Editing Ralph Vaughan Williams (section)

==Music==
{{See also|List of compositions by Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams and English Folk Music}}
[[File:Tallis-fantasia-page1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|alt=Page of printed musical score|Opening of ''Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis'', 1910]]
Michael Kennedy characterises Vaughan Williams's music as a strongly individual blending of the modal harmonies familiar from folk‐song with the French influence of Ravel and Debussy. The basis of his work is melody, his rhythms, in Kennedy's view, being unsubtle at times.<ref name=odm>Kennedy, Michael (ed). [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e10634 "Vaughan Williams, Ralph"], ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, retrieved 10 October 2015 {{subscription}}</ref> Vaughan Williams's music is often described as visionary;{{refn|The word is used repeatedly in discussions of Vaughan Williams by composers such as [[Herbert Howells]],<ref>Barbirolli ''et al'', p. 537</ref> [[Anthony Payne]],<ref name=t318>Thomson ''et al'', p. 318</ref> and [[Wilfrid Mellers]],<ref>Mellers, Wilfrid. "Review: ''Hodie'' by Vaughan Williams", ''[[The Musical Times]]'', March 1966, p. 226 {{JSTOR|953381}}{{subscription}}</ref> conductors including [[Sakari Oramo]],<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3651859/Visionary-genius-of-the-spirit-world.html "Visionary genius of the spirit world"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118115804/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3651859/Visionary-genius-of-the-spirit-world.html |date=18 November 2018 }}, ''The Telegraph'', 26 April 2006</ref> and scholars such as Byron Adams,<ref>Adams (1996), p. 100</ref> Kennedy,<ref name=odm/> and Hugh Ottaway.<ref>Ottaway, p. 213</ref>|group= n}} Kennedy cites the masque ''Job'' and the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies.<ref name=odm/> Vaughan Williams's output was prolific and wide-ranging. For the voice he composed songs, operas, and choral works ranging from simpler pieces suitable for amateurs to demanding works for professional choruses. His comparatively few chamber works are not among his better-known compositions.<ref>Mark, p. 179</ref> Some of his finest works elude conventional categorisation, such as the ''[[Serenade to Music]]'' (1938) for sixteen solo singers and orchestra; ''Flos Campi'' (1925) for solo viola, small orchestra, and small chorus; and his most important chamber work, in Howes's view—not purely instrumental but a song cycle—''On Wenlock Edge'' (1909) with accompaniment for string quartet and piano.<ref name=archive/>

In 1955 the authors of ''The Record Guide'', [[Edward Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville|Edward Sackville-West]] and [[Desmond Shawe-Taylor (music critic)|Desmond Shawe-Taylor]], wrote that Vaughan Williams's music showed an exceptionally strong individual voice: Vaughan Williams's style is "not remarkable for grace or politeness or inventive colour", but expresses "a consistent vision in which thought and feeling and their equivalent images in music never fall below a certain high level of natural distinction". They commented that the composer's vision is expressed in two main contrasting moods: "the one contemplative and trance-like, the other pugnacious and sinister". The first mood, generally predominant in the composer's output, was more popular, as audiences preferred "the stained-glass beauty of the Tallis Fantasia, the direct melodic appeal of the ''Serenade to Music'', the pastoral poetry of ''The Lark Ascending'', and the grave serenity of the Fifth Symphony". By contrast, as in the ferocity of the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies and the Concerto for Two Pianos: "in his grimmer moods Vaughan Williams can be as frightening as Sibelius and [[Béla Bartók|Bartók]]".<ref>Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, p. 786</ref>

===Symphonies===
It is as a symphonist that Vaughan Williams is best known.<ref name=archive/> The composer and academic [[Elliott Schwartz]] wrote (1964), "It may be said with truth that Vaughan Williams, [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]] and [[Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofieff]] are the symphonists of this century".<ref name=s201>Schwartz, p. 201</ref> Although Vaughan Williams did not complete the first of them until he was thirty-eight years old, the nine symphonies span nearly half a century of his creative life. In his 1964 analysis of the nine, Schwartz found it striking that no two of the symphonies are alike, either in structure or in mood.<ref>Schwartz, p. 17</ref> Commentators have found it useful to consider the nine in three groups of three—early, middle and late.<ref name=s18/>
{{external media|width=180px|audio1 =[https://archive.org/details/uso20090601/uso20090601-008-vaughan-williams-sea-symphony-mvtIV.wav ''A Sea Symphony'']}}

