ORCHESTRA
The Third Norfolk Rhapsody, lost a hundred years ago, was reconstructed recently
Winterton, Norfolk: Sandhills on the Coast by James Stark
By Serg Childed
Vaughan Williams composed three Norfolk Rhapsodies in 1905 and 1906, shaping them on folk melodies he had gathered around the Wash. However, only the First Rhapsody has remained in the repertory. The score of Norfolk Rhapsody No 3 was destroyed and is now lost.
Contemporary composer David Matthews was commissioned by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society to create a new piece based on programme note for the lost third rhapsody.
David wrote:
The manuscript was lost but I have used the four songs mentioned in the programme note The Lincolnshire Farmer, John Raeburn, Pirate, and The Red Barn to reconstruct what Vaughan Williams alludes to in his description.
Thus written again Norfolk March was premiered at the English Music Festival in 2016.
Here is the First Norfolk Rhapsody performed by The London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bryden Thompson:
Ralph Vaughan Williams's Second Norfolk Rhapsody by the Richard Hickox with the LSO:
