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
VWL2328 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lady Jessie Wood 19471015 15th October, 1947.
VWL2338 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19471015 15th October, 1947.
VWL2327 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19471014 Oct 14th [1947]
VWL2326 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19471013 [13th October 1947]
VWL4839 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Montgomery 19471008 8th October, 1947.
VWL3639 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19471008 8th October, 1947
VWL2325 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19471008 8th October, 1947
VWL3968 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanley Bate 19471007 7 Oct 1927
VWL5238 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19471006 6 Oct 1947
VWL2324 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19471004 Oct 4th 1947
VWL3684 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar 19471004 October 4th [1947?]
VWL2319 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert W. Fenn 19471001 1st October 1947
VWL2323 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Kenneth Wright 19471001 1st October, 1947.
VWL4058 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to R.S. Scragg 194710-- Tuesday [October 1947]
VWL1781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the conductors of the choirs of the Leith Hill Musical Festival 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL1782 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL3967 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peggy Glanville-Hicks 194710-- [1947?]
VWL4215 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Ivor Atkins 19470927 Sept 27 [1947]
VWL4527 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19470921 Sept 21 1947
VWL2318 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19470909 9th September, 1947.
VWL5146 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Janet Fraser 19470902 2nd September, 1947.
VWL4046 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Emily Kreibich 19470827 27th August, 1947.
VWL2317 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19470820 20th August, 1947.
VWL2342 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Lowe (BBC) 19470820 20th August, 1947.
VWL2316 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Lowe (BBC) 19470814 14th August, 1947.
VWL2315 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 19470814 14th August, 1947
VWL3641 Letter from Edmund Rubbra to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19470808 [8 August 1947]
VWL2312 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19470807 7th August, 1947
VWL2313 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 19470807 7th August, 1947
VWL3621 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19470807 7th August, 1947.

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