THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

[February 1935]

Darling Betty

I meant to have written before – but have been so v. busy.
I never said I didn’t like Agrippa – but that I liked the overture better – I can’t help feeling that in Agrippa – there are certain stravynskyesque¹ clichés which are not really you & are not worthy of you – they rather stood out & prevented my listening properly to the tunes – but I dare say that a 2^d time the good w^d come out & the framing fall into its proper background – but still I do feel that you are capable of so much finer thought than that Russian Monkey-brain & that you injure your real self by condescending to use any of his monkey-tricks.²
­– But everyone else (even the Times) seemed to have liked it, so you must forgive the old & ancient uncle for being stupid
Love from

Uncle Ralph

Personally I think that while the English Ballet people simply (in their dancing) do bad imitations of all those discredited old Ballet Russe tricks there is no hope for them & that it is up to you young people to show them the way by your music.

1.  sic.
2.  Maconchy’s ballet Great Agrippa, or the Inky Boys, based on the poem in Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann, was given at a Macnaghten-Lemare Concert on 4 February 1935.