THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Kilcot
Newent
Glos.

9.1.58

Dear Ralph:

It is curious how often your music throws me back to Dante: the finale of No.6 sounds to me like an agnostic’s Paradiso, and listening in to No.4 last night it sounded at times as if you had outdone Virgil by positively rollicking on the verge of hell.
I hope you won’t be annoyed by such allusions, for, as Goethe said, ‘Music writes us by giving each man back to himself’-
Have you a spare copy of the photo of Ursula and yourself published a while ago in one of the Sunday papers?  I cut it out for a pin-up, but newsprint does not wear well; and you know your personality (as well as your music) has meant much to me from the time at RCM when you turned a criticism of Stanford’s to my advantage.  But as I get older I find that, not only Stanford, but nearly all men and women are better than one’s first estimate of them – And that certainly applies vastly to you.
Warmest greetings to Ursula & yourself
from Kathleen & Rutland