Includes index and bibliographical references.

"Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was undoubtedly one of the greatest symphonists of the twentieth century, comparable to Sibelius, Nielsen, Shostakovich, and Roussel. After his death, there was a period of critical neglect due to shifting priorities in the music world, although his works continued to be performed especially by amateurs. What could not have been predicted is that by the second decade of the twentieth-first century a handful of scores would attain immense popularity worldwide. The present renown of these pieces has brought with it a misapprehension about the nature of Vaughan Williams's cultural nationalism and a partially distorted view of his overall achievement. Vaughan Williams and His World traces the composer's stylistic and aesthetic development in a broadly chronological fashion, aiming to reappraise Vaughan Williams's music composed during and after the Second World War and to reaffirm his status as an artist whose leftist political convictions pervaded his life and music. This volume reclaims Vaughan Williams's deeply held progressive ethical and democratic convictions while celebrating his achievements as a composer"-- Provided by publisher.