THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates
Dorking

Nov 30 [1950]

Dear Douglas

I am going to be a nuisance (which you probably are not surprised at!)
Here is an “appendix” for Act I¹ (I expect the opera will suffer from a good deal of appendicitis before we have done with it) It consists of a few additional bars before fig(10) of Act I scene (2) which may or may not be put in as the producer decides. The question is shall we put at the end of the act or in its place in the score? – I incline to the latter if it will not upset your pagination too much – because chiefly of the band parts, where it wd be obviously better to put it in at its proper place & then cross it out if not wanted than for the players to have to scrabble over to the end of the act and probably knock the music over in doing so
The score may want a little modification because I am not quite sure how it will fit (e.g I cannot remember whether it is cor anglais or oboe 2 just there – oboe 2 will do just as well as cor anglais just there. Perhaps this bit of copying ought to have precedence so that when the act is ready the parts can be copied
Sorry to be such a nuisance
Yrs

R Vaughan Williams

1. Of The Pilgrim’s Progress.