THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult

Letter No. VWL1945

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult

Letter No.: VWL1945


The White Gates
Dorking

Aug 8 [1945]

Dear Adrian

I am coming, as you kindly suggest to rehearsal on Monday.
I have made one or two modifications in the scores which I have asked the OUP1 to put into the parts.
Five T.P.s2
No I  fig (24) (vocal score p. 36)  I have modified the fag. solo here – I thought it was rather too much of a good(?) thing
No IV  fig 17 (vocal score p. 88)  I have added a low g cello & bass pizz on the first beat.
No V fig (2) (vocal score p. 110)  I have thinned out the scoring here
Serenade to Music bars 3-7  I have altered the under string parts here as I found the v. solo never came through enough
Thanksgiving for Victory – I expect the scoring will have to [be] thinned out in the “fade out” bits as there will be no fading out.3
Yrs

R Vaughan Williams


1. Oxford University Press
2. i.e. Five Tudor Portraits, Catalogue of Works 1935/5.
3. These works were all being performed in the BBC Promenade Concerts – see R.V.W.: a biography, p.265. Thanksgiving for Victory, Catalogue of Works 1944/4, was to receive its first public performance on 19 September – it had previously only been broadcast where fade-outs were possible.