The Choir of Trinity College - A Vaughan Williams Hymnal

English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams not only was the esteemed author of symphonies, choral masterpieces, chamber works, and songs, but he also was the major force behind the compilation of the 1906 English Hymnal, a task that put the composer in touch with "some of the best--and some of the worst" music in the world. His esthetic and artistic values, and his well-grounded sense of what makes a good, singable tune, led him to select the best and reject the worst--and through the process he contributed several of his own tunes and harmonizations to the collection. This outstanding recording includes five of Vaughan Williams's own tunes, 16 more that he selected and arranged for the hymnal, and his beloved Three Preludes Founded on Welsh Hymn Tunes. This is a wonderful, "must-have" collection, beautifully, articulately, and reverently sung, with first-rate organ solos and accompaniments and excellent liner notes. --David Vernier Amazon.com

Sparkles33759

I enjoy this CD with all my heart. It goes in the car with me when I drive. It has the most amazing hymns on it and the harmony is beyond belief. I could not imagine being without this CD. I would strongly recommend it for anyone who likes choir music. October 13, 2008

The best CD that I own

Vaughan Williams may not have believed much that he wrote but he was intelligent enough to lean on the body of truth that hymn writers have communicated down through the ages. His words ring true, not because he himself believed them, but because he allowed them to rest on the vital testimony of others and because he allowed to be framed by the exquisite tradition of lofty and Spirit-filled harmony that we call the Hymns of the Christian faith.
Since we have heard in an earlier review from a Christian who became an Atheist, it seems only fair that we should hear from an Atheist who became a Chistian. I was a confirmed Atheist until the age of 20 when I "dropped out" and went to work on a farm in Germany with mentally handicapped adults. I remember once passing a plum tree in summer and thinking that it really was a coincidence that food for my body just grows. About that time I also realized that I needed to identify for myself all of the contradictions in the Bible so that I could intelligently communicate my Atheistic beliefs. To my great surprise, I could not find the mythical "many contradictions" and instead found that Jesus Christ was even more opposed to religious pomposity and self-centered grandeur than I was and that He had dedicated his life to correcting those perversions of religion. As I continued to read a chapter a day from the New Testament, I began to realize that if Jesus Christ were alive today, I would want to stand beside Him and share his joys and struggles. I also realized that my Atheist beliefs and lifestyle had made a hopeless mess of my life and that God, if He existed could surely do a better job of being at the helm. To cut to the chase, after evaluating the claims of Jesus Christ, I did become a Christian and He did prune out a lot of deadwood from my life, but He also provided me with everything that I now look back on some 37 years later with joy and satisfaction and pleasure.
Life is not always easy and just this morning, I was saddened by some events but found that Vaughan Williams Hymnal and the Trinity College choir bathed my soul, not in emotional fluff or the misty sound of nature, but with the timeless truths expressed in both words and music and passed on to us all via the great instrument of Christian Hymns. March 29, 2007

Superb Vaughan Williams Collected Hymns & Hynm Tunes

Ralph Vaughan Williams was the most prolific single composer of hymns in the Anglican Tradition. This was in addition to his many famous symphonic works. He was simply amazing. Here is a compilation of his most famous hymns and hymn tunes, both sung in the matchless style made famous in the English choral tradition (boys and men). Also, included are organ improvisations on tunes such as O Quanta Qualia (O what their joy and their glory must be, that great hymn for All Saints/All Souls Days), and many others. It is arguably the best single CD of Williams hymns. A must for your library of hymns and hymn tunes. Absolutely superb! January 24, 2007

Vaughan Williams was not an atheist!

As to the CD - RVW was the indisputed master (in my mind, anyway, and that's all that matters to me!) of the English hymn. The tunes like Down Ampney (Come Down O Love Divine) and Sine Nomine (For All The Saints) are nearly without equal, and the touch he brought to preexisting ones like Last uns erfreuen (Ye Watchers And Ye Holy Ones) and Kingsfold (I Heard The Voice OF Jesus Say) turns what could be completely dull in any real church setting into something with at least the potential for beauty and art. The performances here are great, and the addition of his Organ Preludes is a welcome bonus.

As to his spirituality, and his "right" to write spiritual music, well, just because Stravinsky said something doesn't make it so. RVW was, in his own words (or those of a biographer; I'm not 100%), a "hopeful agnostic". He wanted to believe. He tried to believe. And you can feel that longing in his music. His body of works is not something created by someone who was content with sudden death and cessation of existence.

The final minutes of so many of his great works - Pilgrim's Progress, Hodie, Sancta Civitas, tell you where his heart was. He was no mercenary court composer writing for the church because it paid well. The idea of the existence of God was one of the most important creative forces in his life. But because he couldn't reconcile the desires for it to be true with his experience and evidence in the world around us in no way lessens the meaning of what he created.

So many tunes that are now considered the old classic hymn tunes began as bar songs, folk songs, and other "atheist" sources. Do they now not speak to you the same? Why does knowledge of the source change anything? How? I just don't get it...

I'm an atheist. I was raised a Christian, and while as RVW my experience can no longer allow for belief in God and remain honest to myself, I do feel a great sense of loss, regret, and longing. I do wish that when I die, it could be with a sense of peace and transformation, that I really would be welcomed into eternal peace and beauty. 80 years (if that) is not enough to experience life.

Religion wasn't created and formed the way it exists now for no reason. It does give people something (even if we can't all see it). Probably 50% of the music I listed to at this point is spiritual in some way or another. Despite the fact that I firmly don't believe in any of it, the vision presented is undeniably powerful and I can't get away from it.

One of the most telling moments in the body of work by Vaughan Williams is a movement from Hodie, a Christmas cantata (buy it now - it's one of his best!). He set the poem "The Oxen" by Thomas Hardy. The poem is the embodiment of everything contained in the idea of hopeful agnosticism, supported in heartbreaking fashion by the music. The poem follows. Perhaps most significantly, he left off the final stanza, leaving us sad, dissolusioned, in the dark, and acutely conscious of what we've lost.


The Oxen
Thomas Hardy

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
"Now they are all on their knees,"
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
"Come; see the oxen kneel,

"In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,"
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so"

September 1, 2006

Superb Performance of Superb Music

All of this music is by just one composer and it is just hymns, yet it shows both remarkable diversity and consistency. Every minute is worth listening to. Much of the credit for this is indeed due to Vaughan Williams, but some is also due to Richard Marlow, the director of Trinity College, Cambridge who compiled Vaughan Williams' best hymns, thought about how each verse would be performed and guided the choir into a careful, enthusiastic and effective performance.

Truly, very enjoyable recording---if you're going to by one CD by an English choir, excluding Christmas music, this one should be it. Track #20 "ar hyd y nos" is the definate highlight. Tracks #8, #16, and #24 are other tracks to look forward to. December 29, 2004

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