THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

13 Cheyne Walk
S.W.3

[August 1929]

My Dear Diana

Our Dorking programme is as follows

Mens voices

Towns
Wagner. Sailors chorus (Dutchman) (Novello)

Villages Div I
Gibbs. Fol-dol-do¹ (Curwen)

Villages Div II
Gibbs. Spanish Main (Curwen)

Solo 4^tets

Towns
Brahms ‘A little bird’ (?)
Part 2 (No 6) of Liebeslieder
(New edition (8vo) with English words (Lengninck²)

Villages Div I
“What is’t I seek” Jones³ (Curwen?)

Villages Div II
Campion “Never weather beaten sail” (Stainer & Bell)

As to full chorus –
Have you ever done
“How lovely” Brahms (Requiem)⁴
“Judas Maccabaeus” Handel (choruses 8, 11, 20, 53 I think)

Women’s voices

Towns
Scarlatti “Where my thoughts” (Stainer & Bell)

Villages div I
Holst “Love on my heart” Novello

Villages div II
Irish folksong arr by Day “I’ll rock you to rest” (Boosey)

Madrigal

Towns
“See, see the shepherds green” (5 pts) (transposed edition) (Stainer & Bell)

Villages Div I
Tomkins “Oyez, has any found a law”⁵ (transposed edition if there is one – if not put up with g) (Stainer & Bell)

Villages Div II
Mundy “Heigh I’ll go to plough” (Sopranos to divide – T. & B. both to sing B part) (Stainer & Bell)

Part song

Towns
Folksong arr by Morris “I’m 17 come Sunday” (O.U. Press)

Villages Div I
Irish folksong arr by Stanford “The Arbutus Tree” (Boosey)

Villages Div II
Folksong arr by Holst “Swansea Town” (Curwen)

“Sleepers wake”                                                              Bach⁶
“L’Allegro” (selection)                                                     Handel
“To the[e] Cherubim”
(Dettingen Te Deum)                                                      Handel
“Soul of the World”                                                         Purcell
“Bide with us”                                                                 Bach⁷ 
(hard)
“God’s own time”                                                           Bach⁸  (fairly hard)
“Festival Te Deum”                                                         Holst
Tannhauser march                                                         Wagner
(trs to Bb)
Song of Destiny                                                             Brahms
(Hard)
2 Psalms                                                                       Holst
Songs of the Fleet                                                         Stanford
Dido & Aeneas                                                              Purcell
As the heart⁹ pants                                                       Mendelssohn
Samson (selection)                                                        Handel
“Before the paling of the stars”                                     Dale
(not very easy)

I think there is a potted Lohengrin & Carmen done like the potted Meistersinger pub. by Curwen or a selection from Handel’s “Saul”.
It’s joyful news you are to be at Worcester.
Yrs

R. Vaughan Williams

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1. “Fol, dol, do’” chorus for unaccompanied men’s voices by C. Gibbs
2. sic
3. Robert Jones (fl. 1575-1617), ‘What if I seek for love of thee?‘            
4. How lovely are thy dwellings fair“.
5. “Oyez! has any found a Lad?” by Thomas Tomkins
6. Wachet auf! Ruft uns ein Stimme, Cantata BWV 140.
7. Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, Cantata BWV 6.
8. Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, Cantata BWV 106.
9. sic – recte ‘hart’.