Ralph Vaughan Williams after Boult, Sargent and Barbirolli are Vernon Handley, Richard Hickox, Sir Mark Elder and Sir Andrew Davis. Record companies with extensive lists of Vaughan Williams recordings include EMI, Decca, Chandos, Hyperion and Naxos. Vaughan Williams refused a knighthood at least once, and declined the post of Master of the King's Music after Elgar's death. The one state honour he accepted was the Order of Merit in 1935, which confers no prenominal title: he preferred to remain "Dr Vaughan Williams". His academic and musical honours included an honorary doctorate of music from the University of Oxford (1919); the Cobbett medal for
Symphony No. 9 (Vaughan Williams) opening theme of the slow movement comes from music Vaughan Williams had composed more than fifty years earlier: "A Sea Symphony" and an even earlier, unpublished tone poem from 1904 called "The Solent". <score vorbis="1"> \relative c' { \clef treble \key d \minor \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \tempo "Poco animando" 4 = 100 <d bes>8\p <d bes> <d bes> bes <cis a>4 <cis a> | <d bes>8 <d bes> <d bes> bes <ees c>4 <d bes> } </score> The orchestra includes: Vaughan Williams's program note accompanying the premiere performance remarked thus: The usual symphony orchestra is used with the addition of