Song Cycle : On Wenlock Edge sung by Heddle Nash (tenor), with the Hirsch String Quartet and John Wills (piano)
Vaughan Williams 's song cycle ' On Wenlock Edge ' consists of six settings for tenor, piano, and string quartet of poems from Housman's ' A Shropshire Lad '. It was first performed in London in 1909. This cycle may well be described as a masterpiece of the composer's early period. The music is a perfect interpretation of the tragic beauty of Housman's words and is a masterly exposition of descriptive writing in the more subtle meaning of the term.