THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Leith Hill Place
nr. Dorking

Sunday [24 February 1918]

Dear Boult

Thankyou very much for your letter – I sh^d be proud for any part of the L.S.¹ to be done again by you – but you certainly mustn’t cut about your programme for it – especially not the ‘Shropshire Lad’² which ought to be heard everywhere as often as possible.
I agree with you that the last movement & possibly the scherzo of my symphony³ are too long – but it is re-writing they want – I do not think that mechanical cutting – however skilfully done w^d be satisfactory
– Why not do the 1^st movement only? It stands fairly well by itself.
I fear I shall be far away on March 18^th as I am down for overseas – & may leave any day now.⁴
Yours very sincerely

R. Vaughan Williams.

1. A London Symphony, Catalogue of Works, 1913/5.
2. George Butterworth’s Rhapsody of this name, written in 1912.
3. A London Symphony. By the time of the performance on March 18 VW had cut some ten minutes of the symphony. Further changes were made before the symphony was published in 1920, and then more before the third revision was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Beecham in 1934 and published c. 1936. See Kennedy, Catalogue of Works, pp.68-71. A recording of the long first version of the symphony was eventually made and released in 2001.
4. VW was sent to France on 1 March 1918 as a Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery. He had previously been to France as a Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1916.