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
VWL1656 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1657 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19420426 [26th April 1942]
VWL1658 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19420521 [21st May 1942]
VWL1659 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19420501 May 1 [1942]
VWL1660 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19420505 [5th May 1942]
VWL1661 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19420516 May 16 [1942]
VWL1662 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harold Child 19420518 May 18 [1942]
VWL1664 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1940 and 1946]
VWL1665 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1666 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946?]
VWL1667 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1668 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Blech 19420525 May 25 [1942]
VWL1669 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19420531 [31 May 1942]
VWL1670 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19420603 June 3rd, 1942
VWL1671 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Beryl Lock 19410627 June 27 [1941]
VWL1672 BBC internal memorandum from Kenneth A. Wright, BBC 19420629 29th June, 1942.
VWL1673 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eveline Reed 19420705 July 5 [1942]
VWL1674 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Beryl Lock 19420714 July 14 [1942]
VWL1675 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19420714 July 14 [1942]
VWL1676 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult (BBC) 19420715 July 15 [1942]
VWL1677 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Blech 19420728 July 28 [1942?]
VWL1678 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Chapman 19420728 [28 July 1942]
VWL1679 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19420809 Aug 9th [1942]
VWL1680 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ferdinand Rauter 19420816 Aug 16 [1942]
VWL1681 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19420825 Aug: 25 [1942]
VWL1682 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Reginald Thatcher (BBC) 19420825 Aug: 25. 1942.
VWL1683 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19420831 Aug 31 [1942]
VWL1684 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19420902 Sept 2 [1942]
VWL1685 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Calvocoressi 19420903 September 3rd 1942
VWL1686 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19420905 September 4th 1942.

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