THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

Sunday [14th March 1937]

Dear Frank

I return the master copies herewith.
I don’t think your opalographist has been very intelligent – (1) When he found he could not get in the 2^nd V and V^a bars according to the copy he ought of course to have adopted Rowe’s dodge for the V.1 (which was staring him in the face) and put in a repeat: those miles and miles of repetition are almost impossible to read. This had better be done now in V.II and V^a – It can be easily done by starting ½ way down the page as in V.I.
(2) The end of the organ cue at beginning of “played” notes are not sufficiently clearly indicated – This was done by red ink in the copy sent – but some other method ought to have been  devised to get over this difficulty in the opalograph copy.
(3) You will never get really good copies until you have the lines ruled ad hoc (this was Boult’s suggestion) –
See V.1 p.6, L.6.  I hope something can be done to this by placing it lower when reproduced.¹
Yours sincerely

R. Vaughan Williams

1.  Frank replied two days later saying that all three points would be suitably amended though reminding VW that he had originally asked that the bars which had repeat abbreviations in his MS be written out in full.