Irish composer, conductor, pianist, and organist (1879-1941). Two ALSs, totaling six pages on three sheets, 4.5 x 7, March-April 1935, both to fellow composer Ernest John Moeran. Harty had commissioned a symphony from Moeran in 1926, which ultimately became his Symphony in G minor, finally finished in 1937; in these letters, Harty makes frequent mention of the project, an alludes to others involved in British classical music like Ralph Vaughan Williams and Adrian Boult. The first, March 29, 1935, in part: "Robert Nichols was here today and gave me your address…He spoke of your symphony—as being partly completed. This was good news, and I am looking forward so greatly to seeing the work finally completed, with the orch...and the score lying between us as we discuss various points of interpretation! Good luck to your pen, and may this summer bring you the necessary inspiration and lucky moods for work so that the symphony may be finished."
The second, which features a musical quotation near its conclusion, April 19, 1935, in part: "Thanks so much for the gift of those two pieces for small orchestra. I am glad to possess some autograph music of yours, and will place the score with the few pieces which I keep in a special place, and regard as particularly my own…I admired the strength and vitality of the V. Williams symphony, it is hugely powerful and I think, a very important work. I don't know that it struck me as a work that will live, and it is rather hard to explain why. Perhaps it is that its brutal strength and blind vitality seems to be balanced only by moods of philosophic musing—not quite completely human. But it is a big effort and I have plenty of sincere admiration for it. I thought it seemed a first class performance and that Boult did the composer proud. I will not worry you by inquiries about your symphony—for I know quite well that you are at least equally anxious for its completion." In fine condition.
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