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
VWL1399 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400313 March 13 [1940?]
VWL3633 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 19400312 March 12 [early 1940s]
VWL4179 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 19400308 March 8, [ca 1940]
VWL4386 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evangeline Farrer 19400303 March 3 [1940]
VWL5258 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Abraham 19400303 March 3 [1940]
VWL1398 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell 19400303 March 3rd [1940]
VWL1390 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 19400225 Feb 25 [1940]
VWL4180 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 19400225 Feb 25 [ca 1940]
VWL4222 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Newman 19400223 Feb 23rd [1940]
VWL1397 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joyce Gayford 19400222 Feb 22nd [1940]
VWL1396 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19400216 Feb 16 [c1940?]
VWL1389 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400215 [15th February 1940]
VWL1395 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denis Dowling 19400215 Feb 15 [1940]
VWL1385 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Newman 19400214 Feb 14 [1940]
VWL4387 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evangeline Farrer 19400209 Feb 9 [1940]
VWL4388 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evangeline Farrer 19400208 Feb 8 [1940]
VWL1384 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Janet Fraser 19400205 Feb 5 [1940]
VWL1383 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denis Dowling 19400205 Feb 5th [1940]
VWL1485 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400203 [3 February 1940]
VWL1382 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19400202 Feb 2 [1940]
VWL4100 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Canon Briggs 19400201 Feb 1st [1940]
VWL4647 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 194002-- [Feb 1940]
VWL1380 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Armstrong Gibbs 19400130 [30th January 1940]
VWL1379 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19400127 Jan 27 [1940]
VWL1376 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19400125 Jan 25 [1940]
VWL1373 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400125 Jan 25 [1940]
VWL1361 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell 19400123 Jan 23 [1940]
VWL4018 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19400121 [21 January 1940]
VWL1364 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell 19400120 Jan 20 [1940]
VWL1359 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19400120 Jan 20 [1940]

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