A previously unknown piece by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams has been rediscovered in an archive box at London’s Morley College.

Archivist and library manager Elaine Andrews found the handwritten manuscript, titled Before the Mirror, and appearing to bear the composer’s signature, while cataloguing a box of scores. After finding no trace of the work searching online, she contacted the Ralph Vaughan Williams Foundation, which confirmed that it was a genuine, “hitherto unknown” Vaughan Williams piece.

Elaine Andrews with Before the Mirror. Photo © Morley College London

Written while the composer was in his late 20s, Before the Mirror sets a poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne by the same name; Swinburne based his poem on Whistler’s 1864–65 painting Symphony in White No. 2: The Little White Girl.

The manuscript is believed to have fallen into Morley College’s possession as a part of the estate of former teacher Dulcie Nutting, who has been credited as both a student of and librarian for composer Gustav Holst. Holst served as Director of Music for Morley College between 1907–1924 and was a close friend of Vaughan Williams, who gave lectures at the College.

Before the Mirror will have a professional recording in June with Morley’s Deputy Head of School for Classical Music, pianist Dimitris Karydis, and Curriculum Leader for Vocal Studies, soprano Marianna Suri.

“[The work] talks about loss and it’s a sad song. It uses lots of chromatic intervals, which make it sound maybe a little bit jazzy sometimes, I would say,” said Karydis. “And generally, the singing part is written in a very small area of the register of the voice, but there is one moment that it goes really high, and that creates a lot of tension in the song.”

“This is indeed a rare find and we may have a treasure in our hands.”