Vaughan Williams, Ralph: A Sea Symphony. Full Score – NEW CRITICAL EDITION
£130.00
Edited by David Matthews
First published in 2024
Pages: 216
Format: Hardback
Dimensions (mm): 317 x 235 x 20
Weight: 1.238kg
Behold! We are delighted to announce that a full score of A Sea Symphony is available to purchase for the very first time. An eagerly anticipated release, this new critical edition, prepared by David Matthews, presents a number of key updates to the orchestration and has been meticulously re-engraved. The preface, editorial method and textual notes provide an invaluable insight into the fascinating background and history of this momentous work. N.B. This full score is compatible with both the new and the original edition of the vocal score (D47). See below for further details.
DETAILS OF THE NEW EDITION
The numerous revisions and fine adjustments made by Vaughan Williams to the music of A Sea Symphony over a long lifetime are faithfully recorded in this benchmark new edition of the work. It draws on invaluable primary sources, including the conducting scores of Sir Adrian Boult and Norman Del Mar, and those in the extensive VW archive in the British Library. While old and new vocal scores remain fully compatible, the full score and instrumental parts replace all previous orchestral material as the definitive performing edition.
Two major features are the substitution of trombones for horns in the dramatic opening fanfare, which is the composer’s final and authentic choice of scoring, and in the Scherzo the addition of a substantial organ part taken from his own annotated full score. Details of texture have been clarified and inconsistencies of notation corrected, with the harp parts improved to resolve long-standing difficulties of impractical passagework.
Indispensable to choral societies over the years, the composer’s suggested instrumental omissions for performance by smaller orchestras have been preserved, though now more clearly presented. The crisp typography, well-spaced layout and efficient page turns make the parts a pleasure for orchestras to use, and there is generous cueing throughout to streamline the rehearsal process.
This edition is published with the kind support of The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust.
A large-format (A3) conductor’s score is available to purchase upon request.
Please email sales@stainer.co.uk for further details.
This is a magnificent and important new edition which has revelations from the very first bar. When I studied Adrian Boult’s score for my book, I was very struck by the changes the composer had asked him to make and now here they all are enshrined in David Matthews’s edition, as are the revisions noted by Norman Del Mar. There are also significant additions from Vaughan Williams’s own conducting score, including a substantial organ part for some of the third movement. All this amounts to an edition that not only corrects old errors but reveals hitherto unknown details of this great work. The production of the score itself has been done to the highest possible standard, and the result is a handsome publication which will be essential for conductors and, indeed, for anyone serious about Vaughan Williams’s music.
Nigel Simeone (author of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Adrian Boult, 2022).
The First Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams was a choral symphony, and it set words by the 19th-century American poet Walt Whitman. This new edition of Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony has been made by the composer David Matthews, and it is a triumph of clear thinking and detailed research. The success of the project is down to three aspects of Matthews’s method: his love of the work, his keen ear as a prolific composer, and his detailed knowledge of the sources. Indeed, it is Matthews’s understanding of the British symphony from inside that shines through in the excellence of this edition. Critical Commentaries can be dull affairs (albeit useful ones), but these ‘Textual Notes’ are more of a performance manifesto than a mundane list of variants. Indeed, if you are leafing through the full score with a view to conducting A Sea Symphony or listening to it critically, then I would recommend reading the Textual Notes in full and in advance. And if you are following the score while listening to the work, then I would plump for Adrian Boult’s 1968 EMI recording in preference to Boult’s original 1954 Decca version.
Right from the first bar, this new edition hits you between the eyes. The two-bar opening fanfare is scored for trumpets and trombones (not horns) as recommended by Adrian Boult and considered by Vaughan Williams in 1945, but not previously included in the score. The iconic three-word opening of the unaccompanied chorus looks as fresh as it must have sounded at the symphony’s first performance under the composer’s baton in 1910. And if you didn’t know that Vaughan Williams had studied with Maurice Ravel for a few months before completing this symphony, then the visual appearance of the fourth bar would surely suggest that. And that is just the first page of this impressive publication.
Needless to say, the list of sources, editorial method, textual notes, and the preface – a concise and informative piece of writing by Stainer & Bell’s publishing director, Nicholas Williams – do not appear in the vocal score; but then I wouldn’t expect them to. The vocal score is excellent value, especially considering today’s cost-of-living crisis, and the full score, though not cheap, contains a wealth of creative material and insight that more than justifies the cost. Did I mention that this is a seriously underrated piece of music?
Jeremy Summerly, Choir & Organ, Summer 2025.
