THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking.

Christmas Day [1946?]

Dear Boris

Thank you very much for your letter which warmed my heart – I am so glad you are back at music again.
As regards an evening service – the atmosphere of smugness has so settled on those canticles that it seems almost impossible to lift the pall & get at the essence. I fear the service I wrote for Xts Hospital w^d be no use to you.¹
Now it seems ungracious after your splendid letter to make a grouse – but I have meant to do this for years – indeed every Xmas – but have never done it.
I deplore the almost entire absence of English carols in your King’s College service. I think every English carol service ought to start with God Rest you merry & end with 1st Noel – then what about
The Lord at first
Virgin unspotted
Cherry Tree
Tomorrow shall be my dancing day
This is the truth
On Xmas night & many more

I only find London Waits, God rest you (I think that is new this year) & Holly & Ivy (which I am glad to see is not now called French in your programme) among the traditional carols – a small proportion to my mind.
I spoke about this to Dark^e2 last year & he did not know which were English and which were not!
Yrs with much gratitude

R. Vaughan Williams

1.  Services in D minor, Catalogue of Works 1939/1, dedicated to C.S. Lang and his singers at Christ’s Hospital.
2.  Harold Darke, organist of St Michael’s, Cornhill, 1916-66.