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Music Theory, History & Composition College of Visual & Performing Arts

9-2009 Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams 1895-1958, edited by Hugh Cobbe (review) Julian Onderdonk West Chester University of Pennsylvania, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Onderdonk, J. (2009). Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams 1895-1958, edited by Hugh Cobbe (review). Notes, Second Series, 66(1), 87-89. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/musichtc_facpub/34

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supplyshort, easy piano pieces; and that voice part-song.To us thesetend to sound the title "Impromptu"was provided by likeGerman barbershop quartets, but then the Viennese publisherHaslinger when theyhad verydifferent associations - with he published the firstset (D. 899) in the Burschenschaflen,the politically liberal December1827. and nationalistuniversity fraternities. What Finally,in a book on the "unknown" othervalence they may have had, and why Schubertit would have been nice to find theyappealed so stronglyto Schubert,re- somediscussion of thegenre of hiscompo- mains,mostly, unknown. sitionsmost frequently heard duringhis lifetimeby Viennese concert audiences and JohnM. Gingerich mostforeign to audiencestoday: the male- PeabodyInstitute COMPOSERS AND THEIR WRITINGS

Lettersof RalphVaughan Williams 1895-1958. Edited by Hugh Cobbe. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 2008. [xx, 679 p. ISBN-13: 9780199257973. $190.] Illustrations,music examples, bibliography, indexes.

This long-anticipatedvolume more than ers,artistic collaborators, folksong collect- meetsthe highexpectations that greet it. ing colleagues, performersof Vaughan For some twentyyears, Hugh Cobbe, for- Williams'smusic, composition students, old merhead ofmusic collections at theBritish universityfriends, editors at OxfordUni- Library,has been collecting,transcribing, versityPress, scholars and musicologists, and editing lettersto and from Ralph composercolleagues, family members, and VaughanWilliams. Enthusiasts of the com- of courseclose friends.In addition,there poser'smusic have been treatedto tantaliz- are lettersto newspaperslike TheTimes, The ing glimpsesof the projectin the formof Daily Telegraph,and The Musical Times,as progressreports, the occasionalpublished well as to functionariesand dignitariesat article,and (forthose bold enoughto con- theBBC, theLeith Hill MusicFestival, and tactthe editorprivately) a generousshar- variousuniversities. Perhaps most charm- ing of informationalong theway. The let- ing are the lettersto variousamateur per- ters' publicationafter so long a span is formersand enthusiasticmusic lovers, vari- thereforecause for much rejoicing- ous school children, and at least one especiallysince thejob has been so well autographhunter among them. done.The judicious selection of 757 letters, Most of the lettersincluded in the vol- theadmirable pacing of thebook, and the ume are publishedhere forthe firsttime. wonderfullyclarifying editorial commen- But becauseCobbe's statedgoal is to "pro- taryprovide the readerwith an unparal- videas fulla self-portraitofVW as possible" leled pictureof the composer'sworking (p. xiii), he purposelyinterleaves many new life. discoverieswith a sizablenumber of key let- Cobbe's spadeworkhas to thispoint un- terspreviously printed in one of threestan- coveredsome 3,300 letters - a numberthat dard referencebooks on the composer- represents,in his estimation,about twenty R. V. W.: A Biographyof Ralph Vaughan percentof the total that the composer Williamsby his second wifeUrsula (New probablywrote or dictatedover the course York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1964), of his lifetime.(While more surely remain Michael Kennedy's The Worksof Ralph to be discovered,these are likelyto be few VaughanWilliams (New York: Oxford Uni- in numberfor reasons Cobbe discussesin versityPress, 1964), and Heirsand Rebels his introduction.)The 757 lettersprinted (NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1959), here representbetween a quarterand a the volume of correspondencebetween fifthof theknown correspondence and in- VaughanWilliams and GustavHolst edited clude fascinatingletters to a widerange of by UrsulaVaughan Williams and Imogen correspondents.Among these are music Hoist.The strategypays off, not merelybe- critics,amateur conductors and perform- cause the editoris thusable to fillin the

