THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking,
Surrey.

9th April, 1952.

Dear Foote,

I will, in a day or two send a vocal score of my “Oxford Elegy”.  I hope you will be able to come to a satisfactory arrangement with Mr. Rose over photographing the vocal parts.¹
As regards “The Folk Songs of the Four Seasons”, the International Folk Dance Conference want to give a concert in a small room with a small choir and the Boyd Neel Orchestra. This would, or course, involve another re-scoring as the present orchestration with trombones & c. would simply swamp the Boyd Neel strings and the small chorus.  I will, with your permission, get Roy Douglas on to this.  This, I presume would be between me and him and the International Folk Dance Conference as regards finance; but perhaps you will allow him to make use of one of your present full scores for the purposes of “cueing in”.²
Yours sincerely,

R. Vaughan Williams

P.S. I am supposed to know nothing about it but I believe the Dorking people want to do it on Oct 12.³

1. See VWL2388.
2. This reduced orchestration is not mentioned in Kennedy, Catalogue of Works.
3. i.e. to celebrate VW’s 80th birthday.