Little is known about this charming work, which was first published in 1923 under the title Two Pieces for Violin and Pianoforte, and republished by Faber Music in 1994 as Romance & Pastorale, the titles Vaughan Williams gave to the two movements. The work is dedicated to Dorothy Longman, the violinist wife of Bobby Longman, Vaughan Williams’s neighbour at his mother’s house, Leith Hill Place, both of them becoming close friends of the composer. Michael Kennedy writes that Dorothy, then Fletcher, “was introduced to her future husband in about 1912 by Vaughan Williams when she played in outdoor performances of plays based on folk-songs at the composer’s family home”. Kennedy suggests: “It is more than likely that these pieces were written before the First World War”, in other words at more or less the same time as the initial version of A Lark Ascending, which is similar in style.

 

I had The Lark Ascending in mind when arranging the two pieces for small orchestra: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and strings. As there are no divisions, the string parts

may if necessary be played by a solo quintet.

 

D.M.