He composed it throughout his career, major and minor works, for all kinds of groups. For me, after he shakes off his juvenalia, he's a master of the genre. All the folksong pieces, for example, call for a small, madrigal group, certainly no more than sixteen singers, better one or three to a part, certainly not the comparatively mammoth sound of the twenty-seven voices of the Holst Singers. For example, in the Five English Folksongs , among the composer's most elaborate settings, the intricate counterpoint drowns in a wash of sound. For the other stuff, the Holst Singers are at proper strength.
Problems remain, however.
The sopranos sing raw, under the mistaken impressions that they have the most interesting part all the time and that they're actually hitting the pitches Vaughan Williams wrote. I also object to some of the tempi Layton adopts. The latter in particular is an eye-opener to what really good musicians can accomplish in vocal ensemble. Use of text, images, layout, format, look, or feel of these pages, without the written permission of the copyright holder, except as specified in the Copyright Notice , is strictly prohibited. All Rights Reserved.