“I don’t think a composer can really be great without a unique sense of harmony. Maybe it is the presence of Tallis in that piece that drives the harmonic movement—it’s that, it’s the very wide-spread tessitura (very high with the very low) so you get the feeling you are in a cathedral, which is a magical quality if it’s well-played … Imagine, I’d never heard an orchestra before and this incredible and wide-spread resonant chord filled the hall …”
—John Adams on Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. In Tony Palmer’s new film, “O THOU TRANSCENDENT”: The Life of Ralph Vaughan Williams (TPDVD106), he pays tribute to this remarkable composer and
Read the rest of this entry »

A podcast introduction to the Christmas Cantata “Hodie”, composed when English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was in his 80’s.

Vaughan Williams was one of the best English composers of the 20th century, known equally for his symphonies, choral works, and film scores.

This work shows that even at the end of his long life, his musical imagination remained undiminished.

Album details…