Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harold Child
Letter No. VWL5001
Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harold Child
Letter No.: VWL5001
The White Gates
Dorking
May 24 [1942]
Dear Harold
I feel very ungrateful and pernickety – but do we want fierce warlike words for that very sentimental unwarlike tune?
What do you think?
I imagined something more as the These things shall be a loftier race1
another valse
type of thing
What do you think?But on yr ready I see that the ever could be
Otherwise the tune words fit the tune fairly, & hug it out.
That rhyme doesn’t matter a bit – I truly had an idea that it was indecent to have a tune without a rhyme
Yrs ever
R Vaughan Williams
1. By John Ireland.
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General Notes:
Harold Child had been asked to write a song to music adapted from the Prelude The 49th Parallel. He wrote ‘The New Commonwealth’. See Catalogue of Works 1940/3.
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Location Of Copy:
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Shelfmark Copy:MS Mus. 1714/2/4, ff.135-136
