THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking, Surrey,

21st. February, 1951.

Dear Mr. Burton,¹
Thank you very much for your letter. I much appreciate the way you are meeting my wishes.
I should like very much to see the new Mountain Scene, also I have seen none of the Apollyon scene, indeed any of that act yet. It will give me great pleasure to come and see what scenes you are able to show me.
I fear that the trumpeter in Act II must be a real man with a real trumpet, in which case he will have to play an orchestral valve trumpet, but I do not suppose the audience will know the difference and we might manage to disguise it more or less with a banner, as they do in Lohengrin.
The trumpet in the Vanity Fair scene will be played in the orchestra and the heavenly trumpet can be played off-stage, so these can be dummy trumpets as fantastic as you like.
Yours sincerely,

R Vaughan Williams

(R. Vaughan Williams)

Hal Burton, Esq.,
134 Lexham Gardens,
London, W.8.

1. Burton was designer for the 1951 production of Pilgrim’s Progress.