"If I were a Queen" [Ralph Vaughan Williams]

"If I were a Queen" [Ralph Vaughan Williams]

First line of lyrics: If I were a queen, what would I do?

Vaughan Williams, Ralph; music (English, 1872-1958)

Rossetti, Christina Georgina; text (English, 1830-1894)

1902 [publication]; 1905 [publication]; 1914 [publication] [copyright]

London: the Vocalist Co. Ltd.; London and New York: Boosey & Co. Ltd

genre: song

solo: voice

chorus: children's unison chorus

instrumentation: piano

initial sharps/flats: four sharps

initial time signature: 9/8

origin: United Kingdom

male composer

English

Rossetti poem(s): "'If I were a Queen'"

Tempo markings: "Allegretto grazioso"

Performance history: "First performance., Exerter, 16 April 1903, by A. Foxton Ferguson (baritone) accompanied by a Miss Wood. First London performance untraced" (Kennedy, p. 16)

Recordings: "If I Were a Queen." Silent Noon: Songs of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Performance by Ruth Golden, soprano and Levering Rothfuss, piano, recorded in April 1992 at the Recital Hall, Westbury, N.Y : Koch International Classics, 1993.
"If I Were a Queen." Kissing her Hair: Twenty Early Songs of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Performance by Iain Burnside, piano, Sarah Fox, soprano and Andrew Staples, tenor, Albion Records, 2008.

Notes: In E major. Published in "The Vocalist", vol. 1, no. 8 (November 1902). Kennedy states that it was reissued with "Boy Johnny" in 1905 by the Vocalist in G major (p. 29) and again in 1914 by Boosey & Co. Ltd., London and New York, in E major (p. 74).

Format 1: musical score

2 pages; performance time 1 minute

In reference to the published works below: Gooch and Thatcher 4492

Reference: Gooch, Bryan N.S. and David S. Thatcher. Musical Settings of Early and Mid-Victorian Literature: A Catalogue. New York: Garland, 1979.

Reference: Ezust, Emily. The LiederNet Archive. http://www.lieder.net/lieder/index.html

Other data reference(s): Kennedy, Michael. A Catalogue of the Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 16, 29, 74. Scholars Portal, https://books-scholarsportal-info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/uri/ebooks/ebooks0/oxford/2009-11-30/3/0198165846.
Pearson, Jonathan and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society. The Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams (Digital Issues). "Discography." The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, https://rvwsociety.com/discography/. Accessed 10 Apr. 2020.

Cataloguer: Roxanne Lafleur, University of Ottawa

Musical score: Scanned by Judy Watling at the University of Edinburgh Library

Record: CRM-ifiwereaqueen-vaughanwilliams

File(s): CRM-ifiwereaqueen-vaughanwilliams.pdf

"Copyright, 1914, by Boosey & Co."

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