Search the letters

The Vaughan Williams Foundation has made over 5000 items freely available: chiefly letters from Ralph Vaughan Williams, but including some responses which shed light on the subject matter, and also a number of letters from Adeline and Ursula Vaughan Williams. These provide further information and often include messages or observations from Ralph, and there are also letters from Adeline and Ursula written on behalf of the couple. The text of letters written by RVW and UVW remain the copyright of the Foundation.

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The letters are in tabular form and can be sorted by column, or filtered by any keyword including name, musical title, year or subject (singly or in combination). Partial matches will also be found, e.g. searching “sky” will also find “Stravinsky”. To search for a phrase use inverted commas, e.g. “New York”.

To search by letter number, include the prefix VWL, e.g. VWL123.

Filter letters

Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL2068 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank 19500719 19th July 1950.
VWL2067 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Headmaster, Charterhouse School 19500719 19th July, 1950.
VWL2066 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19500719 19th July 1950
VWL2065 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19500716 [July 16th, 1950?]
VWL1978 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Radio Times 19500716 July 16th 1950
VWL2018 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to James McKay Martin 19500712 12th July, 1950
VWL2050 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19500712 12th July, 1950.
VWL2049 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19500712 12th July, 1950.
VWL3796 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guy Oldham 19500711 July 11 [1950]
VWL2014 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19500705 5th July, 1950.
VWL2016 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19500705 5th July, 1950
VWL2017 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to R.L. Eastwood 19500705 5th July, 1950.
VWL3795 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guy Oldham 19500702 2 July 1950
VWL2059 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote 195007-- [About July 1950]
VWL5003 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harold Brooke at Novello & Co. 19500628 28th June, 1950.
VWL2008 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19500628 28th June, 1950.
VWL2010 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19500628 28th June, 1950.
VWL2004 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19500622 22nd. June, 1950
VWL2005 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19500622 22nd. June, 1950.
VWL2003 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank 19500620 [About 20th June 1950]
VWL3794 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guy Oldham 19500620 June 20 [1950]
VWL2002 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19500614 14th June, 1950
VWL5281 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Charles H. Moody 19500614 14th June, 1950
VWL2001 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Bruce Flegg 19500614 14 June, 1950.
VWL3793 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guy Oldham 19500607 7th June, 1950.
VWL2000 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19500603 June 3 [1950]
VWL1999 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19500531 31st. May, 1950.
VWL1996 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19500524 24th May 1950.
VWL1997 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19500524 24th May, 1950
VWL1995 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19500524 24th May, 1950

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

He was one of the most 'complete' men I have ever known. He loved life, he loved work and his interest in all music was unquenchable and insatiable.

SIR JOHN BARBIROLLI, conductor

I was thunderstruck by the symphony last night - and hadn't expected to be. Jagged, pulsating and angry, from that very first clanging dissonance - how can it have come from the same source as the Tallis Fantasia?

AUDIENCE MEMBER, Newbury Festival