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.

Searching:
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
VWL1455 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19390106 Jan 6 [?1939]
VWL4549 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 19390104 Jan 4, 1939
VWL1454 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush 19390101 Jan 1 [1939]
VWL1453 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19390101 Jan 1st 1939
VWL653 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193901-- [January, 1939]
VWL654 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193901-- [January 1939]
VWL526 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1939---- [late 1939]
VWL527 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 1939---- [1939?]
VWL529 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dora Knatchbull 1939---- [ca 1939]
VWL4910 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1939---- [1939?]
VWL4466 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Howes 1939---- Tuesday [1939?]
VWL4740 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 1939---- [1939]
VWL528 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 1939---- Sunday [?1939]
VWL1452 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Geoffrey Bush 19381227 Dec 27th [1938]
VWL1451 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19381226 Dec 26 [?1938]
VWL4860 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19381220 Dec 20 [1938]
VWL3025 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Everett Helm 19381212 [12 Dec 1938]
VWL1449 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19381211 [11th December 1938]
VWL1448 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Donald Francis Tovey 19381210 Dec 10 [1938]
VWL1447 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19381201 Dec 1st [1938 or earlier?]
VWL4104 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 193812-- Dec. [1938?]
VWL4900 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 193812-- [December 1938]
VWL4103 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 19381129 Nov 29 [1938?]
VWL5050 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Chapman 19381124 Nov 24 [1938?]
VWL1445 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19381122 November 22 [1938]
VWL1444 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Newman 19381120 Nov 20th [1938]
VWL4638 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor Hermann Fiedler 19381119 Nov 19 [1938]
VWL5044 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams and many others to the Editor of The Times 19381118 18 November [1939]
VWL1443 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Townsend 19381118 [About 18th November 1938]
VWL1409 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Graham Steed 19381118 [18th November 1938]

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