THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

13 Cheyne Walk
S.W.3

[July/August 1929]

My Dear Diana

Shall you be in Worcester on Friday 11th – I come down then for the combined rehearsal so look out for me if you are not otherwise too busy.
As regards comp.¹  music – ours is still in the melting pot – so you can’t take it.
The Holst Psalms we have never tackled – I’ve always thought them too hard – but perhaps they are not – anyway choirs love them. I don’t care very much for Wood’s Veterans² & I imagine it is hard.
Otherwise your scheme seems good. We’ve turned out [the] Basso song and put in Gibbs “Fol-dol-do” instead & Love on my heart Holst for women instead of the Scarlatti also “Sleep wayward”³ was pronounced dull – but it is v. easy.
I suppose you have done the following
Madrigals

Come shepherds (Benet)
Sing we and chant it (Morley)
Fair Phyllis (Farmer)
Camilla fair (5 pts) Bateson
Weep O mine eyes (Benet)⁴
Thyrsis sleepest thou (? – pub. Novello)⁵

Partsongs

Cradle song  Ireland
O breathe not his name Stanford
Since thou O fondest Parry
Evening scene (diff[icult]) Elgar

Have you done “Agincourt song” arr for mens voices by Warrell (O.U.P.)⁶  it is splendid.
Yrs

R. Vaughan Williams

Ask again if you want to know anything else.

1. i.e. competition
2. Dirge for Two Veterans, first performed at the Leeds Festival of 1901.
3. ‘Sleep wayward thoughts and rest you with my love’ by Dowland.
4. i.e. John Bennet, fl.1599-1614.
5. In fact also by Bennet. Both works are from his Madrigalls to foure voices, 1599.
6. Arthur Sydney Warrell. The arrangement had just been published by Oxford University Press as no. 611 in the series Oxford Choral Songs.