The First Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams was a choral symphony, and it set words by the 19th-century American poet Walt Whitman. This new edition of Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony has been made by the composer David Matthews, and it is a triumph of clear thinking and detailed research. The success of the project is down to three aspects of Matthews’s method: his love of the work, his keen ear as a prolific composer, and his detailed knowledge of the sources. Indeed, it is Matthews’s understanding of the British symphony from inside that shines through in the excellence of this edition. Critical Commentaries can be dull affairs (albeit useful ones), but these ‘Textual Notes’ are more of a performance manifesto than a mundane list of variants. Indeed, if you are leafing through the full score with a view to conducting A Sea Symphony or listening to it critically, then I would recommend reading the Textual Notes in full and in advance. And if you are following the score while listening to the work, then I would plump for Adrian Boult’s 1968 EMI recording in preference to Boult’s original 1954 Decca version.

Right from the first bar, this new edition hits you between the eyes. The two-bar opening fanfare is scored for trumpets and trombones (not horns) as recommended by Adrian Boult and considered by Vaughan Williams in 1945, but not previously included in the score. The iconic three-word opening of the unaccompanied chorus looks as fresh as it must have sounded at the symphony’s first performance under the composer’s baton in 1910. And if you didn’t know that Vaughan Williams had studied with Maurice Ravel for a few months before completing this symphony, then the visual appearance of the fourth bar would surely suggest that. And that is just the first page of this impressive publication.

Needless to say, the list of sources, editorial method, textual notes, and the preface – a concise and informative piece of writing by Stainer & Bell’s publishing director, Nicholas Williams – do not appear in the vocal score; but then I wouldn’t expect them to. The vocal score is excellent value, especially considering today’s cost-of-living crisis, and the full score, though not cheap, contains a wealth of creative material and insight that more than justifies the cost. Did I mention that this is a seriously underrated piece of music?

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