Details
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, Ralph (1872-1958). A series of approximately 11 autograph letters and notes signed ('R.V.W.' and 'R. Vaughan Williams'), and four secretarial or typed letters and postcards signed to the organist Herbert Sumsion and his wife Alice, The White Gates, Dorking, 10 Hanover Terrace, London, and n.p., [1928] - 15 October 1957 and n.d., together 17 pages, various sizes, in autograph, and four pages, various sizes, in other hands; with two letters from Vaughan Williams's first wife Adeline, and three from his second wife, Ursula; and two others.
Vaughan Williams's letters to his close associate Herbert Sumsion revolve around the composer's visits to the Three Choirs' Festival, in which Sumsion, as organist of Gloucester Cathedral, was heavily involved. The earliest letter congratulates Sumsion on his appointment as organist in 1928, and apologises for the fact that 'my wretched old suite is causing you trouble -- it really is not worth it ... I'm not very keen on the work any way -- but its only chance is to be played as it was written. Why not substitute something by E. Smyth ... P.S. The percussion is a minimum -- the player would have to do a sort of egg dance round his various instruments ...'. A letter of c.1941 refers to a setting of a Churchill speech and notes 'from the purely material point of view [we] do not seem to have begun to feel the war'. Further letters thank the Sumsions for hospitality at the Festival -- a flirtatious letter of 12 September 1953 to Alice remarks 'Outside the Cathedral you introduced me to all the prettiest girls in Gloucester, except one, and for that there was no need!'; other letters refer to technical requirements for performances -- one undated letter is entirely occupied with the necessary orchestral forces for an unnamed work, while another asks if there is an organ in the Town Hall in Gloucester, 'There are 4 bars of "Job" which ought to be organ solo, but I have not yet found an organ loud enough or unpleasant enough to do them justice'. (19)
Vaughan Williams's letters to his close associate Herbert Sumsion revolve around the composer's visits to the Three Choirs' Festival, in which Sumsion, as organist of Gloucester Cathedral, was heavily involved. The earliest letter congratulates Sumsion on his appointment as organist in 1928, and apologises for the fact that 'my wretched old suite is causing you trouble -- it really is not worth it ... I'm not very keen on the work any way -- but its only chance is to be played as it was written. Why not substitute something by E. Smyth ... P.S. The percussion is a minimum -- the player would have to do a sort of egg dance round his various instruments ...'. A letter of c.1941 refers to a setting of a Churchill speech and notes 'from the purely material point of view [we] do not seem to have begun to feel the war'. Further letters thank the Sumsions for hospitality at the Festival -- a flirtatious letter of 12 September 1953 to Alice remarks 'Outside the Cathedral you introduced me to all the prettiest girls in Gloucester, except one, and for that there was no need!'; other letters refer to technical requirements for performances -- one undated letter is entirely occupied with the necessary orchestral forces for an unnamed work, while another asks if there is an organ in the Town Hall in Gloucester, 'There are 4 bars of "Job" which ought to be organ solo, but I have not yet found an organ loud enough or unpleasant enough to do them justice'. (19)
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