====''Sea'', ''London'' and ''Pastoral'' Symphonies (1910–1922)====
The first three symphonies, to which Vaughan Williams assigned titles rather than numbers,{{refn|Vaughan Williams did not assign numbers to any of his symphonies before No 8, but Nos 4–6 have generally been referred to by number nevertheless.<ref>Cox, p. 115</ref>|group= n}} form a sub-group within the nine, having [[programme music|programmatic]] elements absent from the later six.<ref name=s18>Schwartz, p. 18</ref>

''[[A Sea Symphony]]'' (1910), the only one of the series to include a part for full choir, differs from most earlier [[Choral symphony|choral symphonies]] in that the choir sings in all the movements.<ref name=archive/><ref name=f93/> The extent to which it is a true symphony has been debated; in a 2013 study, Alain Frogley describes it as a hybrid work, with elements of symphony, oratorio and cantata.<ref name=f93>Frogley, p. 93</ref> Its sheer length—about eighty minutes—was unprecedented for an English symphonic work, and within its thoroughly tonal construction it contains harmonic dissonances that pre-echo the early works of [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] which were soon to follow.<ref>Frogley, pp. 93–94</ref>
''[[A London Symphony]]'' (1911–1913) which the composer later observed might more accurately be called a "symphony by a Londoner",<ref>Thomson, p. 73</ref> is for the most part not overtly pictorial in its presentation of London. Vaughan Williams insisted that it is "self-expressive, and must stand or fall as 'absolute' music".<ref>McVeagh, p. 115</ref> There are some references to the urban soundscape: brief impressions of street music, with the sound of the [[barrel organ]] mimicked by the orchestra; the characteristic [[Street cries|chant]] of the lavender-seller; the jingle of [[hansom cab]]s; and the chimes of [[Big Ben]] played by harp and clarinet.<ref>Frogley, p. 97</ref> But commentators have heard—and the composer never denied or confirmed—some social comment in sinister echoes at the end of the scherzo and an orchestral outburst of pain and despair at the opening of the finale.<ref>Kennedy (1980), p. 139</ref> Schwartz comments that the symphony, in its "unified presentation of widely heterogeneous elements", is "very much like the city itself".<ref>Schwartz, p. 57</ref> Vaughan Williams said in his later years that this was his favourite of the symphonies.{{refn|This was in 1951, when the last three symphonies were yet to be written.<ref>Cobbe, p. 487</ref>|group= n}}

The last of the first group is ''[[Pastoral Symphony (Vaughan Williams)|A Pastoral Symphony]]'' (1921). The first three movements are for orchestra alone; a wordless solo soprano or tenor voice is added in the finale. Despite the title the symphony draws little on the folk-songs beloved of the composer, and the pastoral landscape evoked is not a tranquil English scene, but the French countryside ravaged by war.<ref>Kennedy (2008), p. 36</ref> Some English musicians who had not fought in the First World War misunderstood the work and heard only the slow tempi and quiet tone, failing to notice the character of a requiem in the music and mistaking the piece for a rustic idyll.{{refn|[[Peter Warlock]] commented that the symphony was "like a cow looking over a gate", though he added, "but after all, it's a very great work"<ref name=t318/> and Sir Hugh Allen said the work conjured up "VW rolling over and over in a ploughed field on a wet day".<ref name=k278>Kennedy (2013), p. 278</ref>|group= n}} Kennedy comments that it was not until after the Second World War that "the spectral 'Last Post' in the second movement and the girl's lamenting voice in the finale" were widely noticed and understood.<ref name=k278/>

