English Song Series: Ralph Vaughan Williams - On Wenlock Edge - Five Mystical Songs

THIS is a set of songs recorded by two of the leading male soloists in the country, namely Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor) and Simon Keenlyside (baritone), accompanied by pianist Graham Johnson and the Duke Quartet, we are treated to some of Vaughan Williams simple and refreshing works, which owe a great deal to their Mediaeval cousins.

The simple settings and poetic words of the likes of Shakespeare, Tennyson, his second wife Ursula Vaughan Williams and one of his favourite collaborators, Walt Whitman.

In fact it is the words of Walt Whitman's Nocturne which really break the more traditional melodies and harmonies of the first seven tracks. The piano accompaniment uses a suitably dark repeated pattern around a demonic repetitive bass line. The melody centres around a discord with the accompaniment mirroring the dark mysteriousness of the words.

This is shockingly followed by another of Walt Whitman's works - Joy, Shipmate Joy! which could have been written yesterday. The rhythmic intensity and harmonic dissonance would have been groundbreaking at the beginning of the 20th Century, and would challenge many a listener today. It's sheer vitality and course vigour provides an instant reminder of how versatile Vaughan Williams is as a composer.

But it is the meatier offerings of the Five Mystical Songs set around the words of George Herbert followed by On Wenlock Edge from AE Housman's A Shropshire Lad which draw in the listener.

Perhaps it is because they are longer pieces with a real sense of development that we are attracted to these vocal masterpieces. As the mood changes, so does Vaughan Williams' use of tonality and keys. He is not constrained by harmony or form. His genius for painting colourful pictures with a simple palette of notes is evident throughout both works, particularly his use of dynamics and rests.

Here is an entire CD devoted to simplicity of a medium which can easily be overlooked in favour of the glamour and glitz of a full orchestra. Naxos 8.557114