THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

19th June, 1947.

Dear Gerald,

I hope you got home safe yesterday. I think we were at cross purposes over No. 5 and No. 6. All I said about the Pageant, etc., referred to No. 5, not No. 6.¹
Now another matter. As regards Cecilia’s fee, we must remember that in a choral work, the composer stands to get something out of the sale of copies. Also in these days, the P.R.S.² brings some grist to the mill, so it is not so necessary to get anything out of those who commission the work. That is my usual practice with regard to a choral work.³
My love to Joyce
Yrs

RVW

R. VAUGHAN WILLIAMS.

You might like to see the enclosed.⁴

1.  VW had tried out some of the music for his Fifth Symphony in the pageant England’s Pleasant Land (Catalogue of Works 1938/1), and had talked of it to Finzi, who thought that he was referring to the Sixth Symphony. See Kennedy, Works of Vaughan Williams, p.257.
2. Performing Right Society
3. Finzi had presumably asked for advice as to what commission fee he should ask for regarding For St Cecilia, written at this time.
4. The enclosure does not survive.