THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

13 Cheyne Walk.

1 Feb 12

Dear Child
It was splendid to see your handwriting once more.  I was getting so afraid the fount had stopped.  It was good of you to go on when you were in such trouble.  I do hope things are better with you now.
Now what I look forward to is the second act.  I’m afraid of working out the whole seam over Act I, and having nothing left for Act II.  I write out here a little tune¹ which I have had in my mind for some time.  I’ve always connnected it in my mind with the opening of 1st Act, and an auctioneer man shouting out ‘going, going, gone; going, going, gone; worth twice the money, going, going, gone’, or something of that sort, but you see, it would suit any sort of tag which people c^d repeat at intervals (e.g. something about Boney).  But I feel it is important to have some refrain of the sort all through the opening scene to make the whole into a sort of Rondo – i.e. the refrain interspersed with various short episodes, such as lavender cries and so on, working up to a big noise then a pause in which the ballad-seller’s rather quavering voice is heard (‘all the new ballads – all the new ballads and songs’ etc.) greeted by rather a quiet slow chorus – then after a few false starts the ballad singer starts ‘Tuesday morning’ and is taken up by Mary.  Does this appeal to you at all?
Yr.
R. Vaughan Williams

1.  No longer extant.