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
VWL5276 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Carter 19480801 Aug 1st 1948
VWL3673 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar 194808-- [August 1948]
VWL2780 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19480729 29th July, 1948.
VWL5130 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Carter 19480729 29th July, 1948.
VWL2779 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19480723 23rd July, 1948.
VWL2778 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19480716 July 16 [1948]
VWL3121 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Arthur Congreve 19480716 16th July, 1948
VWL4105 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19480716 16th July, 1948.
VWL2777 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Benjamin 19480716 16th July, 1948.
VWL2776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19480715 15th July, 1948
VWL2775 Letter from Alan Frank (OUP) to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19480712 12th July l948
VWL3861 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19480708 8th July, 1948.
VWL2774 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19480708 8th July, 1948.
VWL4106 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19480708 8th July, 1948.
VWL4361 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Mary Watts 19480702 July 2 [1948]
VWL3970 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peggy Glanville-Hicks 194807-- Sunday [July 1948]
VWL1847 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 194807-- [About July 1948?]
VWL2773 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19480624 24th June, 1948.
VWL2772 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 19480624 24th June, 1948.
VWL2771 Letter from from Ernest Irving to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19480621 21st June, 1948
VWL2769 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19480617 17th June, 1948.
VWL2770 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19480617 17th June, 1948.
VWL2768 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19480610 10th June, 1948.
VWL2767 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19480610 10th June, 1948.
VWL2766 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19480605 June 5 [?1948]
VWL2765 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19480603 3rd June, 1948.
VWL5250 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19480603 3rd June 1948
VWL3884 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19480601 June 1st [1948]
VWL2905 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19480529 May 29 [1948?]
VWL4682 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19480525 Thursday [May 25 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