THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

26 June 1931.

Dear V.W.
Here are the tunes again, and I hope for your sake that this will be the last time you will see them.¹
I have made all sorts of suggestions, which I hope you will understand, and – which is much more important – I hope you will not mind.
I think the tune I am least happy about is Piper’s Fancy.  I feel it needs to be a little fatter and more gracious and insinuating, but I daresay it is not possible.
Would you mind giving an eye to the phrasing all the way through.
I should be glad to have the MS. back as soon as possible, because I am making a desperate effort to get the book out by the middle of next month in time for the Staff Conference.
Don’t think too badly of me for all the truble¹ I have given you.
Yours
Do you mind if the music is not copyrighted in America?  it is an expense and will mean a delay of 3 weeks.  I don’t myself think it is worth while, because if people want to pirate they will do so anyway.
M.K.

1. The Twelve traditional country dances (Catalogue of Works 1931/1), to be published by Novello in 1931.
2. sic.