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gaps and contextssurrounding specific representativesampling of lettersfrom all well-knownletters - the composer'snotori- partsof VaughanWilliams's career. Given ous 1941rebuke of theBBC fortheir ban- thatfully one thirdof the extant correspon- ningof the musicof the communistAlan dencedates from the last decade ofhis life, Bushis a stellarexample - butalso because whenhe wasvirtually a national institution, it is Cobbe's editorialpolicy to present Cobbe's balancedselection of materialis a these,and indeed all, lettersin unexpur- major accomplishment.Indeed, concern gatedand completeform. The resultscan forbalance partiallyaccounts for his deci- sometimesbe startling,as whenwe learnof sionto includesome thirty letters written to VaughanWilliams' s witheringopinion of VaughanWilliams by various friends and RutlandBoughton's Glastonbury Festival colleagues.John Ireland's reminiscences of (p. 110), or overhearthe otherwisesensi- studentdays, Hubert Parry'smisgivings tiveand socially-mindedcomposer employ about Vaughan Williams'sWorld War I a commonracial epithet to describeblack armyservice, Michael Tippett'sgratitude portersin 1920sNew York (p. 133). (Both forthe older composer's public defense of of theseexamples come fromexpurgated his conscientiousobjectionism - these and portions of lettersprinted previously.) otherletters, most written before the 1950s, Moreover,the reprinting of familiarletters contributematerially to the compositepic- allowsfor the chronologicaladjustment of ture.Cobbe also includesa smallhandful previouslymisdated letters and forthe fill- of lettersthat were neither written nor re- ing in of crucialbackground information ceivedby Vaughan Williams: most of these omitted by earlier editors. Vaughan involveUrsula Vaughan Williams, but they Williams'sletter of 20 March1932 to Hoist includeone remarkableOxford University (letterno. 211), reprintedfrom Heirs and Pressinternal memo from Norman Peter- Rebelsbut here givencomplete, is exem- kin to HumphreyMilford that contrasts plary:Cobbe's eight editorialfootnotes WilliamWalton's perceived cattiness with clarifyoblique referencesin the letterby Vaughan Williams'smore "gentlemanly" identifyingthe individualsand musical behavior.The documentis fascinatingin worksconcerned, explaining the financial showingthat the composer- describedby arrangementsfor Hoist's 1932 tourof the Peterkinas "lookingmore like an Ancient UnitedStates, and providinga thumbnail Britonthan ever" (p. 335)- wasalready, by historyof the GregynogMusic Festival and 1942, identifiedin the public mind with its founders, the Davies sisters. Such Englishnessitself. panoramiccommentary - extended to the In the main, the pictureof Vaughan newly-publishedletters as well- illuminates Williamsthat emerges from the lettersis detailsof VaughanWilliams's life and per- not markedlydifferent from prevailing sonality(Cobbe is particularlyadept at de- viewsof the composer.His advocacyof a codingthe composer'smany literary allu- national music, dedication to folksong, sions) and even makesthe book a kindof embraceof amateurmusic-making, love of informalhistory of the twentieth-centuryEnglish literature, encouragement of stu- Britishmusic scene. dents,financial support for fellow musi- Meticulousediting informs other fea- cians,social tactfulness,capacity for hard turesof thebook. Chief among these is the work- all ofthese well-known attributes are handlingof Vaughan Williams'snotori- broughtout witha wonderfulimmediacy. ouslybad handwritingand oftensloppy or- On the otherhand, certain letters empha- thography.Cobbe's elegant solutionhas sizeless-appreciated aspects of his personal- been silentlyto correctsmall errorsor itythat have importantramifications for omissions,and to leave untouchedthose our understandingof the composer. misspellingsor misstatementsthat "seem to Significanthere is correspondencedetail- contributeto the pen-picture"(p. 4), with inghis interest in contemporary(especially an occasionalsic to reassurethe reader that American)music and a life-longdevotion theselast are not undetectedmisprints. (A to the aestheticsand accomplishmentsof numberof the humorousdrawings the eighteenth-and nineteenth-centuryAustro- composersometimes included in his corre- Germanmusic. Other letters seem to reject spondenceare also reproduced.)No less conclusivelythe idea, recentlymuch de- challenginghas been theneed to providea bated, thathis Christianfaith was in any

