THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates, Westcott Road,
Dorking.

[11 February 1935]

Sir,
May I be allowed to correct two mis-statements whic have appeared in the Press (not in The Times) and elsewhere about the Scherzo by Gustav Holst, which was performed at the B.B.C. Symphony Concert last Wednesday, February 6? It has been said that it was dictated to him by his pupils.This is not so. He wrote every note of the score with his own hand.
It has also been said that there is no evidence that this Scherzo was meant to be part of a symphony. I remember well that when he first showed it to me he told me that he intended to write a symphony, and that he had sketched the Scherzo movement first.
Yours faithfully,
Ralph Vaughan Williams