KINGSFOLD
(From Mounty’s Corner)
KINGSFOLD started as a generic English folk tune, something wandering “minstrels” would sing on their travels. In the opening years of the 20th century, Ralph Vaughan Williams traveled the countryside of England, recording different folk tunes. When he returned home, he would set them in four parts for use in a hymnal. It was for the 1906 The English Hymnal, for which he was musical editor, that he recorded this folk tune and arranged it in four parts. The tune originally was wedded with a text taken loosely from Luke 16:19-30, where Christ tells the story of Lazarus the beggar and a rich man who spurns him. (Incidentally, some wonder if this story actually happened, because, unlike all of Christ’s other parables, this one contains an actual name.) The text of the song was entitled “Dives & Lazarus;” you can read about it in more detail here. As was the case with many folk songs (and not just those of that time), one text could be used with a multitude of tunes; but the reason I say that this tune and that text presented a valid combination is because Vaughan Williams later used the KINGSFOLD tune in his string orchestral work, “Five Variants on Dives & Lazarus.”
The tune can be used for any number of texts today. It’s metrical pattern is 8.6.8.6.D, or doubled common meter. Some more well-known texts that can be used with this meter of tune are: “I Sing the Mighty Power of God” by Watts; “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” by Sears; and “O Little Town of Bethlehem” by Brooks. Most commonly this tune is used with the text “O Sing a Song of Bethlehem” by Louis Benson (who, incidentally, was from Philadelphia). The tune alternates between the keys of E minor (where it starts and ends) and G major (where it sits most of the song). It’s melody is folk-like, but the lush harmonies by Vaughan Williams make it excellent anthem material. KINGSFOLD has been judged one of the most important folk tunes that Vaughan Williams harmonized.
KINGSFOLD started as a generic English folk tune, something wandering “minstrels” would sing on their travels. In the opening years of the 20th century, Ralph Vaughan Williams traveled the countryside of England, recording different folk tunes. When he returned home, he would set them in four parts for use in a hymnal. It was for the 1906 The English Hymnal, for which he was musical editor, that he recorded this folk tune and arranged it in four parts. The tune originally was wedded with a text taken loosely from Luke 16:19-30, where Christ tells the story of Lazarus the beggar and a rich man who spurns him. (Incidentally, some wonder if this story actually happened, because, unlike all of Christ’s other parables, this one contains an actual name.) The text of the song was entitled “Dives & Lazarus;” you can read about it in more detail here. As was the case with many folk songs (and not just those of that time), one text could be used with a multitude of tunes; but the reason I say that this tune and that text presented a valid combination is because Vaughan Williams later used the KINGSFOLD tune in his string orchestral work, “Five Variants on Dives & Lazarus.”
The tune can be used for any number of texts today. It’s metrical pattern is 8.6.8.6.D, or doubled common meter. Some more well-known texts that can be used with this meter of tune are: “I Sing the Mighty Power of God” by Watts; “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” by Sears; and “O Little Town of Bethlehem” by Brooks. Most commonly this tune is used with the text “O Sing a Song of Bethlehem” by Louis Benson (who, incidentally, was from Philadelphia). The tune alternates between the keys of E minor (where it starts and ends) and G major (where it sits most of the song). It’s melody is folk-like, but the lush harmonies by Vaughan Williams make it excellent anthem material. KINGSFOLD has been judged one of the most important folk tunes that Vaughan Williams harmonized.
