Caroline Davison The Captain's Apprentice : Ralph Vaughan Williams & the Story of

AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4A beautifully written exploration of the world of Edwardian folk music, and its influence on the composer Ralph Vaughan WilliamsIn January 1905 the young Vaughan Williams, not yet one of Englands most famous composers, visited Kings Lynn, Norfolk, to find folk songs from the mouths of the singers. He had started collecting in earnest little more than a year before but was now obsessed with saving these indigenous tunes before they were lost forever. An old fisherman, James Duggie Carter, performed The Captains Apprentice, a brutal tale of torture sung to the most beautiful tune the young composer had ever heard. The Captains Apprentice is the story of how this mysterious song opened the door to an entirely new world of melody, harmony and feeling for Vaughan Williams. With this transformational moment at its heart, the book traces the contrasting lives of the welltodo composer and a forgotten Kings Lynn cabin boy who died at sea, and brings fresh perspectives on Edwardian folksong collectors, the singers and their songs. While exploring her own connections to folk song, via a Hebridean ancestor, a Scottish ballad learnt as a child and memories of family singsongs, the author makes the unexpected discovery that Vaughan Williams has been a hidden influence on her musical life from the beginning an experience she shares with generations of twentiethcentury British schoolchildren. Published for Vaughan Williamss 150th birthday in August, this evocative,... | Caroline Davison The Captain's Apprentice : Ralph Vaughan Williams & the Story of