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
VWL5089 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 194----- Jan 21 [1940s?]
VWL3938 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Frederick McCleary 194----- Oct 14 [1940s?]
VWL3944 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Frederick McCleary 194----- Oct 19 [1940s?]
VWL3637 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Kathleen Merritt 194---- [late 1940s?]
VWL1227 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19391231 Dec 31st [1939]
VWL1226 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19391231 Dec 31 [1939]
VWL1228 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391226 Dec 26 [1939]
VWL4015 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19391226 Dec 26 1939
VWL1230 Telegram from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elisabeth Lutyens 19391213 13 Dec 39
VWL1229 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elisabeth Lutyens 19391213 [13 December 1939]
VWL1646 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell (BBC) 19391211 Dec 11 [1939]
VWL1645 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rosamund Gotch 19391210 Dec 10 [??1939]
VWL4432 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marie Stopes 19391208 December 8 [1939]
VWL4739 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 19391206 Dec 6th [1939]
VWL687 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 193912-- [Christmas 1939?]
VWL1644 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391129 [29th November 1939]
VWL1642 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19391128 Nov 28 [1939]
VWL1639 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19391126 Nov 26 [probably 1939]
VWL3940 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fiona McCleary 19391120 Nov 20 [1939]
VWL5273 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William James Shergold 19391109 Nov 9th [1939]
VWL1638 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391107 [7th November 1939]
VWL1622 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19391106 [Early November 1939]
VWL1621 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elisabeth Lutyens 19391106 Nov 6 [1939]
VWL686 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193911-- [November 1939]
VWL1620 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Adrian Boult 19391031 [October 31 1939]
VWL3885 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19391028 [late October 1939]
VWL1619 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss M. Goodchild 19391025 Oct 25 [1939]
VWL1618 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Adrian Boult (BBC) 19391024 Oct 24 [1939]
VWL1616 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391019 19th October [1939]
VWL1617 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell (BBC) 19391019 Oct 19 [1939]

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