THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

16th January, 1939

Dear Dr. Vaughan Williams,

Thank you so much for your kind letter of January 7th.  Might we propose a means of getting your co-operation in the Festival which would allow considerably more time than we originally suggested?  Would you consider writing a fanfare for brass to open the Pageant?  This would not need to be a long and elaborately worked out piece, an it need not be ready before the middle of March.¹

The title which we chose – FESTIVAL OF MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE – bears a double interpretation.  On the one hand it is meant to convey music which will appeal to the broadest sections of the musically interested public; on the other hand this music we are presenting is composed for the people – that is to say, written with intent to serve the people’s cause in the period to which it belongs.

We hope that by this further proposal we shall be able to secure your name as an active co-operator in the Pageant, a thing which we would value profoundly.

Yours very sincerely,

Dr. R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
DORKING.

1. VW agreed to this suggestion in a letter to Alan Bush, and composed the Flourish for Brass Band; see VWL1512.