THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From Percy Grainger
7 Cromwell Place
White Plains. N.Y.
U.S.A.

Sept. 25, 1958

Dear Mrs Vaughan Williams,

My wife & I went to hear your husband’s 9th Symphony in New York last night, conducted by Stokowski.
The performance seemed a perfect one in every way & the exquisite beauty & cosmic quality of this immortal work struck me as being ideally realised.  The sound of the unaccompanied melody on the flugel horn was lovely indeed & the parts alloted to this instrument & to the saxophones showed what these beautiful instruments can contribute to music of the deepest soulfulness.
It seems no time since we enjoyed the most kind hospitality you & your husband so generously extended to us.
I wonder if you have any manuscript of your husband’s that you have not already donated to chosen destinations that you would care to give to my museum in Melbourne.  I can think of nothing more important for music in Australia than any link binding it to what is greatest & noblest in British music.  Personally it would be a crowning privilege to me coming at the end of so many kindnesses accorded me at your husband’s generous hands if you had something to give me of your husband’s.  It would be a priceless addition to the many loving memories I have of associations with him around 1910 & later.¹
Please do not reply if overwhelmed by letters.
Again thanking you for your delightful hospitality in June.
Gratefully

Percy Grainger

1.  Was one given?