THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Thursday [1935]

Dear Ralph
I really do feel a bloody fool to have taken so long to realize that Symph., however, better late than never.  You must be feeling proud of it & so must Arnold.¹
Everything was perfectly clear last night, but I still think that the question of reinforcing your second subject (is that the right term?) at its first appearance is worth considering before you set about having the score published.  It comes through clearly enough in a way but somehow doesn’t tell in quite the way it should do.  The other places I queried at the Monday rehearsal were absolutely O.K. last night.
As I told you, your two little friends got through their ordeal without any difficulty.  The excellence of Pearl’s papers would probably have surprised you as much as it did me.²
yours
RO Morris

1. Arnold Bax, to whom the work was dedicated.
2. Presumably VW’s students had passed an exam. Ruth Pearl, the violinist, who studied with VW at the Royal College of Music.