Ralph Vaughan Williams composed primarily by drawing on the rich tradition of English folksong; however, he also absorbed the wider European tradition. He studied music at Trinity College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Parry, Wood and Stanford. Later he studied with Max Bruch and Maurice Ravel in Berlin and Paris respectively. In 1903, he started collecting English folksongs; certain characteristics of English folk music influenced his approach to composition. His interest in and knowledge of traditional English music is reflected in his music. Hardly a musical genre was untouched or failed to be enriched by his work, which included nine symphonies, five operas, film music, ballet and stage music, several song cycles, church music and works for chorus and orchestra. During World War I Vaughan Williams enlisted as an orderly in the medical corps, he became famous for organizing choral singing and other entertainment in the trenches. While the war interrupted the composer's work, it in no way disrupted his creative development. Some critics believed his later symphonies had pessimistic moods and themes feeling there had been a dark shift in his works reflecting his pessimistic vision of the world. Vaughan Williams was an artist of extraordinary creative energy, who continued composing with undiminished powers until his death at 87.