Among Vaughan Williams’s earliest settings of poetry by Walt Whitman, and his only one for a cappella chorus, By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame is a rare find from the composer’s manuscripts preserved at the British Library, and a conspicuous addition to the list of key works written during the lengthy gestation of A Sea Symphony. With the Two Vocal Duets of 1904, also published by Stainer & Bell, this six-minute Nocturne for SSAATTBB initiated his lifelong dedication to Whitman’s verse, and embrace...