THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood

Letter No. VWL1549

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood

Letter No.: VWL1549


[After 4th September 1941]

My Dear

It will be lovely to see you tomorrow. I hope it will be weather for the green frock & the silk stockings & the high heeled shoes – But you cd always travel in the clodhoppers1 & change here?
Love

RVW

This letter is at the foot of what must be the second page of a list in VW’s hand (this page is headed ‘2’ in VW’s hand), transcribed below. The list was possibly given in response to a request for advice by UW on someone else’s behalf. There is a separate sheet headed ‘references’, which may be part of the same letter.

Easy 3 part songs

Breathe ye soft winds Whittaker
Winds gently whisper (Novello 160 Wardour St)

Hark How the Drum  Donizetti
     (Novello)

More advanced

Soldier chorus (Faust) Gounod
     (Novello)

Sound the Trumpet (2 parts) Purcell
      (Augener)

References

Paderborn Song book 1609
Constance   ”   ”   1613
Cologne     ”   ”   1619
Mainz       ”   ”   1628
Corner      ”   ”   1625 (1631)
Speier      ”   ”   1631
Rheinfels   ”   ”   1666
Würzburg    ”   ”   1649
Münster     ”   ”   1677

Von Haxthausen2 (1850 Paderborn)
        ”      Geistliche Volkslieder (No 60)
Hoffman (von Fallersleben?)3
No 279


1. VW disliked ladies wearing flat shoes except for country walks and gardening.
2. August Von Haxthausen published a collection of folk songs from the oral tradition.
3. August Hoffmann von Fallersleben composed many popular songs and published German song collections.