ABOUT THE LETTERS
Ralph Vaughan Williams’s correspondence - with his friends, family, pupils and fellow musicians - paints an intriguing portrait of the man, as well as providing fascinating insights into his major preoccupations: musical, personal and political.
The VWF database includes transcripts of over 5,000 items of annotated correspondence, fully indexed and searchable, which can all be read online. It includes all the letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams known to the editors and is an ongoing project. Find out more about the database.
The text of letters written by Ralph Vaughan Williams remains in the copyright of the Vaughan Williams Foundation and may not be further reproduced without the prior written consent of the Foundation.
Featured Letter
from Vaughan Williams, Ralph, 1872-1958 to Scott, Marion
Letter No. VWL5305
Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott
Letter No.: VWL5305
15.XI.20
I hope to be free on Nov 26th but am not quite sure yet1
In that case it will give me great pleasure to come – but in any case please find a pianist
R Vaughan Williams
1. The event was a chamber concert at the Royal College of Music, in ‘Commemoration of the share taken by Collegians in the War’, organised by the RCM Union, in which event all composers represented, performers and stewards served during the First World War. The concert included the first performance of five of the songs from Ivor Gurney’s cycle ‘The Western Playland’, sung by Topliss Green: ‘Is my team ploughing’, ‘Golden Friends’, ‘Twice a Week’, ‘Loveliest of Trees’ and ‘March’. The programme was prefaced with part of Gurney’s poem, ‘Spring, Rouen, 1917’. Presumably Marion Scott, a close friend of Ivor Gurney, had asked VW if he might play the piano.
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Date from postmark. Offered for sale on Abe Books by Kotte Autographs GmbH, March 2025.
