NEWS RELEASES
The Forgotten Story of Ralph Vaughan Williams
9 July 2008
The remarkable story that connects the composer of ‘Lark Ascending,’ Ralph Vaughan Williams, with a cobbler born on the wrong side of the tracks and a daughter of a great piano manufacturer is told in a new temporary exhibition Ralph Vaughan Williams – Horsham’s Hidden Connection at Horsham museum. The events occurred over 100 years ago but the heady mixture resulted in one of the most popular hymns sung in the English language ‘He who would valiant be.’ Using original manuscripts, music, paintings and objects, Horsham Museum tells this and other stories while marking the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams and the birth of Horsham Folk Club 50 years ago this year.
Henry Burstow’s story would, in America, be the stuff of musical legend, but in Horsham his tale is hardly mentioned. Born during the post Napoleonic war depression, he received the most elementary of education before learning the trade of a cobbler, repairing shoes. Burstow had though one remarkable talent, a fantastic memory as well as an interest in music. By the end of his life he knew by heart 420 songs including their melodies as well as taking up the art of bell ringing. The exhibition not only explores his musical history but also his artistic talent as he painted images of Horsham.
Some 4 miles from where Burstow was plying his craft and talent, a daughter of the famous piano manufacturer was taking an interest in her uncle’s work. John Broadwood published a book of Sussex folk songs in 1843. Some 40 years later Lucy Broadwood, of Lyne Rusper, became one of the main champions of folk music when she became the founding member of the Folk Song Society. Original manuscripts, letters and other memorabilia explore the remarkable tale of how she helped promote folk music.
Meanwhile in another part of the country Ralph Vaughan Williams was making a name for himself as a composer and teacher. He had an interest not in the Germanic roots of English music, a musical tradition made popular by Elgar, but in its Elizabethan roots. In 1903, after hearing an Essex labourer sing, he became a passionate collector of folk tunes#not the lyrics but the actual tunes, collecting around 800 on his tours of the country. It was on one such tour in 1904 that he came to Horsham, Monks Gate, Rusper and Kingsfold and recorded both in note form and on phonograph folk singers, including sixteen songs from Henry Burstow, Mr Penfold, the landlord of the Plough Inn at Rusper and the Verralls of Monks Gate. It was one of their tunes that Vaugan Williams used for ‘He who would Valient Be.’ Drawing on remarkable survivals including an Elizabethan hymn book and a sculpture by David McFall of Ralph Vaughan Williams, lent to Horsham Museum by the Royal College of Music, the exhibition explores this aspect of Vaughan Williams life.
It was through the work of Ralph Vaughan Williams and others, including the Horsham Folk Club, that folk songs are no longer seen as “cowpat” music, as Elizabeth Lutyens, daughter of the celebrated architect, called it. Ralph Vaughan Williams - Horsham’s Hidden Connection opens on 7th July and culminates on 20th September with a concert of Vaughan Williams Music and Horsham folk songs in Horsham Parish Church: a fitting place to celebrate as Burstow often rang the bells and Vaughan Williams used Horsham folk songs for the English hymnal.
For further information please contact Jeremy Knight, Curator.
Horsham Museum,
9 The Causeway,
Horsham,
West Sussex.
RH12 1HE.
Tel. 01403 254959