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
VWL4646 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 194903-- [March 1953]
VWL4027 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19480108 [8 January 1948]
VWL5247 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19470711 July 11 1947
VWL2181 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19470513 [13th May 1947]
VWL4556 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19470513 13 May, 1947
VWL4329 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19470513 13 May 1947
VWL1193 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Chapman 19470325 [25 March, 1947]
VWL2100 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460925 [25th September 1946]
VWL841 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Chapman 19450210 Feb 10 [1945]
VWL1935 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19440925 [25th September 1944]
VWL4072 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Piper 19440921 21 Sept 1944
VWL5196 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19440802 Aug 2d [1944]
VWL1912 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Churchwarden, Dorking Parish Church 19440504 May 4th 1944
VWL1663 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19420520 [20 May 1942]
VWL1632 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19420211 Feb 11 [1942]
VWL4021 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19420101 [early January 1942]
VWL4669 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19411127 Nov 27 [1941]
VWL4782 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Boyd Neel 19401106 Nov 6 [1940]
VWL685 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 193910-- [Autumn 1939]
VWL5195 Letter from Adrian Boult to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19390320 20 March 1939
VWL779 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19350911 Sep 11 [1935]
VWL4610 Letter from Patrick Hadley and Henry Balfour Gardiner to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19350412 12 April 1935
VWL1127 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19331215 [15th December 1933]
VWL1047 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19330223 Feb 23 [1933]
VWL4823 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19321225 Xmas 1932
VWL1025 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19321202 Dec 2 [1932]
VWL3785 Letter from Dorothy Davison and Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19321201 1 Dec [1932]
VWL1014 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19320922 [22 September, 1932]
VWL1012 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19320921 [21 September 1932]
VWL1007 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19320824 Wednesday [24th August 1932]

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