THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

7 Cromwell Place
White Plains,
N.Y.,
U.S.A.

May 1, 1952

Dear Vaughan Williams,

I was overwhelmed by the kindliness of your letter of the 2nd of February. I cannot imagine anything more generous & gracious than for you to take your valuable time to reduce an unreadable score (because of the unusual combinations of instruments) to two staves in order to get an idea of it. I have not performed my Hill-Song No 2 with orchestra yet, but I do it fairly often with bands, as the 24 instruments for which it is scored are found in most bands over here.
Such a lot of your music has been given over here lately & I have heard glowing accounts from music lovers. Unfortunately I myself did not hear them, as I was always in trains or busses, going from concert to concert.
My wife & I thank you most heartily for your kind invitation to come & see you when next we are in England. We will look forward to visiting you with keen pleasure. But we shall not be able to come to England until after a trip to Australia early in 1953.
We grieved so much to hear of your bereavement & we feel deep sympathy with you in your great loss. It was such a privelege¹ to see your dear wife again, the last time we were in England.
I have delayed answering your letter because I wanted to be able to send you a sketch of our latest attempt at an instrument capable of playing my “Free Music”. I have been hearing this kind of music (with gliding tones & highly irregular rhythms) in my head for about 60 years, so it is a great boon to me now [to] be able to hear it “in the flesh”. In the search for light discs (the discs have to be light because they have to ride on the top of a mere paper graph) we have come across some pretty materials. I also enclose a sketch of some of our discs.
With our best greetings
Percy Grainger

1. sic.