'I have trod the upward and the downward slope'

I have trod the upward and the downward slope; 
I have endured and done in days before; 
I have longed for all, and bid farewell to hope; 
And I have lived and loved, and closed the door.

Robert Louis Stevenson - Songs of Travel 

In 1978 and 1979 I visited the bass-baritone Hervey Alan (1910-1982) as piano accompanist to one of his pupils.

In his operatic work, Hervey is probably best remembered for his portrayal of the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni, recorded here at Glyndebourne in 1954.

On one of these visits we were talking about Ralph Vaughan Williams who Hervey had known. And he told me of the discovery of the unpublished manuscript of 'I have trod the upward and the downward slope', the final song in the cycle Songs of Travel.

Believed by Vaughan Williams scholar Michael Kennedy to have been written in 1903 or 1904 with the other songs, the final song had remained unpublished. This was due to the way in which the first eight songs were published not as one complete cycle. Since 'I have trod' quotes from the earlier songs, it made no sense on its own. An alternative dating is from much later in Vaughan Williams's life.

One day, after Vaughan Williams's death, Hervey told me, he was with the composer's widow Ursula Vaughan Williams in her home. She opened a cupboard and showed Hervey enormous piles of unpublished manuscripts. It was working through these heaps that Hervey and Ursula found 'I have trod'.

Boosey and Hawkes published the song for the first time in their complete edition of the songs in 1960.

The song received its first performance on 21 May 1960 on the BBC Home Service when it was sung by Hervey Alan with Frederick Stone.