THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

[17 December, 1929]

Dear Mr Bush

I’m afraid I know very little about the “Faculty of music” – I was probably asked to join originally and having the ordinary Englishman’s instinctive fear of all Leagues, Guilds, Companionships etc refused to join.  I was also, I expect, not much impressed by the names of the promoters
Can you tell me what good purpose this body serves (this is not a rhetorical question but a genuine wish for information) – if I can be persuaded that it serves a useful function I w^d willingly join.

However it w^d be rather difficult to join now, at the swords point, so to speak under threat of exclusion from their programmes.

As regards the programme you enclose – it, after all, contains names, most of which are well thought of by many people – though of course opinions may differ as to the merit of the particular works chosen.

If the programme had included the names mentioned in your letter to Mr Bedford, to the exclusion of the others, (there w^d evidently not be room for all) there w^d have been an outcry about those omissions.

So I do not see any way out of the difficulty for the moment¹

Yours sincerely

R Vaughan Williams

1. Letter in response to Bush’s of 16 December 1929 (see British Library Add MS 61886, f. 145).