THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP)

Letter No. VWL2408

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP)

Letter No.: VWL2408


From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

May 10th 1952.

Dictated

Dear Foote,

The Barnes Society have asked me to set the enclosed words to music – will you care to publish it? I send two keys, the second two sharps is of course the best for community singing, which I understand they want – but I feel that these very intimate words are quite unsuitable for that purpose
Yours sincerely,

R. Vaughan Williams

P.S. I enclose a typed copy of the words for reference – The words under the music should be arranged as it is in the typescripts, not as it is under the music: –  that is to say, the Dorset words as the main line, & the English equivalents, where necessary, in brackets underneath


1. In the Spring (Catalogue of Works 1952/1), words taken from Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect by William Barnes.