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
VWL1870 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush 19450110 Jan 10 [1945]
VWL1871 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19450201 Feb 1 [1945]
VWL1872 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19450207 Feb 7 [1945]
VWL1873 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Henn Collins 19450211 Feb 11 [1945]
VWL1874 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E.J. Dent 19450216 Feb 16 [1945]
VWL1875 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eugene Kilinski 19450225 Feb 25 1945
VWL1876 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denys Kilham Roberts 19450304 4th March [1945]
VWL1877 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult (BBC) 19450305 March 5 [1945]
VWL1878 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19450314 14 March, 1945
VWL1879 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19450313 [13th March 1945]
VWL1880 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Rev. Leonard Starey 19450315 [c.15th March 1945]
VWL1881 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denys Kilham Roberts 19450617 June 17 [1945]
VWL1882 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19490317 March 17 [1949]
VWL1883 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19490328 Wednesday [?28 March 1949]
VWL1884 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19450401 April 1 [1945]
VWL1885 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denys Kilham Roberts 19450416 16th April [1945]
VWL1886 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denys Kilham Roberts 19450429 April 29 [1945]
VWL1887 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19450509 Wednesday [May 9 1945]
VWL1888 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lady Dorothea Croft 19450512 May 12 [1941-1945]
VWL1889 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19450514 May 14th 1945.
VWL1890 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19450519 May 19 [1945]
VWL1891 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19450525 May 25 [1945]
VWL1892 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank M. Flack 19521022 22nd. October, 1952
VWL1893 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19510707 Saturday [?7th July 1951]
VWL1894 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the University of St Andrews 19450720 July 20 1945
VWL1895 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19450720 July 20 [1945]
VWL1896 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19450721 July 21 [1945]
VWL1897 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19450725 July 25 [1945]
VWL1898 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19450728 July 28 [1945]
VWL1899 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19450729 [29th July 1945]

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