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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.

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Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL5074 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Times 19360331 [Tuesday, 31 March 1936]
VWL5096 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Times 19551207 [Wednesday, 7 December, 1955]
VWL5259 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the editor of the Sunday Referee newspaper 19341002 [2 Oct 1934]
VWL1030 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Radio Times 19330106 6th January 1933
VWL1978 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Radio Times 19500716 July 16th 1950
VWL5129 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Penguin Magazine 1947---- [1947]
VWL3039 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Northern Echo 19551213 December 13th 1955.
VWL5040 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Musical Times 195501-- [January 1955]
VWL5059 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Musical Times 193504-- [April 1935]
VWL5104 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the editor of The Musical Times 19560201 [February, 1956]
VWL5109 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Morning Post 19031201 [1 December, 1903]
VWL5108 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Morning Post 19060828 August 28, 1906
VWL5105 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Morning Post 19040924 Sep 24 1904
VWL5106 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Morning Post 19031215 156 Dec. 1903
VWL5107 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Morning Post 19041008 Sunday 8 October, 1904
VWL5135 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Morning Post 19041004 4 October, 1904
VWL5132 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Listener 19350320 [20 March, 1935]
VWL5131 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Listener 19560809 [9 August, 1956]
VWL3340 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph 19580220 20th February 1958
VWL5134 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Daily Chronicle 19060526 Saturday 26 May, 1906
VWL2438 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Bournemouth Daily Echo. 19520624 [24th June 1952]
VWL1623 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the editor of Civil Liberty 19411231 Dec 31 1941
VWL1936 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of ‘Music & Letters’ 19441001 October 1st 1944
VWL4953 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Dean of Westminster Abbey 19571015 October 15th 1957.
VWL4964 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Covent Garden Opera Company 19510427 [late April 1951]
VWL1781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the conductors of the choirs of the Leith Hill Musical Festival 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL2974 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the conductors and the choirs of the Leith Hill Musical Festival 19490324 24th March, 1949.
VWL3445 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Committee of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust 19561029 October 29th 1956
VWL1912 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Churchwarden, Dorking Parish Church 19440504 May 4th 1944
VWL3187 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Choirmaster and members of the Budo Festival Choir 19550829 29 August 1955

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