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way active. The image of him as an refersto them in a footnote,Cobbe in- Establishmentinsider and operator,con- cludes none of the lettersfrom Maurice troversiallyforwarded by RobertStradling Ravel, and omits correspondencewith and Meirion Hughes (and interestingly CecilSharp that details Vaughan Williams's echoed by Walton in Peterkin'smemo importantqualifications of Sharp's some- cited above), is meanwhileneither con- timesextreme views on folksong'sorigin firmednor refuted.We overhearhim ex- and transmission.Certain items that call for pressingambivalence about self-promotion, explanation, notably the composer's butalso observehim contacting critics and grumpyletter (no. 377) to theeditor of the authorsabout his music and pullingstrings journal CivilLiberty, are strangelylacking in to get performancesby favoredstudents editorialcommentary. Doubdess thereare and performers.Even letterstouching on sound practicalreasons for some of these his politics(including much valuable new omissions- the lettersto Sharp,for one, sourcematerial) suggest that his views were are in the formof rathercryptic point- farless ideologicallyconsistent than has by-pointrejoinders to various books by been supposed,and wereoften driven by Sharpthat would have made forunwieldy practicalconcerns applied to each situation reading- and theyare in anyevent very few on a case-by-casebasis. in number.The overwhelmingevidence is Where the lettersare most valuable, thatthe editor has done a superlativejob in though,is in chartingthe daily activities of the face of a multiplicityof competingre- VaughanWilliams's working life. Business quirementsand limitations.By uncovering dealings,travels, work habits, performance muchfresh material, clarifying and correct- arrangements,publishing contracts, com- ingthe work of previous editors, and gener- mitteework - all thisand moreprovide un- ally bringingVaughan Williamsand his paralleledinsight into the everydaycon- worksvividly to life,Letters of Ralph Vaughan cernsof a majorartist. Such detailhelps us Williamsjoins thehandful of standard refer- to know the man and to sharpen our ence books thatare essentialreading to knowledgeof his music.Tracing precisely anyoneinterested in thiscomposer's music. when certain workswere written,per- Julian Onderdonk formedand revised,the letters materially WestChester University ofPennsylvania aid our reconstructionof the composi- tional historyof specificworks. In some cases, theyuncover possible connections between works- or between individual Camille Saint-Saëns on Music and works and larger social circumstances. Musicians.Edited and translatedby Gerald Finzi's suggestion,after the 1953 RogerNichols. New York: Oxford Uni- premiereof the massiveand opulently- versityPress, 2008. [xii, 187 p. ISBN- scored SinfoniaAntartica, that Vaughan 13: 9780195320169.$29.95.] Index. Williams'snext symphony"will probably be fora Haydn-Mozartorchestra, now that For itsjubilee year in 1893, the Cam- everyoneis expectingyou to get bigger bridgeMusic Society, under the direction and bigger"(p. 514) mayhave planteda of Sir CharlesVilliers Stanford, proposed seed thatresulted in thedecidedly smaller- awardinghonorary doctoral degrees to the scale EighthSymphony of 1956. Vaughan mostdistinguished composers of the era Williams's1941 commentto Tippettabout and invitingthem to Cambridgeto conduct the"peace of mind" that comes from doing theirworks. Johannes Brahms declined to "all thelittle jobs" requiredduring wartime attend (therebyalso decliningthe hon- (p. 329) suggestswhy he could continueto orarydegree) as he hated foreigntravel, writethe tranquilFifth Symphony, begun and GiuseppeVerdi excused himself due to in 1938,during this period, and raisesthe his age. Tchaikovskycame, as did Arrigo possibilitythat the work's unparalleled Boïto from Italy, Max Bruch from serenitywas in fact a response to his Germany,and Camille Saint-Saënsfrom wartimeexperiences. France.Historically the occasion provides There are some surprisingomissions us withan idea of who one augustgroup fromthe book, and occasionallapses from thoughtwere the greatestcomposers at its high editorialstandards. Though he theend of the nineteenthcentury. For the

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