THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
10, Hanover Terrace,
Regents Park,
London, N.W.1.

April 17th 1956.

Dear Bill,
The last thing I want to do is to make bad blood, so I will say nothing at present, but I shall probably write a letter to Margery¹ to be read out at your next Music Committee meeting. But your idea of referring the music to me as a sort of arbiter is all wrong, the Music Committee must have the final say. By the way, one or two other people complained to me about the work, and I told them that their best course would be to lodge a complaint with the general Committee.
With that one small exception I think both the programme and its execution were splendid. And they sang my tune magnificently.
Love to Winifred
Yrs
RVW

P.S. I will suggest some madrigals

1. Margery Cullen, secretary of the Leith Hill Musical Festival. The reference to “my tune” was probably Valiant-for-Truth, which VW conducted on Friday 13 April, at the last night of the Festival. Other works performed that evening included Mozart’s Requiem; Bach’s Giant Fugue; Moussorgsky’s Song of the Flea; Wilbye, Draw on Sweet Night; Ireland, The Hills; Holst, Love on my Heart (female voices);
Jerusalem.