Speaking of my friend Robert John Guttke, he also loved the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Vaughan Williams’s eternally-fascinating blend of modern symphonic sounds and instrumental writing, combined with his fascination with English folksong and melodies dating back to the Elizabethan era, appealed to Robert on an almost instinctual level, and I know Robert loved this work in particular, the Fantasia on Christmas Carols:
This next work isn’t specifically a Christmas selection, as used by Vaughan Williams, but the tune has been re-lyricized many times into a Christmas selection, which is how I justify its use here: the famous Fantasia on “Greensleeves”.
Oh, Vaughn Williams… another one of those creative Englishmen scarred by the Great War, as was Tolkien. His body of work is so consistent, so distinctive, the massed strings holding up every piece like a tapestry of sound. I wasn’t aware of the Chrismas Carols, so thank you for the introduction.