Moonrakers Folk Band & Oxus String Quartet

Moonrakers Folk Band

Jon Bennett 

Jacqui Johnson

Sarah Fell

Becki Luff

Oxus String Quartet

Kate

Louise

Heather

Spike

Vaughan Williams: Roots & Branches

New arrangements of his collected folk songs plus Phantasy Quintet, Dives & Lazarus, Quartet #1 (excerpts).

Collected folk songs and compositions from the Vaughan Williams repertoire. An evocative mix of songs and tunes from the folk and classical traditions.

Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in Gloucestershire in 1872. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk song, his output marked a decisive break in British music. From 1903 he started collecting folk songs, firmly believing that the renaissance of English music depended on the preservation of a rapidly disappearing oral tradition. Using a phonogram and his own transcriptions, he collected some 800 songs from ‘source singers’ in East Anglia, Essex and elsewhere. In doing so, he joined a group of enthusiasts such as Cecil Sharp, Percy Grainger, and Lucy Broadwood in what is commonly called the first Folk Song Revival. Vaughan Williams incorporated many of the tunes into his own compositions, and more generally was influenced by their prevailing modal forms. Whilst the more academically inclined collectors faithfully recorded regional variants and nuances of the lyrics, Vaughan Williams was more interested in the songs’ musical content. Indeed, of the 800 or so songs he collected, only 237 had words transcribed, and many of those were limited to the first verse only. In 1906 The English Hymnal was published with Vaughan Williams as its musical editor. This highly influential hymnal also contains arrangements of many traditional folk melodies from across the UK, Europe and North America. Although the stylistic impact of folk music on his own compositions may have been exaggerated, the folk idiom remained an emotional touchstone for the national identity and authenticity that Vaughan Williams sought throughout his life. He was president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society from 1946 until his death in 1958.

“There is a feeling of recognition, as of meeting an old friend, which comes to us all in the face of great artistic experiences. I had the same experience when I first heard an English folksong … the intuition that I had been there already.” (Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1950)

Moonrakers

Four-piece Moonrakers perform sparkling and unique arrangements of traditional British folk songs and tunes as well as their own compositions. Their multi-instrumental show comprises harp, cello, fretted instruments, whistles, and female/male vocals. Their live shows are informative, full of musical variety and suitable for all ages (“startlingly talented”, Oxford Times, "exquisite sound", BBC). Included in the show are ancient mystic ballads, beautiful lyrical tunes, and joyous chorus songs. The band’s prolific recorded output has received glowing reviews from the music press (“The real deal”, The Living Tradition; “Wonderful arrangements”, RnR Magazine; “Uplifting, sensitively crafted songs and tunes” FATEA magazine). Their music has been used for the BBC television series ‘Beyond Paradise’, Radio 4 and numerous local radio and podcast shows.

The current line-up includes Becki Luff (Celtic harp) who has played at prestigious venues such as The Wigmore Hall and The Sage; Jacqui Johnson (cellist), formerly with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and performs regularly as a soloist; Jon Bennett (bouzouki, guitar, whistles, bodhran, vocals) an award-winning songwriter and a published composer; and Sarah Fell (vocals) who has run community choirs in Oxfordshire. 

Moonrakers & Oxus

Oxus

Oxus is a string quartet with an eye for intriguing and unusual repertoire, performing music from all eras, but specialising in 20th-century and contemporary works. They have been playing together since 2006, and frequently perform with other artists and media in works such as Steve Reichʼs Different Trains with electronics, The Juliet Letters by Elvis Costello and The Brodsky Quartet, Arts Council funded collaborative projects with installation artist Pam Foley, with Moonrakers folk group, and even recording for a Japanese department store at Abbey Road Studios!

Kate Bailey, Louise Graham (violins), Heather Bird (viola) and Spike Wilson (cello) are all established performers individually, with musical activities ranging from orchestral leading and continuo playing to baroque and jazz performances.