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. 8 (Vaughan Williams) (as well as three tuned gongs, the same as were used in Puccini's "Turandot"), but the two central movements use only the wind section and string section respectively. The Fourth symphony is the only other one of his symphonies to end loudly. (The others all have quiet conclusions, often with the Vaughan Williams "fingerprint" "niente".) The symphony is scored for a large orchestra including: The work is in four movements: 1. Fantasia (Variazioni senza tema) (variations without a theme) (in D minor) – the composer also referred to this as being "seven variations in search of a theme." Even though