The English Pastoral School, sometimes called the English Nationalist School or by detractors the Cow Pat School, is an informal designation for a group of English composers of classical music working during the early to mid 20th century, who sought to build a distinctively English style of music by composing in a style informed by Tudor music and English folk music, and often explicitly evoking the English countryside. The leading composers associated with the school were Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frederick Delius and Gustav Holst, with other notable figures including George Butterworth, John Ireland, Frank Bridge, Edmund Rubbra, Gerald Finzi, Herbert Howells, Ernest John Moeran and Peter Warlock. Stylistic Features The English Pastoral school was not a formal group and the composers associated with the style were not necessarily collaborators nor associates, nor did they share any kind of manifesto. As a result there is some degree of debate about which works, and which composers, should and should not be considered a part of the school. Nevertheless, the following key threads can be identified: An interest in, and influence by, English folk music; whether by directly setting folk melodies for classical instrumentation, quoting folk melodies within larger works, or more often by composing original music drawing on folk music, for example with modal melodies and harmony. Particularly in choral msuic, a similar influence of the music of the English renaissance, for example that of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. Composing music evoking the English countryside; often explicitly and programatically. The setting of English poetry in vocal and choral contexts, particularly by poets associated with pastoral themes such as A.E. Housman or Thomas Hardy. A composer's association with the school does not necessarily indicate that all of their music displays all or any of these features, and even Vaughan Williams - perhaps the name most frequently associated with the concept - composed music well outside these stipulations (such as in his fourth and sixth symphonies). Precursors Following the death of Henry Purcell in 1695, art-music in England drew largely from that of the European continent. While London was a significant centre of European music-making, many of its most important musical figures were foreign-born naturalised citizens like Handel and Muzio Clementi; touring continental composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn also enjoyed considerable popularity in England. While native English composers in the nineteenth century, such as Cipriani Potter and William Sterndale Bennett