THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

18 Dec 1937

I at last return the ballet scenario.
It seems to me entirely dependent on what you as choreographer can make of it. I should feel inclined myself to leave out the unhappy man and woman. Would you suggest a reciter to recite the necessary lines? This might be a new art-form and interesting.
I should love to do a ballet with you – though I warn you that I feel absolutely dried up at present and have the feeling that I shall never again write a note of music.¹

1, This quotation from a letter from VW to Kennedy was included in a letter from Kennedy to UW, and refers to a ballet scenario (to become what was initially called Epithalamion, later renamed The Bridal Day) which UW had sent to VW in October 1937 and which he had forwarded to Kennedy at the English Folk Dance and Song Society. See R.V.W.: a biography, pp.218-9 for more context.