The Captain's Apprentice | Norfolk Folk Song, arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

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Enjoy this live excerpt from Apocryphonia's October concert, 'Tracing the Tunes, Ralph Vaughan Williams and the English Folk Song', in celebration of the composer's 150th Birthday.

'The Captain's Apprentice' is from Book 2 of the English Folk Song Society's 'Folk Songs of England', which features arrangements of Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire folk songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Published in 1908, this tune was used as part of his Norfolk Rhapsody, alongside other folk songs performed during this concert.

This melody has a haunting, powerful and almost ancient otherworldly quality to it. Vaughan Williams' arrangement is simple; mostly chord underlay and a few minor arpeggios, yet everything fits exactly where it should to turn this already powerful song into something even more captivating. There's something about those chords; perhaps it's how their placement outlines the melody's changing time signatures, perhaps it's how they seem to create a seemingly perfect harmonic wash of sound to lay below the melody. They sound like they should have been there all along.

The song is about a Captain who takes an orphan Apprentice to his ship. He mistreats him out of spite, eventually leading to his death. He is condemned to hang by his crew and expresses remorse for his horrible acts, imploring others to act better.

Those with power are often the most cruel. They often cannot see how cruel they are because of the blinding nature of power. When one is forced to witness the devastation of their own cruelty it is generally too late.

There are more verses to this song, but they were not included in the book. They go into further, more gruesome detail about the despicable actions of the Captain towards the Apprentice, and how the ship's crew apprehended and condemned the Captain to death for his crimes.

Alexander Cappellazzo - Tenor
Ivan Jovanovic - Piano
Ryan Harper - Audio/Video

This concert was made possible by the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust. Thank you!

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