RVW’s Letters

ABOUT THE LETTERS

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s correspondence - with his friends, family, pupils and fellow musicians - paints an intriguing portrait of the man, as well as providing fascinating insights into his major preoccupations: musical, personal and political.

The VWF database includes transcripts of over 5,000 items of annotated correspondence, fully indexed and searchable, which can all be read online. It includes all the letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams known to the editors and is an ongoing project. Find out more about the database.

The text of letters written by Ralph Vaughan Williams remains in the copyright of the Vaughan Williams Foundation and may not be further reproduced without the prior written consent of the Foundation.

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Featured Letter

from Vaughan Williams, Ralph, 1872-1958 to Taylor, Laurence

Letter No. VWL3199

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Laurence Taylor

Letter No.: VWL3199

From R. Vaughan Williams,
10, Hanover Terrace,
Regents Park,
London, N.W.1.

October 2nd 1955

Dear Mr Taylor1

My advice to you is as follows: – and I think it is the advice which would be given by any composer, whether they are bi-tonal, poly-tonal, or any other kind of tonal:-
You will not be wasting your time if, for a time you neglect free composition and make a thorough study of strict counterpoint, classical harmony, fugue and strict sonata form. You will then be fully equipped, your tools will be sharp and of tempered steel, ready for whatever use you wish to put them to.
I am glad you approve of the alteration of the last note in the slow movement of my number four. I had long felt that the original last note was wrong, and I fear I must confess, that I behaved like the lady in the Lost Chord, and tried out every possible note till I hit on the right one.
If you want to study books I suggest those written by R.O. Morris, Sixteenth Century Counterpoint – this of course is not a text book, but a treatise – published by Macmillan, but you will found2 excellent text books on harmony, counterpoint and form by him and H.K. Andrews published by Oxford University Press. There is a tendency at present to dispise3 Cherubini; I entirely disagree, I think every composer ought to go right through him.
Yours sincerely

R. Vaughan Williams

1. A young American composition student who had written to VW asking for guidance and encouragement. He gives an account of the circumstances of this letter and of a visit to the VWs in August 1958, a week before the composer’s death, in ‘RVW remembered: an afternoon with Ralph Vaughan Williams’, Journal of the RVW Society, xv (June 1999), p.7.
2. sic.
3. sic.

Back to all letters

A teacher's advice is not meant to be taken like a Pill but thought about & then: 1) adopted, or (2) rejected, or (perhaps best of all) (3) a 3rd course suggests itself from thinking the matter over.

RVW letter to GRACE WILLIAMS 1920

New York on the 26th, lecture at Yale on the 1st. Sail on the 4th. Ralph is terrifically well and bouncy and THRIVES on milkshakes and butterscotch sundaes.

UVW letter from New York to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 1954

Most of Stravinsky bores me. I wish he even shocked me: especially the Rite of Spring...but I do like Symphony of Psalms, Les Noces, and the Suite for Violin and Pianoforte, of which I once heard a record under very peculiar circumstances, of which I will tell you one day.

RVW letter to MICHAEL KENNEDY 1957

You have never lost your invention but it has not developed enough.  Your best – your most original and beautiful style or ‘atmosphere’ is an indescribable sort of feeling as if one was listening to very lovely lyrical poetry.

GUSTAV HOLST letter to RVW 1903