Add MS 65143

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: letters and papers; [before July 1929]-1956, n.d. Presented by Mrs R. Vaughan Williams, 2 June 1988 (art. 3); purchased at Sotheby's, with the aid of a grant from R.V.W. Ltd., 9 May 1985, lots 216, 217 (art. 4), and 5 May 1988, lots 487, 488 (arts. 1, 2).

Paper; ff. 59. British Library arrangement.

1. ff. 1-15. Letters to George Parker; [before July 1929]-1952, n.d. Partly signed; some written in other hands, including that of Adeline Vaughan Williams, and signed.

2. ff. 16-51. Letters to Christopher Le Fleming; [before July 1929]-1951, n.d. Partly signed; some written in the hand of Adeline Vaughan Williams, and signed. With two letters to Miss Ibberson of the Rural Schools Music Association (of which Le Fleming was Assistant Director), and a card from Ursula Vaughan Williams.

3. f. 52. Notes for Oxford University Press of corrections to be made in the full score of the cantata The Sons of Light (published in vocal score by the Press, 1951); [1951].

4. ff. 53-59. Letters to Herbert Bardgett; [1952], 1956, n.d. Included are; - (a) typewritten list of questions by Bardgett relating to performance of Vaughan Williams's 'A Sea Symphony', with replies in manuscript by the composer ff. 55-58; - (b) typewritten copy of 'A Song for all singers, all players', a parody of Walt Whitman, written in 1911 after the first rehearsal of 'A Sea Symphony' f. 59. For details of performances of 'A Sea Symphony' in 1952, conducted by Vaughan Williams and with choirs trained by Bardgett, see Ursula Vaughan Williams, R.V.W. A Biography of Vaughan Williams (Oxford, 1988), p. 316.