Dearest Dave,

Alas, I can't do the Oxford thing with John Carol Case, as I've been in bed with jaundice for the last fortnight - and still am - and the doctor seems to think I won't be up to much for the rest of January. I'm so sorry, as otherwise it would have been fun to do the cycles with him. The jaundice is beginning to clear up; but it's famed for its depressing after-effects, and I still feel most appallingly wobbly. I phoned Herma Fiedler [secretary of the Oxford Music Club] last night to say regretfully that it was no go.

As to ‘early and late work'. I quite agree that the limitations of the former are often part of its strength; and I can see no harm in using-up self-contained slabs of old stuff, provided they are not mixed up with stuff of a much later vintage. When there issuch a mixture, difficulties start crowding in. The chief of these in your case, it seems to me, being the amount of time you have to spend tinkering at the old stuff in an attempt (unavailing) to make it fit with the new: time which, to my way of thinking, would be infinitely better employed on something wholly new - even if that were to mean jettisoning some of the old altogether. However, this is a very personal matter, and I don't think argument about it is of much avail: one either sees and agrees, or one disagrees. Having made the point, which has been weighing on me for some time, I shall forever hold my peace about it.

Love and all good wishes for you for 1954, from Howard.

Dearest Dave,

Very many thanks for the completion of the Christina Rossetti songs [by G.F.], which seem to me charming and beautifully adapted to their purpose. I particularly like the Lullaby one. It's good that they should be finally brought together under one publisher.

Quite recovered now from the boring after-effects of jaundice. The two middle movements of the Quartet [H.F.'s abortive string quartet] are finished, so the break doesn't seem to have stopped things entirely. But what a tedious waste of time!

Yfrah enjoyed his concert with you so much. I'm so glad it went off well and that the players liked him.