Author Description

Ralph Vaughan Williams was one of the most significant English composers of this century and a key architect of the English Musical Renaissance. Much from his prodigious output has entered the standard repertoire, and he is well-known for a number of major works, including the Tallis Fantasia, Serenade to Music, and the Fifth Symphony. Here is an entirely novel view of Vaughan Williams, his music and his life. Using techniques originated in his Elgar: A Life in Photographs, Jerrold Northrop Moore has drawn photographs from family albums (many hitherto unpublished), from the great photographic artists of the earlier twentieth century, and from newspaper and magazine files to build a fascinating illustrated portrait of the composer. The visual images are set with captions, many of them quotations from Ursula Vaughan Williams's unique biography, RVW.