‘Rare’ new music by Vaughan Williams discovered in college archive

14 May 2026, 15:55 | Updated: 14 May 2026, 16:54

‘The Lark Ascending’ composer’s setting of a Swinburne poem was found in an unlisted archive box at London’s Morley College.

A previously unknown song written by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in his early 20s has been discovered at Morley College in London.

The sheet music of ‘Before The Mirror’ was found in an unlisted box of manuscripts by the college’s archivist and library manager Elaine Andrews, who was cataloging the box‘s contents.

Verified by the Vaughan Williams Foundation, the song for piano and solo voice is a setting of part of a poem by pre-Raphaelite writer Algernon Charles Swinburne, which itself was inspired by a James McNeil Whistler painting titled Symphony in White, No.2, which is currently part of the Tate Britain collection.

It’s believed that the manuscript has come from the estate of former Morley College singing teacher – and student of Vaughan Williams’ friend Gustav Holst – Dulcie Nutting.

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Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’ – Nathan Amaral

Born in 1872, Vaughan Williams was one of the most important British composers of the 20th century.

Studying under Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford, he composed in almost every genre, writing nine symphonies, six operas, a ballet and a variety of works for stage and screen. One of his most famous works, The Lark Ascending, was voted third in the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2026, having topped the chart 12 times since its inception.

Vaughan Williams expert Hugh Cobbe estimates the new song was written around 1899, according to an Instagram post from the Vaughan Williams Foundation. He added that it seems likely to be a second version, as evidenced by the note, ‘Original key E minor.’

“This is indeed a rare find and we may have a treasure in our hands,” Dimitris Karydis, head of classical music at Morley College, said. “The discovery of this manuscript is significant because the period of its composition is a time when the composer’s musical identity was still in development. It is clearly a working document rather than a finished one, with revisions, crossings-out and rethinking which is visible on the page.”

Karydis plans to record ‘Before the Mirror’ next month with his colleague Marianna Suri, the curriculum leader for vocal studies.