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
VWL557 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19240605 [c. September 1924]
VWL789 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 192406-- [?Mid 1924]
VWL566 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Humphrey Proctor-Gregg 192406-- [June 1924]
VWL788 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 192405-- [Before 5th June 1924]
VWL5283 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Grainger 19240424 [24 April 1924]
VWL544 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Daniel Gregory Mason 19240424 24/4/24
VWL786 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 192404-- [April 1924]
VWL787 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 192404-- April, 1924
VWL543 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams 19240322 22/3/24
VWL784 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Kenneth Curwen 192403-- Sunday [about March 1924]
VWL541 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19240203 3 Feb 1924
VWL4083 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19240103 [?3 January, 1924]
VWL581 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert F. McEwen 1924---- [? 1924]
VWL539 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19231231 Dec 31.[1923]
VWL538 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19231215 15/12/23
VWL5213 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 19231210 Monday [10 December 1923]
VWL3930 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Philip Heseltine 192312-- [December 1923]
VWL312 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19231117 17/11/23
VWL536 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Lock Burnaby 19231117 17/11/23
VWL535 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boris Ord 19231104 4.11.23
VWL780 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 192311-- [?Late 1923]
VWL534 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19231021 21/10/23
VWL4547 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to a representative of the British Legion 19231019 October 19 [1923]
VWL4089 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Shaw 19231011 11, 10, 23
VWL4885 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19230915 [mid-September 1923]
VWL519 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19230830 [30th August 1923]
VWL4967 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth 19230829 29/8/23
VWL518 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 19230723 27/7/23
VWL517 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 19230610 [About 10 June 1923]
VWL3159 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 192306-- [June 1923]

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