Vaughan Williams for kids: his life, his music, and what to play first

Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer who lived from 1872 to 1958. He collected more than 800 English folk songs and wove their sound into his own music. He wrote nine symphonies, music for films, and The Lark Ascending, a piece for solo violin that many listeners name as a favorite. The best first piece for a child is the Fantasia on Greensleeves.

His first name is said “Rafe.”

Quick facts

• Born: 1872, in Down Ampney, England
• Died: 1958, in London, England
• Era: Modern
• Played: violin, viola, piano, and organ
• Known for: The Lark Ascending, the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, the Fantasia on Greensleeves, and nine symphonies

The life in short

Vaughan Williams’s father, a village priest, died when Ralph was two. His mother took the children to live at her family’s large house in the Surrey hills. The scientist Charles Darwin was his great-uncle.

An aunt gave him his first music lessons. He wrote his first piece, four bars long, at six.

He studied at the Royal College of Music in London and at Cambridge. At college, he met another young composer, Gustav Holst. The two became best friends. For nearly 40 years, they met to play each other their new pieces and say what they thought. Read Holst for kids.

Success took time. In 1903, an old farm worker sang him a folk song called “Bushes and Briars.” Vaughan Williams said he felt he had known it all his life. He began to travel the countryside with a notebook, writing down the songs that older people remembered.

At 35, already a working composer, he went to Paris for three months of lessons with Ravel, who was younger than he was.

When war broke out in 1914, he was 41, too old to be called up. He volunteered. He carried the wounded on stretchers in France and later served with the big guns. The noise damaged his hearing.

He kept composing to the end of his long life. He wrote his first film score at 68 and his ninth symphony at 85. His ashes lie in Westminster Abbey.

What the music sounds like

His music often sounds like the English countryside: calm, wide, and green. The tunes move like folk songs, and the harmonies reach back to English church music from the 1500s. He could also write music that is fierce and stormy.

Four pieces to play first

Fantasia on Greensleeves. A flute and a harp open it. Then the strings play the old tune “Greensleeves.” A second folk song appears in the middle.

The Lark Ascending. A solo violin rises, trills, and circles like a bird climbing into the sky. The orchestra is the quiet land below. Play the first four minutes.

English Folk Song Suite, first movement. A jaunty march built on the folk song “Seventeen Come Sunday.” He wrote it for a military band.

Overture to The Wasps. The strings buzz like a swarm at the start. A broad, sunny tune follows.

Things to do together

Fly with the lark. Play The Lark Ascending. Lift your hand as the violin rises and flutter your fingers on the trills.

Know the tune first. Sing or play “Greensleeves.” Then play the Fantasia and raise a hand when the tune comes in.

Buzz. Play the first minute of The Wasps. Buzz along and stop when the wasps do.

Collect a song. Ask the oldest person you know to sing a song from childhood. Write down the words, as Vaughan Williams did. See folk song study for homeschool.

March. Play the first movement of the English Folk Song Suite and march around the room.

A concerto for the tuba

At 81, Vaughan Williams wrote a concerto for the tuba, an instrument that almost never got a solo. It is thought to be the first tuba concerto by a major composer. Read tuba for kids.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for Vaughan Williams. For the music of his century, see modern classical music for kids. Another English composer, Elgar, has a page too.

For more composers from the same country, read English composers for kids. For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.