Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin

Letter No.: 
VWL1687
[8th September 1942]

Dear Peterkin

Excuse wartime paper.
I fear poor old Rowe1 has made a pretty good mess of this.
On page 8 he has copied the wrong accompaniment for 9 bars - I really think it would have saved my time and your expense if the engraver had used my M.S. bad as it is.
Yrs

R. Vaughan Williams

P.S.  I have just received the SATB & TTBB copies - Rowe has absolutely disregarded my arrangement of the words - the only thing for me to do would be to copy it all again - so the engraver must use my copy which is, I think, reasonably clear - I much regret all this loss of time and energy.2

1.  P.R. Rowe, a music copyist living in Kingston-on-Thames whom VW often recommended to other composers.
2.  Presumably of the song arrangement from the Prelude of The 49th Parallel, called 'The new Commonwealth' - see VWL1681.

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Shelfmark of original letter: 
File 2008C
General notes: 

To OUP - Norman Peterkin.
Marked ‘received ix/9/42’.

Format: 
Letter
Original database number: 
420908