====Symphonies 4–6 (1935–1948)====
The middle three symphonies are purely orchestral, and generally conventional in form, with [[sonata form]] (modified in places), specified [[Tonic (music)|home keys]], and four-movement structure.<ref>Schwartz, pp. 75, 78, 80, 84, 90, 93, 97, 100, 106, 110, 114 and 117</ref> The orchestral forces required are not large by the standards of the first half of the 20th century, although the Fourth calls for an augmented woodwind section and the Sixth includes a part for [[tenor saxophone]].<ref>[http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.4_in_F_minor_(Vaughan_Williams,_Ralph) "Symphony No.4 in F minor (Vaughan Williams, Ralph)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024222532/http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.4_in_F_minor_(Vaughan_Williams,_Ralph) |date=24 October 2015 }}; and [http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.6_in_E_minor_(Vaughan_Williams,_Ralph) "Symphony No.6 in E minor (Vaughan Williams, Ralph)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005201143/http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.6_in_E_minor_(Vaughan_Williams,_Ralph) |date=5 October 2015 }}, International Music Score Library Project, retrieved 11 October 2015</ref> The [[Symphony No. 4 (Vaughan Williams)|Fourth Symphony]] (1935) astonished listeners with its striking dissonance, far removed from the prevailing quiet tone of the previous symphony.<ref>Schwartz, p. 88</ref> The composer firmly contradicted any notions that the work was programmatical in any respect, and Kennedy calls attempts to give the work "a meretricious programme&nbsp;... a poor compliment to its musical vitality and self-sufficiency".<ref>Kennedy (1980), p. 268</ref>

The [[Symphony No. 5 (Vaughan Williams)|Fifth Symphony]] (1943) was in complete contrast to its predecessor. Vaughan Williams had been working on and off for many years on his operatic version of Bunyan's ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. Fearing—wrongly as it turned out—that the opera would never be completed, Vaughan Williams reworked some of the music already written for it into a new symphony. Despite the internal tensions caused by the deliberate conflict of modality in places, the work is generally serene in character, and was particularly well received for the comfort it gave at a time of all-out war.<ref>Cox, pp. 122–123; and Schwartz. p. 104</ref> [[Neville Cardus]] later wrote, "The Fifth Symphony contains the most benedictory and consoling music of our time."<ref>Cardus, Neville, "The Measure of Vaughan Williams", ''[[Saturday Review (U.S. magazine)|The Saturday Review]]'', 31 July 1954, p. 45</ref>

With the [[Symphony No. 6 (Vaughan Williams)|Sixth Symphony]] (1948) Vaughan Williams once again confounded expectations. Many had seen the Fifth, composed when he was seventy, as a valedictory work, and the turbulent, troubled Sixth came as a shock. After violent orchestral clashes in the first movement, the obsessive ''[[ostinato]]'' of the second and the "diabolic" scherzo, the finale perplexed many listeners. Described as "one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken in music",<ref>Cox, p. 111</ref> it is marked ''pianissimo'' throughout its 10–12-minute duration.{{refn|In 1956 the composer said in a letter to Michael Kennedy that the nearest that words could get to what he intended in the finale were Prospero's in ''[[The Tempest]]'': "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."<ref name=k302/>|group= n}}

====''Sinfonia antartica'', Symphonies 8 and 9 (1952–1957)====
The seventh symphony, the ''[[Sinfonia antartica]]'' (1952), a by-product of the composer's score for ''Scott of the Antarctic'', has consistently divided critical opinion on whether it can be properly classed as a symphony.<ref name=s135>Schwartz, p. 135</ref> Alain Frogley in ''Grove'' argues that though the work can make a deep impression on the listener, it is neither a true symphony in the understood sense of the term nor a tone poem and is consequently the least successful of the mature symphonies. The work is in five movements, with wordless vocal lines for female chorus and solo soprano in the first and last movements.<ref name=grove>Ottaway, Hugh and Alain Frogley. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/42507 "Vaughan Williams, Ralph"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, retrieved 10 October 2015 {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref> In addition to large woodwind and percussion sections the score features a prominent part for [[wind machine]].<ref>Schwartz, p. 121</ref>

