An icon of British national identity and one of the most widely performed twentieth-century composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams has been misunderstood as much as he had been revered; his international impact and enduring influence on areas as diverse as church music, film scores and popular music has been insufficiently appreciated. This volume brings together a team of leading scholars, examining all areas of the composer's output from new perspectives, and re-evaluating the cultural politics of his lifelong advocacy for the music-making of ordinary people. Surveys of major genres are...