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
VWL4840 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Bernard Van Dieren 1927---- [1927?]
VWL741 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Fletcher 1927---- [1927?]
VWL4797 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1927---- [1927?]
VWL4798 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1927---- [1927?]
VWL2660 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Elwes 1927---- [1927]
VWL613 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Fly 19261217 [17th December 1926]
VWL4790 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19261116 [16 November 1926]
VWL4131 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 19261108 Nov 8 [1926?]
VWL611 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Fly 192611-- [November 1926]
VWL610 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19261013 Oct. 13th 26
VWL3246 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19260910 Friday September 10 [1926]
VWL2577 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19260906 6 Sep 1926
VWL737 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 192608-- [16 August 1926]
VWL580 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Blackwood McEwen 19260729 [29th July l926]
VWL4892 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Fletcher 19260720 July 20 [1927]
VWL632 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19260701 July 1 [1926]
VWL4994 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Boosey 19260629 June 29 [1926]
VWL608 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Bach Choir 19260612 [About 12th June 1926]
VWL4927 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Dexter Truscott 192606-- June 1926
VWL605 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Lock Burnaby 19260527 May 27 [1926]
VWL4008 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19260521 May 21 [1926]
VWL604 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19260503 May 3 [1926]
VWL794 Memorandum on the General Strike by Ralph Vaughan Williams 192605-- [May 1926]
VWL4174 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ivor Atkins 19260418 April 18 [1926]
VWL4175 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ivor Atkins 192604-- [April? 1926]
VWL4761 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 192604-- [April, 1926?]
VWL4173 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ivor Atkins 192604-- [April? 1926]
VWL603 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Fly 19260328 March 28 [1926]
VWL4172 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ivor Atkins 192603-- [March? 1926]
VWL600 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louise Alvar 19260219 Feb 19 [1926]

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