Chapter 31 - Early Recordings

Summary

Vaughan Williams’s recorded music is a vast subject that has scarcely been studied. This chapter presents a first major step into this research area. It considers early recordings of his works from the 1920s and 1930s, addressing how they were shaped by the technical limitations and market forces of the British industry during this era. Brief playing times and poor sound quality for these recordings meant that art songs and folk-song arrangements dominate the composer’s early catalogue. Early recordings of larger works were often limited primarily to occasions of special advocacy and funding. Later, as demand, technology, and company resources allowed, the number and range of Vaughan Williams’s compositions on record increased. This chapter also shows how reviews of these early recordings reflected overall attitudes about his music, with reviewers expressing mixed reactions to perceived folk and modal aspects of the few works they were able to hear on record. Since a fuller catalogue of Vaughan Williams’s recorded music emerged only over decades, the vicissitudes of the industry cannot be separated from the development of his overall reception during this crucial time.