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
VWL1536 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19410516 [16th May 1941]
VWL4509 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 19410515 May 15 [1941?]
VWL1535 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19410511 Sunday [11th May 1941]
VWL1534 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19410508 8.5.41
VWL1533 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19410504 Sunday [4th May 1941]
VWL1532 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herwald Ramsbotham 19410501 May 1st 1941
VWL4508 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19410428 April 28 [1941?]
VWL1531 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19410408 [8 April 1941]
VWL1530 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19410407 April 7 [1941]
VWL5245 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19410402 April 2 1941
VWL1529 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Myfanwy Jones 19410331 March 31 [1941]
VWL5133 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Times 19410315 15 March, 1941
VWL1528 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19410315 [Mid March 1941]
VWL5087 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 19410310 March 10 [1941]
VWL1526 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to BBC Director General 19410309 March 9 [1941]
VWL1504 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194103-- [March 1941]
VWL3671 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar 194103-- Sunday [about March or April 1941]
VWL1525 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19410225 Sat. [25th February 1941]
VWL1521 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19410216 February 16th [1941]
VWL4507 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19410211 Feb 11 [1941?]
VWL3844 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Olin Downes 19410124 [24 January, 1941]
VWL1520 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19410118 Jan 18 [1941]
VWL5257 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Abraham 19410113 January 13, 1941
VWL4915 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified person 19410102 [Jan 2nd 1941]
VWL4912 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 194101-- [January 1941?]
VWL4511 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 1941---- [1941?]
VWL1548 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 1941---- [War years - ?1941]
VWL4071 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Piper 1941---- [1941?]
VWL5165 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Reading Choral Society, Pennsylvania 1941---- [late 1941?]
VWL2868 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 1941---- [before Dec 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