I'll have to say I was surprised to find any criticism of Ralph Vaughn Williams on Mudcat (earlier in the thread).

I remember being completely captivated by his English Folk Song Suite when I played it in high school orchestra at 16. Admittedly I was already fascinated by English,
Welsh, and Scottish history at that point, being riveted by Thomas B. Costain's multi-volume history of the Plantagenets, among other reading. (Fascination with Irish history came later) --(yes I am aware there was mistreatment by the English of the Irish, Welsh, and Scots).

At any rate, I considered the Folk Song Suite so evocative of a lost pastoral England ( swept away by World War I) in addition to my delight in the tunes themselves, that Vaughn Williams became immediately my favorite English composer. He is still, along with Tallis and Byrd.

I consider his Fantasia on Greensleeves one of the most hauntingly beautiful, and again evocative pieces ever written. The Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (Spem in Alium) (of course not folk) is perhaps even more ethereally wonderful, and I've recently had the magnificent opportunity to sing the original piece (written in 40 parts!) on which that Fantasy was based.

Only quite recently have I had the opportunity to sing some of the songs from the Folk Song Suite (e.g. Blow Away the Morning Dew and 17 Come Sunday) in my choral group. I also play the Vaughn Williams setting of On Linden Lea on the piano, though I'm still looking for somebody who will sing the original dialect version.

Obviously I'm not an unbiased observer in this. But I feel very strongly that Vaughn Williams, in addition to being one of the best composers who ever lived, is also a great popularizer of English folk song. I'm sure I'm not alone in my reaction to his folk song arrangements. The important thing here as I see it is that popularization is not necessarily a bad thing--it need not be Disneyfication --watering down to pabulum--for instance; in fact it can be a happy marriage of classical and folk. I also consider Vaughn Williams head and shoulders above all other popularizers of English folk song, e.g. Percy Grainger. Vaughn Williams has performed a great service to English folk music by his arrangements of English folk song, due to his genius expressed while doing them.