A performance guide to Ralph Vaughan Williams' songs of travel

This paper explores the song cycle Songs of Travel by Ralph Vaughan Williams from a singer’s perspective, analyzing how the various aspects of the music (harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, and textual) inform the performance of the cycle. Components of the music which are critical to a singer’s understanding are the harmonic progressions in relation to the text, the motivic development within the cycle, and the reasoning behind Vaughan Williams’s selection of text and how he went about setting it. Specific examples are taken from each of the songs and explained in terms of how they relate to the other songs in the cycle to help the singer deliver a more cohesive performance of the set. Analysis of how the composer sets the text to bring out different moods within the cycle is another crucial point of the paper, as well as suggestions about how those moods ought to be interpreted by the performer. The narrative of the piece, which is the story of the life of a vagabond in several stages, is integral to the work, and connections to this story are emphasized in each chapter. Additionally, specific performance recommendations (including rhythmic, tempo, and pedagogical suggestions) are included for each song within the set. The recommendations sections also contain information on the challenges unique to each song, as well as some strategies to overcome those challenges. The corresponding recital to this paper, which includes a performance of the full song cycle, has also been included in this submission. All in all, a singer’s deeper understanding of all of these elements of the music will lead to a better, more informed performance of the song cycle.Thesis (M.M.