The Old Hundredth Psalm Tune

for SATB and orchestra or brass Vaughan Williams provided music for royal ceremonies several times during his long career; in the case of this arrangement the occasion was the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It is a gloriously majestic setting of the hymn 'All people that on earth do dwell' with spectacular brass fanfares and opportunities for congregational singing. There are also calmer moments: verse 4, for example, borrows from John Dowland's setting of the psalm, harking back to the previous Elizabethan age. The work was given its first concert performance by the Hallé Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli in 1957, and a year later was sung at the composerâs own funeral at Westminster Abbey.

Ralph Vaughan Williams, born in Gloucestershire on 12 October 1872, read History at Cambridge and went to the Royal College of Music where his teachers were Parry, Wood, and Stanford. Vaughan Williams believed in the value of music education and wrote practical competition pieces, serviceable church music, and with the 49th Parallel (1940-41) he found a new outlet in writing for film. His profoundly disturbing Symphony No.6 (1948) received international acclaim with more than a hundred performances in a little over two years. His great sensitivity to the 20th-century human condition, his flexibility in writing for all levels of music making, and his unquestionably great imagination combine to make him one of the key figures in 20th century music. Ralph Vaughan Williams had a long association with Oxford University Press; over 200 publications are available in the Oxford catalogue.