Vaughan Williams, Songs of Travel
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) composed Songs of Travel early in his career. The cycle of nine songs is taken from a collection of 46 poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. Baritone Roderick Williams presents six of the songs in this video.
The songs were published in a haphazard fashion that has contributed to them being treated as individual songs rather than a coherent cycle. “Wither Must I Wander?” was published in The Vocalist in 1902. Whether the other songs in the cycle were written at the same time is unknown, but the first eight were publicly performed in 1904. Why the last song was not included in that premiere remains a mystery. Perhaps it was written later. Vaughan Williams offered few insights into his creative process.
The cycle’s narrative tells of a Vagabond who sets off on a life of wandering, asking only for the heaven above and road below him. He finds love described in “The Roadside Fire” and seems willing to share his chosen life. But in “Youth and Love” he decides to forsake his love for his “nobler fate” and waves a hand as he passes his love at the garden gate. He ruminates on his loneliness in “The Infinite Shining Heavens.” A more mature and nostalgic Vagabond looks back on his childhood and home in “Wither Must I Wander?”
The final song “I Have Trod the Upward and the Downward Slope” serves as an epilogue. As the singer looks back at the end of his life (closes the door), the accompaniment sounds melodies from the earlier songs.
The complete cycle consists of “The Vagabond,” “Let Beauty Awake,” “The Roadside Fire,” “Youth and Love,” “In Dreams,” “The Infinite Shining Heavens,” “Whither Must I Wander,” “Bright Is the Ring of Word,” and “I Have Trod the Upward and the Downward Slope.”
Roderick Williams (born 1965) has sung many different roles with major operatic companies, but with the song repertoire he has something of a specialization in English folk music, a subject of keen interest to Vaughan Williams.
The video has a very short introduction (in Dutch) followed by a brief interview (in English) with the singer that I believe you will find a helpful introduction.