The [[Symphony No. 8 (Vaughan Williams)|Eighth Symphony]] (1956) in D minor is noticeably different from its seven predecessors by virtue of its brevity and, despite its minor key, its general light-heartedness. The orchestra is smaller than for most of the symphonies, with the exception of the percussion section, which is particularly large, with, as Vaughan Williams put it, "all the 'phones' and 'spiels' known to the composer".<ref name=k293>Kennedy (2013), p. 293</ref> The work was enthusiastically received at its early performances, and has remained among Vaughan Williams's most popular works.<ref name=k293/><ref>Schwartz, p. 150</ref>

The final symphony, the [[Symphony No. 9 (Vaughan Williams)|Ninth]], was completed in late 1957 and premiered in April 1958, four months before the composer's death. It is scored for a large orchestra, including three saxophones, a [[flugelhorn]], and an enlarged percussion section. The mood is more sombre than that of the Eighth; ''Grove'' calls its mood "at once heroic and contemplative, defiant and wistfully absorbed".<ref name=grove/> The work received an ovation at its premiere,<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E06E7DF1E3FE43BBC4B53DFB2668383649EDE "Ninth Symphony by Vaughan Williams Cheered at World Premiere in London"], ''The New York Times'', 3 April 1958, p. 22 {{subscription}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305205906/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E06E7DF1E3FE43BBC4B53DFB2668383649EDE |date=5 March 2016 }}</ref> but at first the critics were not sure what to make of it, and it took some years for it to be generally ranked alongside its eight predecessors.<ref>Kennedy (2013), pp. 296–297</ref>

===Other orchestral music===
{{external media|video1=[https://archive.org/details/retnvt-Me2_Strings_-_Vaughn_Williams_Fantasia_on_a_Theme_by_Thomas_Tallis ''Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis''] |audio1=[https://archive.org/details/dso20100516/dso20100516-002-vaughan-williams-lark-ascending.wav ''The Lark Ascending'']|audio2=[https://archive.org/details/mm-838-vaughan-williams-6/MM838+Vaughan+Williams+Greensleeves.flac ''Fantasia on Greensleeves'']}}
[[File:Vaughan-Williams-by-Rothenstein.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Drawing of a man in early middle age, clean shaven, with a good head of hair, looking towards the viewer|Vaughan Williams in 1919, by [[William Rothenstein]]]]

''Grove'' lists more than thirty works by Vaughan Williams for orchestra or band over and above the symphonies. They include two of his most popular works—the ''[[Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis]]'' (1910, revised 1919), and ''[[The Lark Ascending (Vaughan Williams)|The Lark Ascending]]'', originally for violin and piano (1914); orchestrated 1920.<ref>Foreman, p. 19</ref> Other works that survive in the repertoire in Britain are the [[Norfolk Rhapsodies|''Norfolk Rhapsody No 1'']] (1905–1906), ''[[The Wasps (Vaughan Williams)|The Wasps (An Aristophanic Suite)]]'' (1909) – the overture in particular – the ''[[English Folk Song Suite]]'' (1923) and the ''Fantasia on Greensleeves'' (1934).<ref name=grove/>

Vaughan Williams wrote four concertos: for violin (1925), [[Piano Concerto (Vaughan Williams)|piano]] (1926), [[Oboe Concerto (Vaughan Williams)|oboe]] (1944) and [[Tuba Concerto (Vaughan Williams)|tuba]] (1954); another concertante piece is his "Romance for [[harmonica]], strings and piano" (1951).<ref name=grove/> None of these works has rivalled the popularity of the symphonies or the short orchestral works mentioned above.{{refn|The 2015 concert listings section of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society lists no performances of any of the concertos in Britain during that year, and, internationally, one performance of the "Oboe Concerto" (in [[Las Palmas]]) and one of the Piano Concert (in [[Seattle]]).<ref>[http://www.rvwsociety.com/concerts.html#top "Vaughan Williams Concerts in 2015"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151104224505/http://www.rvwsociety.com/concerts.html |date=4 November 2015 }}, Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, retrieved 11 October 2015</ref>|group= n}} Bartók was among the admirers of the Piano Concerto, written for and championed by [[Harriet Cohen]], but it has remained, in the words of the critic Andrew Achenbach, a neglected masterpiece.<ref>Achenbach, p. 45</ref>

