Item 66 - Letter from Donald Tovey to R. C. Trevelyan

1 item

Hotel des Iles Britanniques, Aix-les-Bains. - Originally enclosing his draft of the new scene [in Act III of "The Bride of Dionysus"]. Will now orchestrate this; it is two thirds of the original length. Feels that now 'the broad-church-bishop calm of Dionysus will come to its proper effect' after the 'alarming impression of the Dionysiac frenzy'. Mona Benson's 'great moment of the closing of the gates in Act II' showed him that 'an unscored improvised yell' can sometimes be much better than any written music; cites 'the howling of Kundry' [in Wagner's "Parsifal"].