THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

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

[1931]

Dear Maud

Herewith the proofs¹
In No 12 Kitty² I’ve added the 3rd of the chord in the 1st chord which you objected to – It sounds too impossibly bare otherwise
In No 6 Long 8³
I’ve added due acknowledgement – its not my setting at all
Yrs
RVW                                       P.T.O.

P.S.
About authorship – I don’t want altogether people to think these are an official pronouncement by me  i.e. a model as to how these things should be done – after all I’ve only acted as your “agent” trying my best to carry out your instructions
So I suggest either leaving out my name altogether or putting “pfte arrt by M.K. & R.V.W” or by “R.VW under instructions from M.K.[”] – I prefer “M.K & RVW[”] on the whole⁴

1. Proofs of Twelve Traditional Country Dances (Catalogue of Works, 1931/1) collected by Maud Karpeles (the proofs are not present). It shows the role of Vaughan Williams in their publication by Novello in 1931.
2. ‘Kitty’s Rambles’.
3. ‘The Long-Eight’.
4. The final publication stated ‘Pianoforte arrangements by R. Vaughan Williams in collaboration with Maud Karpeles’. Michael Kennedy writes ‘Maud Karpeles wrote to me on 12 December 1963: ‘“In collaboration with M.K.” must not be taken too literally. It amounted to little more than my saying that his first attempts would not do! He insisted on my name appearing, I think, mainly because he did not like the final result!’ (Kennedy, Catalogue of Works, 2nd ed., p.136)