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
VWL2037 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 19460504 May 4 [1946?]
VWL2038 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460505 May 5 [1946]
VWL2039 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Isaacs (BBC) 19460505 May 5th 1946.
VWL2040 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19460528 May 28 [1946]
VWL2043 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to H. Raymond Barnett 19460620 June 20 [?1946]
VWL2044 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460704 July 4 [1946?]
VWL2045 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460704 July 4 [1946?]
VWL2046 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460715 July 15 [?1946]
VWL2047 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19460730 Monday [30th July 1946]
VWL2048 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19460803 Aug 3 [1946]
VWL2049 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19500712 12th July, 1950.
VWL2050 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19500712 12th July, 1950.
VWL2051 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Wallis 1950---- [c.1950?]
VWL2052 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 1950---- Tuesday [?about 1950]
VWL2053 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510717 [17 July 1951]
VWL2054 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to James McKay Martin 1957---- [1957]
VWL2055 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the performers in the Leith Hill Musical Festival of 1950 195004-- [April/May 1950]
VWL2056 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460803 Aug 3. [1946]
VWL2057 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 19460824 Aug 24 [?1946]
VWL2058 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19460824 Aug 24 [1946]
VWL2059 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote 195007-- [About July 1950]
VWL2060 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 195012-- [December 1950?]
VWL2061 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank 195011-- [November 1950]
VWL2062 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 195012-- [?December, 1950]
VWL2063 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 195012-- [?December, 1950]
VWL2065 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19500716 [July 16th, 1950?]
VWL2066 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19500719 19th July 1950
VWL2067 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Headmaster, Charterhouse School 19500719 19th July, 1950.
VWL2068 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank 19500719 19th July 1950.
VWL2069 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19500726 26th July, 1950

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