THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking, Surrey.

27th August, 1952.

Dear Mr. May,

I am in rather a difficulty over the Fanfare which I wrote for the W.M.A.  I definitely gave it to them some years ago; so if you do not mind I would rather not have a royalty from them. The performing fees are another matter.
On the other hand, as regards royalty I have no right to dictate to you in the matter.  Perhaps we could arrange for a smaller royalty – that is to say your share only and remitting mine.¹
Yours sincerely,

R. Vaughan Williams

G.O. May, Esq.,
O.U.P.,
44, Conduit St., W.1.

1. G. O. May had written to VW reporting that the Workers Music Association had written to ask permission to publish the Flourish for Brass Band, an arrangement of the Flourish for Wind Band, performed at the Association’s concert during the Festival of Britain.  The Flourish for Wind Band was composed for the Festival of Music for the People in 1939; the autograph score is now British Library Add. MS 57489, and the parts from the 1939 performance are MSS Mus. 404 and 405. As a result of VW’s reply the Association was given permission to publish the parts with VW’s royalty on sales waived but with performing, broadcasting and mechanical rights retained. A ‘cornet-conductor’ part was published in by Workers Music Association in c.1954 (W.M.A. Brass Band Publications, no.8029) and a copy deposited in the British Museum (now British Library). The letter is filed at Oxford University Press with papers concerning Flourish for a Coronation, Catalogue of Works, 1937/1 but the work is clearly not the same.