THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

18 June 1931.

Dear V.W.,
Thank you so much for the two tunes.¹
I have the permission of the publisher to use the tunes of SOLDIER’S JOY, so that is all right.  I believe it is the second of the two versions I gave you, but anyhow the B music goes:
[music example]
I have been trying for the last few days to summon up my courage to write to you about the¹ some of the tunes you sent me the other day, and to say that I do not believe that Haste to the Wedding and Kitty’s Rambles will do.  No one realises better that I do what unpardonable cheek on my part it is to say so, and if you feel that after this you cannot be bothered any more with me and my stupid little tunes I should not be surprised.  But somehow, not to say anything seemed worse and so there it is because it felt like shirking a responsibility².  Of course, you understand that I am not criticising the arrangements from the musical point of view, but merely from the dance-side.  I find it hard to explain what is wrong, but my feeling is that you have thought of the tunes as being much slower than they really are, and that when they are played up to speed your settings would not give the dancers the “swing” and poise that is needed.
In Kitty’s Rambles, I think the effect of the quaver passages in the left hand will be fussy and will check, rather than help the flow of the movement.
In Haste to the Wedding, also, I feel the quaver-passages are a mistake, and that a stronger and more marked rhythm is needed.
Steam Boat I like very much, but I am rather afraid that the octaves in B2 are going to make this passage a bit jumpy.
In Corn Rigs, there must not be an accent on the 4th beat, because it is the 3rd beat that is the important one (it is a polka rhythm).  Also I should have liked, if possible, a second setting of B music.
I am sending the tunes back, because otherwise you won’t know what I am talking about, but I doubt whether you will feel inclined to do any more to them.
I am having The Tempest, Three Around Three and The Self copied and will send them to you to make sure they are correct, before letting Novellos have them.  I like these very much, particuarly The Self and Three around Three.
I suppose you received the copies of The Sylph (Off she Goes) and Piper’s Fancy all right, and you still have Morpeth Rant to which you were going to add a second setting for B. music.
I feel it is no good my making vain apologies for being so troublesome and presumptious, but I really am more sorry about it than I can say.
Yours

1. From the collection Twelve traditional country dances (Catalogue of Works 1931/1), which VW was arranging for piano for publication by Novello’s. See also VWL3711.
2. sic.
3. “because it felt like shirking a responsibility” added in manuscript.