THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

[1901?]

You did tell me about the ‘Ave Maria’: didn’t I refer to it?  I meant to.  I’ve finished my ‘Bucolic Suite’¹  and written a song² and made a rough copy of the score of the Trombone thing³ and finished a volume of Purcell⁴  and am starting another orchestral thing called a ‘Sentimental Romance’.⁵
That Glasgow critic is a blasted fool and condemns himself out of his own mouth.                            
My dear V. I meant to have said a lot more but I can’t somehow so will compress it all into a comprehensive ‘Bless you’.
Yours always

R.V.W.

1. Catalogue of Works 1900/1.
2. The song was probably Blackmwore by the Stour (Catalogue of Works, 1902/4).
3. Possibly Heroic Elegy (Catalogue of Works, 1900-1/1), completed in January 1901, which has a prominent trombone part. Holst was a trombonist.
4. Purcell Society vol.XV, Welcome Odes Part I, published 1905; vol 18, Part II, was published in 1910.
5. Heirs and Rebels suggests this may be the Symphonic Rhapsody (Catalogue of Works 1904/3).