THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

August 16 [1935?]

Dear Boughton

I think you ought to have a proper orchestra and for this purpose I should like to guarantee an extra £10 beside what I have already guaranteed, provided you can get sufficient other guarantors to make up the amount wanted.  I think the Orchestral Association are making a great mistake in being so strict – They ought to differentiate between purely commercial undertakings where they are quite right to be firm, and others where their players would like for artistic reasons to take part and where there can be no question of exploitation.

Two ways out of the difficulty suggest themselves to me – (1) which has already sometimes been done is that the artist claims his full fee and then gives a subscription to the funds – (2) that the artist should be played fully for half the period and remain on free his own pleasure – just as they do, say, at a music camp.
 
Yrs
R Vaughan Williams