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 Mullinar, Michael, 1895-1973
Letter No. VWL3681
Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar
Letter No.: VWL3681
The White Gates,
Dorking.
May 21 [1946]
Dear Michael
Are you coming to London at all this summer? If so there is a professional engagement which I shd be very grateful if you wd undertake that is to play through the solo pfte arrangement of my new symph1 to a few friends at Dorking – we could put you up for the night here & it wd be so nice to see Mary too (tho’ I fear there is no room for the whole family!) any time except the 1st fortnight in July & a week end would be best because I could collect more people then.
My love to Mary
Yrs
R. Vaughan Williams
1. The Sixth Symphony, Catalogue of Works 1947/3. A part of the solo pianoforte score is in the Royal College of Music Library (MS 5360d). This letter concerns a play-through described in detail in R.V.W.: a biography, p.267-268. It was well in advance of the first performance, which took place in April 1948 at the Royal Albert Hall.
-
To:
-
From:
-
Scribe:
-
Names:
-
Musical Works:
-
Format:
-
General Notes:
The date of this letter is confirmed by the reference to Saturday 13th [July] in VWL3682.
-
Location Of Original:
