Dear Müller-Hartmann:
Letters from Ralph Vaughan Williams
to Robert MÜller-Hartmann
© Copyright 2009 by Steven K. White
by STEVEN K. WHITE
the RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS SOCIETY
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ISBN 978-0-578-03584-0
Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote these letters to fellow composer Robert Müller-Hartmann between 1938-1950. The two were first introduced by mutual friends Imogen Holst and Genia Hornstein through associations with the Bloomsbury House in London and the Dorking & District Refugee Committee. Müller-Hartmann was a Jewish German refugee who fled with his family to England in 1937 to escape Nazi oppression.
Over the next twelve years he and VaughanWilliams developed a strong friendship and Müller-Hartmann became an important collaborator with Vaughan Williams. The last project they worked on together was the German translation of Vaughan Williams’s life-long creative dream, his opera The Pilgrim’s Progress.
The letters give a rare glimpse into Vaughan Williams’s thoughts during these important times in his later years. Robert Müller-Hartmann was a significant composer in his own right but certainly remains under-recognized.