THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

August 23 [1936]

Dear Mr Keith Douglas
I think I could do you a short coronation piece if the Society¹ could give me (1) a large chorus (2) 6 or 8 trumpets (3) 2 Tubas in addition to the ordinary bass Tuba (4) Full orchestra including 2 harps pianoforte, organ & several percussion players.² But I expect the Society will not see the fun of this.
Also it must come in the programme before Heldenleben & not after.³
Yrs sincerely
R Vaughan Williams

1. Keith Douglas was Secretary of the Royal Philharmonic Society. The work, Flourish for a Coronation (Kennedy Catalogue, 1937/1), was presumably commissioned for a concert to mark the Coronation presumably of Edward VIII, but following his abdication in December 1936, performed to mark the Coronation of George VI.
2. The work uses most of the large performing forces requested including large choir, 6 trumpets (and 8 horns), but not all the tubas, with the final version substituting a euphonium and single tuba. Despite its title of ‘Flourish’ (which Vaughan Williams used as an alternative to ‘Fanfare’) the final work lasts around 13 minutes.
3. The premiere was given by the Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham at the Queen’s Hall, London on 1 April 1937, and broadcast on the BBC Regional Programme. According to the Radio Times listing, Elgar’s First Symphony was performed rather than Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. Vaughan Williams’s Flourish was indeed performed before this in the first half of the concert, preceded by Bax’s Overture to a Picaresque Comedy and Delius’s Florida Suite.