THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking.

[?17 November 1941]

Dear Adrian

Many thanks for your letter.  We are too old and good friends to be afraid to be honest with each other & I cannot pretend that I was not rather dismayed by that performance  – As a matter of fact the 1st verse was the best – the controller tuned down the orchestra so much that it did not matter – But this was fatal on the 2nd & 3rd verses where the descant and harmonies swamped the tune – & the whole thing was sung without conviction as if they did not know it (which according to your account they did not) – Do you not think the B.B.C with all its tradition would have done better to cut it out altogether rather than give an unrehearsed performance?  I was particularly sorry because that tune is rather a ewe lamb of mine & I feel that if it got a proper send off it might hit the nail on the head – But I felt on Sunday night that it had been strangled at birth.  However several people have told me that they liked it – so perhaps I was wrong
Yrs

R Vaughan Williams

P.S.  I did not listen to L.S.² – it evoked the past too painfully “nessun maggior dolore” etc³ – But I heard the last 8 bars which sounded very beautiful – thank you all

1. Despite the date noted on the original (see below) this letter seems to refer to the first performance of England, My England (Catalogue of Works 1941/1). Northrop Moore, (Music and Friends, pp137-138), assumes it closely follows VWL1587.
2. London Symphony (Catalogue of Works 1913/5).
3. Dante, Divina Commedia ‘Inferno’ canto 5 l.121: ‘Nessun maggior dolore, | Che ricordarsi del tempo felice |  Nella miseria’ (‘There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery’). VW was probably thinking back to the days just before the First World War and his friendship with George Butterworth.