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
VWL2240 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19510520 [20 May 1951]
VWL2241 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Young 19510520 [20th May 1951]
VWL2242 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19510520 20 May 1951
VWL2244 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19510521 [21 May 1951]
VWL2247 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19510521 21st May 1951
VWL2258 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19510624 [24th June 1951]
VWL2276 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19511003 [3 October 1951]
VWL2321 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19511206 [6th December 1951]
VWL2341 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dr Ferdinand Rauter 19510515 [ca 15 May 1951]
VWL2487 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19521012 October 12th, 1952
VWL2577 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19260906 6 Sep 1926
VWL2629 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald and Joy Finzi 19530201 [1st February 1953]
VWL2632 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19530201 [1st February 1953]
VWL2634 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice and Herbert Sumsion 19530201 [1 February 1953]
VWL2643 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19530206 [6 February 1953]
VWL2717 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19530912 [12th September 1953]
VWL2756 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19540122 22nd [January 1954]
VWL2789 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19540221 [21 February 1954]
VWL2815 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19540503 [3 May 1954]
VWL2826 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19540604 [4 June 1954]
VWL2879 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19541020 Oct 20, 1954
VWL2917 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rebecca Müller-Hartmann 19510512 12 May 1951
VWL2919 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rebecca Müller-Hartmann 19520918 18 Sep 1952
VWL2923 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hiromichi Koike 19531208 December 8th 1953 
VWL3045 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Parry Jones 19510513 13 May 1951
VWL3084 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19550424 [24 April 1955]
VWL3115 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19541225 Xmas 1954
VWL3126 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19510521 [21 May 1951]
VWL3132 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19491018 Tuesday [18th October 1949]
VWL3150 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19490909 [9th September 1949]

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