Vaughan Williams fist encountered the old English folk song Dives and Lazarus when he was 21, and here presents five variants that are, in his own words, 'not exact replicas of traditional tunes but rather reminiscences of various versions in my own collection and those of others'. The work was premiered in Carnegie Hall as part of the 1939 New York World's Fair, and is a wonderful example of the sumptuous string textures and modal tonalities that have become the composer's trademarks.