THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

13 Cheyne Walk
S.W.

[November 1908]

Dear Dent

Please forgive my not answering your nice letter before.
I think the league¹ is just what people make it – if good people join it will be a good thing – if only bad people – then its not worth considering.
The prospectus is only in the rough and has many faults – but these can be improved. As to your remarks on the cttee – Delius was one of the starters & was put on the ctee for that reason – many of the other names are only names (Wood² for example – by the way I don’t at all share your objections to him) – because unfortunately to attract people one has to put all the “official” people on – there are also one or two unknown real useful people such as Harry Evans who runs a big choral society at Liverpool and has made the Matthew Passion into a safe draw. Parry³ was approached – but unfortunately in the wrong way – one evening when he was in one of his bad tempers – and he was, I believe, very abusive – but wrote and apologized afterwards & wanted to join – & I hope will soon. I am very sorry his name is not on and I feel that we ought to try for it (By the way, this is private of course).
Thank you so much for your invitation – I sh^d so much like to come sometime.
Yours sincerely

R. Vaughan Williams

1. The Musical League, founded in 1909. VW had sent Dent a prospectus for it (see VWL221). See Kennedy, Works of Vaughan Williams, p.95. The main event during its short existence was a Festival at Liverpool in September 1909.
2. Charles Wood, university lecturer in harmony and counterpoint at Cambridge; he later succeeded Stanford as Professor of Music; his own successor was Dent.
3. Charles Hubert H. Parry