Another precedent for time of Covid:

In 1940, Ralph Vaughan Williams suggested that composers should write works for “combinations of all manner of instruments which might be played by people whiling away the waiting-hours of war.”

Putting this into practice, he composed “Household Music” in 1940-41. The work exists in a version for string quartet, but the parts can also be played by flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, bass clarinet, saxophone, recorder, cornet, euphonium, or anything else at their respective pitches.

The work bears the subtitle “Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes.” This should not be confused with an earlier, more popular triptych of that name, composed in 1920, for solo organ. The tunes are totally different.

Here are flutist Kathleen Nester and violist Brett Deubner of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and cellist Bronwyn Banerdt of the Pittsburgh Symphony, to perform the third movement, “Aberystwyth”:

Vaughan Williams also arranged the piece for medium-sized orchestra:

PHOTO: “Household Music,” performed by isolating rabbits, on lute, clarinet and autoharp.