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
VWL5270 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Walford Davies 19221130 [late November 1922?]
VWL770 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav, Isobel and Imogen Holst, Vally Lasker and Nora Day 192210-- [?October 1922]
VWL771 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192210-- [October 1922]
VWL772 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192210-- [October 1922]
VWL775 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192210-- [October 1922]
VWL777 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 192210-- [Late 1922]
VWL763 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192209-- [Late 1922]
VWL503 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Daniel Gregory Mason 19220825 [25th August 1922]
VWL2182 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19220803 3/8/22
VWL501 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Scholes 19220713 July 13 [1922]
VWL500 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19220701 [1st July 1922]
VWL760 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker and Nora Day 192207-- July 1922
VWL499 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 19220630 30/6/22
VWL498 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19220627 [27th June 1922]
VWL497 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Carl Stoeckel 19220616 Friday [16th? June 1922]
VWL226 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19220605 [About 5th June 1922]
VWL496 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19220511 Thursday [11 May 1922]
VWL3154 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 19220412 12/4/22
VWL494 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 19220304 4/3/22
VWL490 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 19220202 2/2/22
VWL491 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19220202 2/2/22
VWL4611 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19220201 [1 Feb 1922]
VWL489 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19220129 [29th January 1922]
VWL487 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19220118 18/1/22
VWL759 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Scholes 192201-- [January 1922]
VWL4889 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 1922---- Monday [1922?]
VWL724 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Armstrong Gibbs 1922---- [Summer 1922]
VWL738 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 1922---- [1922?]
VWL3155 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 1922---- [1922, after April]
VWL4887 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 1922---- Wednesday [1922?]

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