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Ralph Williams

Birth: October 12, 1872, Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England
Death: August 26, 1958, London, England

Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of the best known English composers of the 20^th Century. Ralph, pronounced "rafe", was born in 1872, to the rector of the church in Down Ampney. His father died when he was three, at which time his family moved to London. He was educated at Charterhouse School, where he studied piano, violin and theory. He then attended the Royal College of Music in London, then Trinity College, then Cambridge, where he received a B.M. in 1894, a B.A. in 1895 and Mus D. in 1901. He started his career as a church organist, but later he focused on teaching, directing choirs and composing. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War I. After the war he became professor of composition at the Royal College of Music.

Vaughan Williams studied English folk songs, going into the countryside to collect them and notate them. Fascinated by the beauty of the music and the history in the lives of ordinary people, he included folk songs in his compositions. The English Hymnal of 1906 incorporated arrangements of 35 folk songs, along with other tunes that he wrote.

Vaughan Williams composed nine symphonies, five operas, film music, ballet and stage music, church music, song cycles, and works for chorus and orchestra. His works include The Fen Country (1904), Norfolk Rhapsodies (1905-07), A London Symphony (1914; revised 1920), Sir John in Love (1929, based on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor) and The Pilgrim's Progress (1951; libretto after John Bunyan). Other collections he collaborated on were Songs of Praise (1925), Oxford Book of Carols (1928), and Songs of Praise for Little Children (1933). He received the Order of Merit in 1935.

Page numbers in Trinity Hymnal (1990) and The Worshiping Church (1990)

Title	Trinity	Worshiping
A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing		259
All Creatures of Our God and King		356
Alleluia, Sing to Jesus		263
Amid the Thronging Worshipers		340
At the Name of Jesus	163
Come Down, O Love Divine		304
Come Down, O Love Divine		304
Come, Let Us with Our Lord Arise		798
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus		135
For All the Saints	358	751
God Be With You Till We Meet Again	385	839
I Love You Lord, My Strength, My Rock		349
I Sing the Mighty Power of God	119
Jesus, Lord, Redeemer	285
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence	193
Make Room Within My Heart, O God		559
My God, My God, O Why Have You Forsaken Me?	79
O Come to Me, the Master Said		442
O Little Town of Bethlehem		154
O Sing a Song of Bethlehem		192
On Christmas Night All Christians Sing	227
When the Church of Jesus		722