Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge
Letter No. VWL5119
Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge
Letter No.: VWL5119
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.
June 5 [1931]
Dear Mrs Coolidge
Thank you very much for the great compliment which you and the London String Quartet have paid me.1 Such an occasion as this demands one’s best work and, Alas!, I have nothing ready at the moment, and I am a slow worker and could not trust myself to produce something worthy if I had any feeling of hurry – which a date so comparatively soon as November would involve. So I am sure that for your sake as well as my own I ought not to accept.
I write this with the greatest regret.
Yours sincerely
R Vaughan Williams
1. Coolidge had sought to commission a quartet from VW for a performance in Paris, for a fee of one thousand dollars. Her letter is with this one in the files.
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General Notes:
In the hand of AVW, signed by VW.
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Location Of Original:
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Shelfmark:Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation collection, 1894-1953, Box 101/25