In addition to the music for [[Scott of the Antarctic (film)|''Scott of the Antarctic'']], Vaughan Williams composed incidental music for eleven other films, from ''[[49th Parallel (film)|49th Parallel]]'' (1941) to ''The Vision of William Blake'' (1957).<ref name=grove/>

===Chamber and instrumental===
By comparison with his output in other genres, Vaughan Williams's music for chamber ensembles and solo instruments forms a small part of his oeuvre. ''Grove'' lists twenty-four pieces under the heading "Chamber and instrumental"; three are early, unpublished works.<ref name=grove/> Vaughan Williams, like most leading British 20th-century composers, was not drawn to the solo piano and wrote little for it.{{refn|The composer and musical scholar [[Christopher Palmer]] includes Vaughan Williams in the list of major British composers, along with Elgar, Delius, Holst, Walton and Britten, who showed little interest in the solo piano and seldom wrote for it.<ref name=cp2>Palmer, Christopher (1988). Notes to Chandos CD 8497, OCLC 602145160</ref>|group= n}} From his mature years, there survive for standard chamber groupings two string quartets (1908–1909, revised 1921; and 1943–1944), a "phantasy" string quintet (1912), and a sonata for violin and piano (1954). The first quartet was written soon after Vaughan Williams's studies in Paris with Ravel, whose influence is strongly evident.{{refn|Vaughan Williams was amused by the comment of a friend who correctly detected the French influence, but thought "I must have been having tea with Debussy."<ref name=a40/>|group= n}} In 2002 the magazine ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'' described the second quartet as a masterpiece that should be, but is not, part of the international chamber repertory.<ref>Roach, p. 1047</ref> It is from the same period as the Sixth Symphony, and has something of that work's severity and anguish.<ref>Mark, p. 194</ref> The quintet (1912) was written two years after the success of the ''Tallis Fantasia'', with which it has elements in common, both in terms of instrumental layout and the mood of rapt contemplation.<ref>Mark, pp. 182–183</ref> The violin sonata has made little impact.<ref>Mark, pp. 195–196</ref>

===Vocal music===
Ursula Vaughan Williams wrote of her husband's love of literature, and listed some of his favourite writers and writings:
{{blockquote|From [[John Skelton (poet)|Skelton]] and [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]], [[Philip Sidney|Sidney]], [[Edmund Spenser|Spenser]], the Authorised Version of the Bible, the madrigal poets, the anonymous poets, to Shakespeare—inevitably and devotedly—on to [[George Herbert|Herbert]] and his contemporaries, [[John Milton|Milton]], Bunyan, and [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]], [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]], [[Algernon Swinburne|Swinburne]], [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti|both]] [[Christina Rossetti|Rossettis]], [[Walt Whitman|Whitman]], [[William Barnes|Barnes]], [[Thomas Hardy|Hardy]] and [[A. E. Housman|Housman]].<ref>Vaughan Williams (1972–73), p. 88</ref>}}
In addition to his love of poetry, Vaughan Williams's vocal music is inspired by his lifelong belief that the voice "can be made the medium of the best and deepest human emotion."<ref>Manning, p. 28</ref>

====Songs====
Between the mid-1890s and the late 1950s Vaughan Williams set more than eighty poems for voice and piano accompaniment. The earliest to survive is "A Cradle Song", to [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]]'s words, from about 1894.<ref name=grove/> The songs include many that have entered the repertory, such as "Linden Lea" (1902), "Silent Noon" (1904) and the song cycles ''[[Songs of Travel]]'' (1905 and 1907) and ''On Wenlock Edge''.<ref>Fuller, pp. 106–107</ref> To Vaughan Williams the human voice was "the oldest and greatest of musical instruments".<ref>Vaughan Williams, Ralph. "The Composer in Wartime", ''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]'', 1940, ''quoted'' in Fuller, p. 106</ref> He described his early songs as "more or less simple and popular in character",<ref>Cobbe, p. 41</ref> and the musicologist Sophie Fuller describes this simplicity and popularity as consistent throughout his career.<ref>Fuller, p. 108</ref> Many composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries wrote sentimental works for female voice; by contrast, songs by Vaughan Williams, such as "The Vagabond" from ''Songs of Travel'', to words by [[Robert Louis Stevenson]], are "a particularly masculine breath of fresh air" (Fuller), "virile open-air verses" (Kennedy).<ref>Fuller, p. 114 and Kennedy (1980), p. 80</ref> Some of Vaughan Williams's later songs are less well known; Fuller singles out the cycle ''Three Poems by Walt Whitman'', a largely dark work, as too often overlooked by singers and critics.<ref name=f118>Fuller, p. 118</ref> For some of his songs the composer expands the accompaniment to include two or more string instruments in addition to the piano; they include ''On Wenlock Edge'', and the Chaucer cycle ''Merciless Beauty'' (1921), judged by an anonymous contemporary critic as "surely among the best of modern English songs".<ref name=f118/>

