Well, kind of.
I’ve been hung up over the past few days thinking about Ralph Vaughan Williams, or rather, the Ralph Vaughan Williamses.
There were three of them. They shared the same birthday, the same clothes. The same brain.
It is very difficult to conceive how this one English composer could have possessed three separate categories of genius. Hymns, folk tunes, and crazy modernist symphonies all have significant places in his large library of compositions. For the most part, these categories stayed separate; listening to each in turn, it would be impossible to guess that they came from the same guy. Occasionally, there is overlap- a few bars here and there.
But that’s occasionally.
To give you an idea of just how different his work is, I’ve given a sampler of each below.
Hymn (Dominus Regit Me):
Folk (English Folk Song Suite):
Modern (Symphony No. 6):
Concerto Infinito 