THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

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

September 11th 1954.

Dear Mrs Mackenzie,
If you would like to send me some of the tunes I will see if I can do anything with them; and if I succeed, it will be a pleasure, whether they are accepted by the authorities or not.¹ Though the question remains whether unharmonised singing is not the most suitable after all.
I often think with pleasure of my visits to Linlithgow so many years ago.
In case you might like to note it down in your diary, St John Passion at Dorking is on February 19th at 7pm. (St Martin’s Church) and the St Matthew, on March 19th, also at 7 pm. (Halls)
We are just off to America for two months lecturing, but if you would like to send the tunes to me, c/o Music department, Cornell University, ithaca, N.Y. U.S.A., I might find some…

[remainder of letter missing]

1. VW is inviting Eila Mackenzie to send some Gaelic songs. See VWL3924. Three of the songs were published posthumously in 1963 and the fourth is presumed lost. The melodies and Gaelic words of the songs were all published in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society of 1911. The English translations in VW’s published arrangements are by Ursula Vaughan Williams.