====Choral music====
[[File:Ralph Vaughan William staute in Dorking, top.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Outdoor statue of middle-aged man with raised arms as if conducting an orchestra|Statue of Vaughan Williams by [[William Fawke]], [[Dorking]]]]  Despite his agnosticism Vaughan Williams composed many works for church performance. His two best known hymn tunes, both from c. 1905, are "Down Ampney" to the words "[[Come Down, O Love Divine]]", and "''Sine nomine''" "[[For All the Saints]]".<ref>Kennedy (1980), p. 85</ref> ''Grove'' lists a dozen more, composed between 1905 and 1935. Other church works include a ''Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis'' (1925), the [[Mass in G minor (Vaughan Williams)|Mass in G minor]] (1920–1921), a Te Deum (1928)<ref name=grove/> and the motets ''[[O clap your hands (Vaughan Williams)|O Clap Your Hands]]'' (1920), ''Lord, Thou hast been our Refuge'' (1921) and ''O Taste and See'' (1953, first performed at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II).<ref>Kennedy (1980), pp. 412 and 428</ref>

Vaughan Williams's choral works for concert performance include settings of both secular and religious words. The former include ''Toward the Unknown Region'' to words by Whitman (composed 1904–1906), ''[[Five Tudor Portraits]]'', words by John Skelton (1935), and the Shakespearean ''Serenade to Music'' (in its alternative version for chorus and orchestra, 1938). Choral pieces with religious words include the oratorio ''[[Sancta Civitas]]'' (1923–1925) and the Christmas cantata ''[[Hodie]]'' (1954). In 1953 the composer said that of his choral works ''Sancta Civitas'' was his favourite.<ref>Steinberg, p. 297</ref> The ''[[Dona nobis pacem (Vaughan Williams)|Dona Nobis Pacem]]'', an impassioned anti-war cantata (1936) is a combination of both, with words from Whitman and others juxtaposed with extracts from the Latin mass, anticipating a similar mixture of sacred and secular text in [[Benjamin Britten|Britten]]'s ''[[War Requiem]]'' twenty-five years later.<ref>Kennedy (1980), p. 254</ref>

===Stage works===
Vaughan Williams was wary of conventional labels; his best known ballet is described on the title page as "a masque for dancing" and only one of his operatic works is categorised by the composer simply as an opera. For some of his theatre pieces that could be classed as operas or ballets, he preferred the terms "masque", "romantic extravaganza", "play set to music", or "morality".{{refn|Applied by the composer to, respectively, ''On Christmas Night'' and ''The Bridal Day''; ''The Poisoned Kiss'', ''Riders to the Sea'' and ''The Pilgrim's Progress''.<ref name=grove/><ref>Kennedy (1980), pp. 415, 420 and 427</ref>|group= n}}

In a 2013 survey of Vaughan Williams's stage works, Eric Saylor writes, "With the possible exception of [[Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], no composer's operatic career was less emblematic of his success elsewhere."<ref name=s157>Saylor, p. 157</ref> Although Vaughan Williams was a regular opera-goer, enthusiastic and knowledgeable about works by operatic masters from [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] to Wagner and [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]], his success in the operatic field was at best patchy. There is widespread agreement among commentators that this was partly due to the composer's poor choice of librettists for some, though not all, of his operas.<ref>Kennedy (1980), pp. 179 and 276; and Saylor, pp. 157 and 161</ref> Another problem was his keenness to encourage amateurs and student groups, which sometimes led to the staging of his operas with less than professional standards.<ref name=s157/> A further factor was the composer's expressed preference for "slow, long ''tableaux''", which tended to reduce dramatic impact, although he believed them essential, as "music takes a long time to speak—much longer than words by themselves."<ref>Cobbe, p. 73</ref>

''Hugh the Drover, or Love in the Stocks'' (completed 1919, premiere 1924) has a libretto, by the writer and theatre critic Harold Child, which was described by ''[[The Stage]]'' as "replete with folksy, Cotswold village archetypes".<ref name=stage>Gutman, David. [https://www.proquest.com/docview/850701387 "Hugh the Drover"], ''The Stage'', 25 November 2010, retrieved 13 October 2015 {{subscription}}</ref> In the view of the critic [[Richard Traubner]] the piece is a cross between traditional ballad opera and the works of Puccini and Ravel, "with rhapsodic results." The score uses genuine and pastiche folk-songs but ends with a passionate love duet that Traubner considers has few equals in English opera.<ref>Traubner, Richard. [https://www.proquest.com/docview/1783409 "Vaughan Williams: Riders to the Sea and Hugh the Drover"], ''Opera News'', 17 February 1996, p. 40 {{subscription}}</ref> Its first performance was by students at the Royal College of Music, and the work is rarely staged by major professional companies.<ref name=stage/>

''Old King Cole'' (1923) is a humorous ballet. The score, which makes liberal use of folk-song melodies, was thought by critics to be strikingly modern when first heard. Kennedy comments that the music "is not a major work but it is fun." The piece has not been seen frequently since its premiere, but was revived in a student production at the RCM in 1937.<ref>"Royal College of Music", ''The Times'', 2 December 1937, p. 12</ref>

''On Christmas Night'' (1926), a masque by [[Adolph Bolm]] and Vaughan Williams, combines singing, dancing and mime. The story is loosely based on [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]]'s ''[[A Christmas Carol]]''.<ref name=k415>Kennedy (1980), p. 415</ref> The piece was first given in [[Chicago]] by Bolm's company; the London premiere was in 1935. Saylor describes the work as a "dramatic hodgepodge" which has not attracted the interest of later performers.<ref name=saylor163>Saylor, p. 163</ref>

The only work that the composer designated as an opera is the comedy ''Sir John in Love'' (1924–1928). It is based on [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]''. Folk-song is used, though more discreetly than in ''Hugh the Drover'', and the score is described by Saylor as "ravishingly tuneful".<ref>Saylor, p. 159</ref> Although versions of the play had already been set by [[Otto Nicolai|Nicolai]], Verdi, and Holst, Vaughan Williams's is distinctive for its greater emphasis on the love music rather than on the robust comedy.<ref>Kennedy (1980), p. 218</ref> In 1931, with the Leith Hill Festival in mind, the composer recast some of the music as a five-section cantata, ''In Windsor Forest'', giving the public "the plums and no cake", as he put it.<ref>Kennedy, Michael (1981). Notes to EMI CD CDM 5 65131 2, OCLC 36534224</ref>

''[[The Poisoned Kiss]]'' (1927–1929, premiered in 1936) is a light comedy. Vaughan Williams knew the [[Savoy operas]] well,<ref>Vaughan Williams (1964), pp. 289, 315 and 334</ref> and his music for this piece was and is widely regarded as in the [[Arthur Sullivan|Sullivan]] vein.<ref>Hughes, pp. 232–233; and Greenfield, Edward. "Vaughan Williams: ''The Poisoned Kiss''", ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'', January 2004, p. 77</ref> The words, by an inexperienced librettist, were judged to fall far short of [[W. S. Gilbert|Gilbert]]'s standards.<ref>[[John Warrack|Warrack, John]]. "Vaughan Williams's ''The Poisoned Kiss''", ''[[The Musical Times]]'', June 1956, p. 322 {{JSTOR|937901}}{{subscription}}</ref> Saylor sums up the critical consensus that the work is something between "a frothy romantic comedy [and] a satirical fairy-tale", and not quite successful in either category.<ref>Saylor, p. 161; and Clements, Andrew. [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:EGLL&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0FEBED8E507A47FD&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "Flower power: Vaughan Williams's botanically themed opera reeks of tweeness"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818050242/http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid%2Fiw.newsbank.com%3AUKNB%3AEGLL&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=0FEBED8E507A47FD&svc_dat=InfoWeb%3Aaggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA |date=18 August 2021 }}, ''The Guardian'', 7 November 2003</ref>

