Two songs of winter : from 'Folk songs of the Four Seasons' (Vocal score)

for unison voices (with descant) and pianoThese two settings from the Winter section of Folk Songs of the Four Seasons are full of Christmas spirit. 'God bless the master' is a hymn-like setting of a folk song that Vaughan Williams collected in Hampshire in 1909, while 'Wassail Song' is full of joie de vivre.

The latter evokes the merriness of wassailing, in which people went from door to door singing carols and exchanging mulled cider for gifts.