Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams was born at Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, on October 12, 1872, and became one of the defining English composers of the twentieth century. He studied at the Royal College of Music and Trinity College, Cambridge, with further study under Max Bruch and Maurice Ravel. His catalogue ranges from nine symphonies, operas, ballets, and concertos to choral works such as A Sea Symphony and smaller pieces including The Lark Ascending and Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.

Vaughan Williams was also a folk-song collector and an influential editor of congregational music. He began collecting English traditional songs in 1903 and served as musical editor of The English Hymnal, published in 1906. That work brought folk melodies, Tudor church music, and strong new tunes such as SINE NOMINE and DOWN AMPNEY into wide congregational use. His collecting and editing helped reshape the sound of English hymnody.

For As Man and Woman We Were Made, Vaughan Williams should be credited as arranger and harmonizer, not as the originator of the melody. He collected the traditional song On Christmas Night from Harriet Verrall at Monk’s Gate, near Horsham, Sussex, in 1904. His arrangement appeared in Eight Traditional English Carols in 1919 and later became widely known as SUSSEX CAROL. Modern hymnals pair that six-line tune with Brian Wren’s marriage text.