Moonrakers + Oxus: Vaughan Williams – Roots & Branches
An exciting cross-over show that explores the links between Vaughan Williams’ collected folk songs and his own original compositions. 4-piece folk band Moonrakers and string quartet OXUS come together – 8 musicians on stage – to present an evocative mix of songs and tunes from the folk and classical traditions.
OXUS will perform the fourth movement of Quartet No.1 in G minor, the Phantasy Quintet, and excerpts from Dives and Lazarus, while Moonrakers presents new arrangements of songs such as ‘The Leaves They Do Grow High’, ‘The Turtle Dove’, ‘Two Sisters’ and ‘The Unquiet Grave’ with new music written by Moonrakers members Jon Bennett and Jacqui Johnson.
The show was commissioned by the Vaughan Williams Festival in 2022 to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Vaughan Williams was a central character in the first Folk Song Revival in the early 1900s and later became the President of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, a position he held until his death in 1958. In those early days they would go out to the countryside with a phonogram and wax cylinders – or just a notebook – to record ‘source’ singers. Brief introductions about the materials will take the audience on a journey from traditional to contemporary interpretations of ‘living tradition’ material.