Composer of the Week - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) - Who Wants the English Composer?

Despite his fascination with music for the stage from childhood onwards, Vaughan Williams's operas remain a neglected area of his work. His first opera, Hugh the Drover, was influenced by his folksong collecting of the early 1900s, and the concerns expressed in his 1912 essay 'Who wants the English Composer?'.