THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
10, Hanover Terrace,
Regents Park,
London, N.W.1.

September 2nd 1954.

Dear Byard,
Thank you so much for your letter.  If I remember right the Bell effects in Parsifal include a grand pianoforte and a gong, and the deep bell, made espescially¹ for the Huguenots² for the Paris Opera weighs 6 tons.  So I fear 2 of those is out of the question.³
I expect that Bach’s predecessors are all right on the bubble-and-squeak organ because they are definitely period music, but Bach, to my mind, and I believe to yours, belongs to no period and must be treated as such.
With kind regards to you both,
yours,
R. Vaughan Williams

And I must add my best wishes for your holiday.
UVW.⁴

1.  sic.
2.  Meyerbeer’s opera.  VW’s memory about Parsifal is not correct.
3.  At this time VW was at work on his eighth symphony, the last movement of which contains “all the ‘phones and ‘spiels known to the composer”, including “2 tuned gongs as used in Puccini’s Turandot”.  He had presumably consulted Byard about bells and gongs.
4.  Added and initialled by UVW.