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
VWL4550 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dante Pilara 19490608 8th June, 1949.
VWL3020 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19490605 June 5/49
VWL3731 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19490605 June 5 [1949]
VWL4631 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.R. Fell 19490604 June 4 [1949]
VWL3019 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490604 June 4 [1949]
VWL3002 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Butterworth 19490525 25th May, 1949
VWL3003 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19490525 25th May, 1949.
VWL4578 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Macaulay Trevelyan 19490525 25th May, 1949.
VWL4049 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Clarice Newbery 19490516 May 16 [1949]
VWL3001 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490511 11th May, 1949.
VWL4935 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19490511 May 11 [1949]
VWL3000 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19490511 11th May, 1949.
VWL5128 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Serge Koussevitsky 19490508 May 8th [1949?]
VWL2999 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19490505 5th May, 1949.
VWL4652 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19490501 May 1st [1949]
VWL1849 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 194905-- [?May 1949]
VWL5038 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19490429 [29 April 1949]
VWL2985 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Young 19490428 28th April, 1949
VWL2986 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19490428 28th April, l949.
VWL2987 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490428 28th April, 1949.
VWL4323 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Thomas Beecham 19490428 28th April, 1949.
VWL4125 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 19490420 20th April, 1949.
VWL2984 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19490419 April 19th, 1949
VWL5111 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frits Stegmann 19490413 13th April, 1949.
VWL2983 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490413 13th April, 1949.
VWL2982 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19490406 6th April, 1949.
VWL2981 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to J.M. Martin 19490406 6th April, 1949
VWL1848 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote 194904-- [?April 1949]
VWL2980 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490331 March 31 1949
VWL2979 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490330 30th March, 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