Now I ve checked and unfortunately for true enthusiasts Steinberg does not call this work a true choral symphony He calls it in fact more a cantata than a symphony in the ordinary sense p 655 Hard for a piece to be a true choral symphony if it s not even a true symphony There is evidence that Vaughan Williams would have agreed with Steinberg and was using the term symphony in the title more or less figuratively roughly in the manner that Stravinsky later used it in his Symphony of Psalms From Ursula s biography p 95 On of my Ralph Vaughan Williams s most grateful memories of George Butterworth is connected with my London Symphony he Butterworth said in his characteristically abrupt way You ought to write a symphony From that moment a moment well past the composition and first performances of A Sea Symphony the idea of a symphonya thing which I had always declared I would never attemptdominated my mind