THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

August 3rd 1952.

Dear Roy

Thank you very much for the score¹ and corrections which I have been through and marked. I do not see any way of getting the score back to you before Wednesday.
 As regards “In the South” I did not deliberately quote it, but as soon as I had written it I knew what I had done,but decided it was what I wanted and must be kept.² Nobody seems to have noticed it – though perhaps it only meant that they were too polite to say so! I have now looked it over carefully and I have decided that I can improve it, and also disappoint the witch hunters by a slight alteration. The only problem now is, have I made it more, rather than less like “In the South”? I have not a copy of it by me so cannot tell.
As regards the idea that you score my works from a sketch… the obvious answer is that if you had done so it would have sounded a great deal better.
On second thoughts, if you happen to be in London on Tuesday, I am lunching with Sargent³ and after that I could bring the score up to O.U.P.⁴ and hand it over to you, otherwise I will try to post it on Tuesday afternoon, so it will get to you on Wedneday.
    Yrs
    RVW 

1. Of Sinfonia Antartica.
2. Douglas had pointed out to VW that the beginning of Sinfonia Antartica was reminiscent of Elgar’s In the South.
3. Malcolm Sargent
4. Oxford University Press