Add MS 65188

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: music manuscripts; [circa 1920-1958]. Autograph. Art. 1 purchased with the aid of a grant from R.V.W. Ltd., at Sotheby's, 5 May 1988, lot 486; arts. 2-4 presented by Mrs R. Vaughan Williams, 26 Jan. 1986; art. 5 presented by Roy Douglas, Esq., 24 Aug. 1988. Incorporated in 1988.

Paper; ff. 16. British Library arrangement.

1. ff. 1-2v. 'How can the tree but wither?', song for voice and piano (words Thomas, Lord Vaux); composed [1896?], written out, circa 1920, for the baritone George Parker. Published London: Oxford University Press, 1934. Add. 50480, ff. 1-8 is an orchestral version of this setting. For further details of the work, see Michael Kennedy, A Catalogue of the Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1982), p. 10.

2. f. 3. Cancelled page, numbered 201A, from a vocal score of the ballad opera 'Hugh the Drover' or 'Love in the Stocks' (words, Harold Child); n.d. The passage is the equivalent of the fourteen bars beginning at fig. Ff in the published vocal score (London: Curwen, 1924). The complete autograph vocal score, Add. 50843, agrees (f. 220) with the published version, while the text in the present manuscript differs from both in a number of respects. In addition, it has autograph corrections, is less carefully written than Add. 50843, and the page-numbering does not agree with the composer's pagination there.

3. ff. 4-13. 'A Trollop from the Stocks' (John's song) and 'Dropped from the Ranks on a Winter Night' (Sergeant's song) from 'Hugh the Drover', arranged for concert use; [1924?]. Incorporating pages from the printed vocal score. Unpublished. The opera was first performed in 1924, when a complete vocal score was published and concert versions of some songs issued separately. See Kennedy, op. cit., pp. 108-109.

4. ff. 14-14v. Chorus for SATB, 'Love has called you, Love victorious', intended for insertion in the closing scene of Act ii of 'Hugh the Drover'; [circa 1950?]. Vocal score. Though complete, this chorus of sixteen bars length is not included in any of the published versions of the opera.

5. ff. 15-16. Corrections for insertion in the full score of Symphony no. 9 in E minor, principally relating to the third and fourth movements; [1958]. The autograph full score is Add. 50384; see also Add. 50382.