Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1895-1958

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ForewordMichael Kennedy:
Preface
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1 Earliest letters (c.1895) down to the outbreak of the First World War: 1895 - 1914
2 From the beginning of the First World War until the move to Dorking: 1914 - 1929
3 From the move to Dorking until the outbreak of the Second World War: 1929 - September 1939
4 The Second World War: September 1939 - May 1945
5 From the Second World War to the move back to London: June 1945 - 15 September 1953
6 From the move back to London until VW's death: 15 September 1953 - August 1958
Bibliography
Index of works
General index

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The book comprises a selection of some 750 letters of the composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, selected from an extant corpus of about 3,300. The letters are arranged chronologically and have been chosen to provide a cumulative pen-picture of the composer in his own words. In general the letters reflect VW's major preoccupations: musical, personal and political. It was not VW's way to discuss his inner creative processes but he does discuss his music, once it had been written: for example there is much to illustrate the process of 'washing the face' of his major pieces before, and after, they had reached the concert platform. There is correspondence with collaborators such as Gilbert Murray, Harold Child and Evelyn Sharp who provided texts; with his publishers (mainly OUP) about printing scores and parts; with conductors such as Adrian Boult and John Barbirolli about performances. He was in regular correspondence with fellow composers such as Gustav Holst, George Butterworth, Gerald Finzi, Herbert Howells, John Ireland, Alan Bush and Rutland Boughton. There were his pupils: Elizabeth Maconchy and Cedric Thorpe Davie amongst others. A series of close personal friendships is well represented: his Cambridge contemporary and cousin Ralph Wedgwood, Edward Dent, and latterly Michael Kennedy. Above all there are insights on his lifelong devotion to his first wife, Adeline, and his growing friendship with Ursula Wood, who was to become his second wife. In general the book paints a self-portrait of Vaughan Williams not only as a great composer but as a large-minded and public-spirited personality who towered over the British musical world for forty years.

Reviews

exemplary scholarship... the volume greatly amplifies our understanding of V.W

essential for anyone interested in the wider cultural history of Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. It makes fascinating reading and OUP has done us all a service... It deserves to sell in hundreds of thousands

Hugh Cobbe has done a superb job both in his footnotes and in his selection and the result is a fitting half centenary tribute to a truly great man... Anyone interested in Vaughan Williams will need to have these letters

[a] splendid book

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