THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
10, Hanover Terrace,
Regents Park,
London, N.W.1.

February 26th 1958.

Dear Mr Parker¹,

I was interested in your letter.² The part which would interest me most would be popularising the English traditional carol.  I am horrified to see, for example, that the services of so-called carols on the BBC have hardly an English carol among them.  It is not as if these were not extremely beautiful, but they are neglected; I think through a sort of snobbery which thinks that any nonsense from France or Czecho Slovakia³ must necessarily be better.
I should be glad to discuss that aspect of the question with you one day.  I am very busy just now but I could manage an hour or two between March 17th and the end of the month, but not on March 21st.
I am asking my publishers to send you a copy of the book of English Traditional carols edited by Martin Shaw and myself.  I think the Preface might interest you.⁴
Yours sincerely,

R. Vaughan Williams

1.  Via Duncan Hinnells. Charles Parker was at this time Senior Features Producer, BBC Midland Region. 
2.  See VWL3339.
3.  sic.
4.   English traditional Carols from the Oxford Book of Carols. Arranged  for soprano and alto voices in two, three, and four parts by R. Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw. (London: Oxford University Press, [1954]).