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English-born composer Vaugh Williams is considered the founder of the nationalist movement in English music. Turning to folk song as a wellspring of native musical style Vaugh Williams went on composing through his seventies and eighties, producing his last symphony months before his death at the age of eighty-five. His works have continued to be a staple of the British concert repertoire, and all his major compositions and even many of the minor ones have been recorded.
Composed in 1914, Vaughn Williams was inspired to write this work by George Meredith's poem of the same name about the song of the skylark. The inspiration came to him while holidaying along the coast on the day Britain entered the first world war. The tune came into his head as he walked the cliff, at which point he jotted down the notes. A young scout then made a citizen's arrest, assuming he was scribbling details of the coastline for the enemy. The premiere of this work was delayed seven years due to the early events of World War I.
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