THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
10, Hanover Terrace,
Regent’s Park,
London, N.W.1.

December 15th 1957

Dear Sir,
I venture to send you a quotation from a letter I have lately received from Mrs Gordon of Haddo House, Aberdeen.¹ She writes –
“While naturally it is perfectly right and fair the composer should be well rewarded for his music, it does seem wrong that small societies should be charged on the same basis as larger ones.”
Mrs Gordon then quotes a case of a Society which was charged £9 for two large scale choral works … she continues:-
“As the Society only numbers 40, and the audience is never more than 200 at 3/6 a time you can imagine what this will mean.”
I very much hope that on a suitable occasion you will bring this question up before your Committee. I fear that the practical results of your present policy will be that small and impecunious Societies will be prevented from being adventurous in their choice of music, and will be obliged to stick to non-copyright works, a state of things which will be bad for both the composer and the P.R.S. Speaking for myself, and I believe for many other composers, I should be willing to waive part of the performing fees whivh I recieve¹ from these small, but bold, societies, and I believe that my publishers would be willing to do the same.
I know that the P.R.S. has the interests of the composer at heart, but I do believe that their best way of …[letter incomplete]

1. June Gordon (‘Lady Aberdeen’) was a professional musician who married David Gordon, 4th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, and established the Haddo House Choral and Operatic Society at their home in Aberdeenshire.