Previously Undiscovered Manuscript by Vaughan Williams Found in London
An archivist from Morley College in London recently uncovered an unknown song by English composer Vaughan Williams.
By Joseph John L. Verallo · May 16, 2026
Elaine Andrews, Morley College’s library manager and college archivist, was cataloging an unlisted box in the college’s library one day when she discovered what seemed to be sheet music for piano and voice written by Vaughan Williams, who you may know for his work “The Lark Ascending.”
The Vaughan Williams Foundation verified the manuscript’s authenticity. Hugh Cobbe, an expert on Williams, surmised that the song was written in 1899, when the composer was in his 20s. The song, titled “Before The Mirror,” is a setting of pre-Raphaelite writer Algernon Charles Swinburne’s poem of the same name.
Dimitris Karydis, head of classical music at Morley College, states that the composition is more of a “working document rather than a finished one, with revisions, crossings-out and rethinking which is visible on the page.”
Recording for the piece is scheduled for next month by Karydis and Marianna Suri, the curriculum leader for vocal studies.