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
VWL4067 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Piper 194204-- [April] 1942
VWL1640 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Amy Spurgeon 19420330 [30 March 1942]
VWL112 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Humphrey Milford 19420323 March 23 1942
VWL1637 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Bliss (BBC) 19420322 March 22 [1942]
VWL1636 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Tippett 19420321 March 21 [1942?]
VWL3779 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Humphrey Milford 19420311 March 11 [1942]
VWL1633 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19420308 [About 8th March 1942]
VWL4031 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams seeking funds for Dorking and Leith Hill Preservation Society 19420305 March 3rd [1942]
VWL3672 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar 194203-- [About March 1942]
VWL5203 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to David Griffiths 19420214 Feb 14 [1942]
VWL1631 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Bax 19420205 [About 5th February 1942]
VWL1630 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 19420126 Jan 26 [1942]
VWL1732 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Isaacs 19420111 Jan 11th 1942
VWL1627 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 19420111 Jan 11 1942
VWL4024 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19420111 Jan 11th 1942
VWL1626 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19420104 Jan. 4th [1942]
VWL1625 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adine O’Neill 19420104 Jan 4 1942
VWL2869 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19420101 Jan 1st [1942]
VWL4021 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19420101 [early January 1942]
VWL1634 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 194201-- [January 1942]
VWL2893 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 1942---- [1942-1944?]
VWL4501 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 1942---- [1942]
VWL2894 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 1942---- Oct 16 [?1942-1944]
VWL4573 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Schneeweiss 1942---- Sept 28 [1942]
VWL4574 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dr Schneeweiss 1942---- Oct 18 [1942?]
VWL4037 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lewis Crow 1942---- [about 1942]
VWL4070 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Piper 1942---- [1942]
VWL1623 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the editor of Civil Liberty 19411231 Dec 31 1941
VWL1615 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adine O’Neill 19411228 Dec 28 1941
VWL1613 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19411226 Christmas [1941]

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