THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Y.M.C.A. with H.M. Forces on Active Service

[c.1915-1916]

Dear Mr Pitt¹
I am v. sorry but I am hospital orderly for the next fortnight which means I am at it all day & every day.
The work is quite straightforward – the tempo sh^d be as quick as possible provided the wind instruments can play the 1st subject
 

clearly – then the beat remains practically the same throughout
Yrs sincerely

R. Vaughan Williams

1. Pitt was a conductor at Covent Garden and eventually Director of Music at the BBC. Eric Saylor suggests that “the extract appears to be the rhythm to the first theme from the overture to The Wasps; the only odd bit is the rather sketchy notation after the second quaver-semiquaver figure, but those should be two quavers followed by four semiquavers.”