[[File:Blake-Job's-Comforters.jpg|alt=19th century engraving showing the Old Testament character Job, and his hypocritical comforters|thumb|upright=1.0|left|[[William Blake]]'s engraving of [[Job (biblical figure)|Job]] and his comforters]]
''Job: A Masque for Dancing'' (1930) was the first large-scale ballet by a modern British composer.<ref>Kennedy, Michael (ed). [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e788 "Ballet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020183845/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108 |date=20 October 2021 }}, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, retrieved 13 October 2015 {{subscription}}</ref> Vaughan Williams's liking for long ''tableaux'', however disadvantageous in his operas, worked to successful effect in this ballet. The work is inspired by [[William Blake]]'s ''[[William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job|Illustrations of the Book of Job]]'' (1826). The score is divided into nine sections and an epilogue, presenting dance interpretations of some of Blake's engravings.<ref>Weltzien, pp. 335–336</ref> The work, choreographed by [[Ninette de Valois]], made a powerful impression at its early stagings, and has been revived by the [[Royal Ballet]] several times.<ref name=saylor163/><ref>[http://www.rohcollections.org.uk/Work.aspx?work=844 "Job"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304102812/http://www.rohcollections.org.uk/Work.aspx?work=844 |date=4 March 2016 }}, Royal Opera House performance database, retrieved 13 October 2015</ref> Kennedy ranks the score as "one of Vaughan Williams's mightiest achievements", and notes that it is familiar in concert programmes, having "the stature and cohesion of a symphony."<ref>Kennedy (1980), pp. 221 and 224</ref>

In Kennedy's view the one-act ''Riders to the Sea'' (1925–1931, premiered 1937) is artistically Vaughan Williams's most successful opera; Saylor names ''Sir John in Love'' for that distinction, but rates ''Riders to the Sea'' as one of the composer's finest works in any genre.<ref>Kennedy (1980), p. 427; and Saylor, p. 159</ref> It is an almost verbatim setting of [[J. M. Synge]]'s 1902 play of the same name, depicting family tragedy in an Irish fishing village. Kennedy describes the score as "organized almost symphonically" with much of the thematic material developed from the brief prelude. The orchestration is subtle, and foreshadows the ghostly finale of the Sixth Symphony; there are also pre-echoes of the ''Sinfonia antartica'' in the lamenting voices of the women and in the sound of the sea.<ref>Kennedy (1997) pp. 427–428</ref>

''The Bridal Day'' (1938–1939) is a masque, to a scenario by Ursula, combining voice, mime and dance, first performed in 1953 on [[BBC]] television. Vaughan Williams later recast it a [[cantata]], ''Epithalamion'' (1957).<ref>Kennedy (1980) pp. 421 and 431</ref>

''The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1951), the composer's last opera, was the culmination of more than forty years' intermittent work on the theme of Bunyan's religious allegory. Vaughan Williams had written incidental music for an amateur dramatisation in 1906, and had returned to the theme in 1921 with the one-act ''The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains'' (finally incorporated, with amendments, into the 1951 opera). The work has been criticised for a preponderance of slow music and stretches lacking in dramatic action,<ref name=k428>Kennedy (1997), p. 428</ref> but some commentators believe the work to be one of Vaughan Williams's supreme achievements.<ref name=grove/> Summaries of the music vary from "beautiful, if something of a stylistic jumble" (Saylor) to "a synthesis of Vaughan Williams's stylistic progress over the years, from the pastoral mediation of the 1920s to the angry music of the middle symphonies and eventually the more experimental phase of the ''Sinfonia antartica'' in his last decade" (Kennedy).<ref name=k428/><ref>Saylor, p. 174</ref>