THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

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

January 14th 1954.

Dear Mr Chandler,¹

Thank you very much for the photograph. I cannot remember the circumstances, but apparently I was very rude, and you have heaped coals of fire.
I do not know much about records, I do not care about them much, and therefore did not even know that Herbert Howells had not been recorded.  He certainly ought to be and I will see what I can do.  I think the British Council should be the first people to approach, or Novellos, or both.  But of course recording choral work is a much tougher proposition than that of an orchestral composition as I know by experience.  It has taken forty three years to achieve a recording of my Sea Symphony!  But I hope we shall suceed² in doing something for the Hymnus.³
Yours sincerely,

R. Vaughan Williams

1. Francis Chandler, who was at this time teaching English at King Edward VI Grammar School in Retford. Chandler had taken an unauthorised photograph of VW at the Three Choirs Festival in 1951, and got caught. A letter from Chandler to Oxford University Press (British Library MS Mus. 1714/1/21, ff. 53-54) explains the circumstances regarding the photograph.
2. sic.
3. Hymnus Paradisi a work which VW admired – and which gave rise to his dedication of Hodie to Howells – see R.V.W.: a biography, p.347. The sort of request for assistance to which VW is responding may have put in the VWs’ mind the idea of establishing the RVW Trust to assist fellow composers.