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
VWL4654 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19481014 Oct 14 [1948]
VWL3753 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorking Madrigal Society 19481014 14th October, 1948.
VWL2809 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker and others 19481014 14th October, 1948
VWL2834 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19481014 14th December [i.e. October], 1948.
VWL5255 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Beatrice Harrison 19481014 14 October, 1948.
VWL4284 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Richmond 19481014 14th October, 1948.
VWL2806 Letter from Genia Hornstein to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19481011 11.X.48
VWL2805 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19481007 7th October, 1948.
VWL4714 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Field-Hyde 194810-- [October 1948]
VWL4717 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Malcolm Sargent 19480930 30th September, 1948.
VWL2804 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19480930 30th September, 1948.
VWL2803 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19480927 Sept 27 [1948?]
VWL2906 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19480927 Sep 27 [1948? or later]
VWL3619 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19480923 23rd September, 1948.
VWL2801 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19480919 Sunday [19th September 1948]
VWL2792 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19480915 Sept 15 1948
VWL1961 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19480911 Septr 11 [1948]
VWL4362 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19480907 September 7 [1948]
VWL2791 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to T. Tertius Noble 19480904 4th September, 1948
VWL2790 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19480828 Aug 28 [1948]
VWL4217 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Ivor Atkins 19480822 Aug 22 [1948]
VWL5126 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Serge Koussevitsky 19480819 19th August 1948.
VWL2782 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Benjamin 19480819 19th August, 1948.
VWL2784 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19480812 12th August, 1948.
VWL5010 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19480812 12th August, 1948.
VWL2785 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Steuart Wilson (BBC) 19480812 12th August, 1948.
VWL5125 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Serge Koussevitsky 19480812 12th August, 1948.
VWL2783 Letter from Serge Koussevitzky to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19480810 August 10, 1948
VWL5277 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Carter 19480805 5th August, 1948.
VWL2781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19480805 5th August, 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