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.

Searching:
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
VWL2935 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19481216 16th December, 1948.
VWL2936 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19481216 16th December, 1948.
VWL3618 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19481216 16th December 1948
VWL2934 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19481216 16th December, 1948
VWL2932 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sidney P. Waddington 19481215 Dec 15 [1948]
VWL2933 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19481215 15 January, 1948
VWL2931 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19481211 Dec 11 [1948]
VWL2856 Letter from Adrian Boult to Alan Frank (OUP) 19481210 10 December 1948
VWL2854 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19481208 8th December, 1948.
VWL2855 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19481208 8th December, 1948.
VWL4653 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19481208 8th December, 1948.
VWL4875 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Clive Carey 19481205 December 5 [1948]
VWL2853 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19481124 [24 Nov 1948]
VWL2852 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eric Walter White 19481124 24th November, 1948.
VWL5188 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Johannesburg City Orchestra 19481118 18th November 1948
VWL2851 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eric Walter White 19481118 18th November, 1948.
VWL2850 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eric Walter White 19481104 4th November, 1948.
VWL2849 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19481104 4th November, 1948.
VWL3051 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor Arthur Hutchings 19481029 October 29 [1948]
VWL2848 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19481026 Tuesday [26 October 1948]
VWL2839 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19481026 Oct 26th [1948]
VWL2838 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19481022 Oct 22/48
VWL2837 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Hamber 19481020 20th October, 1948.
VWL2835 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Young 19481020 20th October, 1948.
VWL2836 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Derek G. Smith 19481020 20th October, 1948.
VWL5282 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Carter 19481017 [17 October 1948]
VWL2915 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Müller-Hartmann and Hornstein families 19481016 Oct 16 [about 1948?]
VWL5252 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19481014 14th October, 1948.
VWL2810 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19481014 Oct 14 [1948]
VWL2833 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19481014 14th October, 1948.

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