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
VWL1110 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19361207 Dec 7 [1936]
VWL1111 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19361214 14 Dec 1936
VWL1112 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19361220 December 20 [1936]
VWL1113 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19361226 [26th December 1936]
VWL1114 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19361226 December 26 [1936?]
VWL1115 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ethel Colman 19361226 Dec 26: 1936
VWL1116 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19361231 Dec 31 [1936]
VWL1117 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19361231 [31 December 1936]
VWL1118 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19331025 [25 October l933]
VWL1119 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19331026 Oct 26 [1933]
VWL1120 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19331103 [3 November 1933]
VWL1121 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19331112 Nov 12 [1933]
VWL1122 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19340103 [3 January 1934]
VWL1123 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19331113 [13 November 1933]
VWL1124 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19331207 Dec 7 [1933]
VWL1125 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the BBC 19331214 Dec 14 [1933]
VWL1126 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19331215 Dec 15 [1933]
VWL1128 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19331215 [15 December 1933]
VWL1129 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19331226 Dec 26 [1933 ]
VWL1130 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 193309-- [late September 1933]
VWL1131 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 193310-- [about October 1933]
VWL1132 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 193312-- [December 1933]
VWL1133 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 193305-- [?May 1933]
VWL1134 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward Clark 19341011 Oct 11 [?1934]
VWL1135 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frederick Dwelly 1930---- [1930]
VWL1136 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Dearmer 1930---- [c.1930]
VWL1137 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 1929---- [?1929]
VWL1138 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19370123 [23rd January 1937]
VWL1139 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19370131 January 31 [1937]
VWL1140 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19370131 January 31 [1937].

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