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
VWL2503 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eugene Goossens 19521017 Oct 17 [1952]
VWL3991 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alexander Burnard 19521016 Oct 16 [1952]
VWL2500 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John and Evelyn Barbirolli 19521015 Oct 15 [1952]
VWL3852 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19521015 15th October, 1952.
VWL2499 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19521015 Oct 15 [1952]
VWL3634 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Hurd 19521015 Oct 15th [1952]
VWL4731 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Dickinson 19521015 Oct 15 [1952]
VWL2498 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19521015 Oct 15 [1952?]
VWL4832 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Clive Carey 19521015 [ca 15 October, 1952]
VWL2495 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19521014 October 14th 1952
VWL4292 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Walter and Edith Stanton 19521014 October 14th 1952.
VWL5114 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Olga Koussevitsky 19521014 October 14th 1952.
VWL2493 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19521014 October 14th 1952
VWL2920 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rebecca Müller-Hartmann 19521014 14 Oct 1952
VWL2489 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald and Joy Finzi 19521014 October 14th 1952.
VWL2494 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19521014 Oct 14 [1942]
VWL2496 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19521014 October 14th 1952.
VWL2488 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19521013 October 13th 1952.
VWL4347 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Sheppard 19521013 October 13 1952.
VWL4769 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher Shaw 19521012 October 12th, 1952
VWL2487 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19521012 October 12th, 1952
VWL4921 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fiona McCleary 19521012 [12 October 1952]
VWL4164 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19521008 8th October, 1952.
VWL2481 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19521008 8th October, 1952
VWL2479 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Ireland 19521005 Oct 5th [1952]
VWL2476 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19521001 1st October 1952
VWL2478 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19521001 1st October, 1952.
VWL5222 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John O’Brien 19521001 1st October 1952
VWL4272 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eva Hornstein 195210-- [October, about 1952]
VWL4662 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Charterhouse School 195210-- [1952?]

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