, the harmonic adventurousness, and even his love of melody. You won't believe so much music comes from two performers." -- Steve Schwartz

    Recommended Recording :
  • Ian Partridge, tenor; Janet Craxton, oboe. EMI CDM 769170 2

    Three Shakespeare Songs

    These were written in 1951 for an unaccompanied chorus. The songs are entitled : "Full Fathom Five", "The Cloud-capp'd Towers" and "Over Hill, Over Dale". The texts for the first two are taken from "The Tempest". "Full Fathom Five" evokes a seascape, whilst "The Cloud-capp'd Towers" is very similiar in mood to the 4th movement of the 6th Symphony which was written a few years earlier. "Over Hill, Over Dale" on the other hand is a rather jovial piece using text from "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

    Recommended Recording :
  • King's College Choir. Sir David Willcocks. Recently re-issued on Decca, 430 093 2

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