Prelude on King's Weston

The elegant hymn tune Kings Weston by Ralph Vaughan Williams is the inspiration for this highly imaginative instrumental prelude by Douglas Mears. An extremely versatile setting, it is scored for flute, oboe, harp, and organ, but the flute and oboe parts are easily playable on other C instruments, the harp part may be played on piano, and the organ part may be replaced with a string ensemble. Vaughan Williams composed Kings Weston for the hymn At the name of Jesus, and it was first published in a 1925 collection entitled Songs of Praise. The tunes title refers to a stately manor house on the Avon River near Bristol, England, where Vaughan Williams completed work on one of his most famous compositions, The Lark Ascending. Like many of RVWs treasured hymn tunes, the folk song quality of Kings Weston is marked by distinctive rhythmic patterns and a soaring climax in the final two lines.