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
VWL1855 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush 19431206 Dec 6 [?1943]
VWL1854 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Zoltán Kodály 193311-- [November 1933]
VWL1853 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 1949080- [Early August 1949]
VWL1851 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194908-- Tuesday [mid-August 1949]
VWL1850 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 194907-- Sunday [late July 1949?]
VWL1849 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 194905-- [?May 1949]
VWL1848 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote 194904-- [?April 1949]
VWL1847 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 194807-- [About July 1948?]
VWL1846 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19440101 Jan 1/1944
VWL1844 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1943---- [1943]
VWL1843 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 194311-- [1943]
VWL1841 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 194303-- [March 1943]
VWL1840 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194303-- [March 1943]
VWL1839 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194303-- [March 1943]
VWL1838 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 194303-- Wednesday [March 1943]
VWL1836 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194801-- [January 1948]
VWL1835 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19441226 Dec 26 [1944]
VWL1834 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 194711-- [November 1947]
VWL1833 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frederick Page 19431225 Xmas Day [1943]
VWL1832 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 194711-- November, 1947.
VWL1830 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Benjamin 194711-- November, 1947
VWL1829 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 194711-- November, 1947
VWL1828 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 194711-- November, 1947
VWL1827 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194711-- November, 1947
VWL1826 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19431222 Dec 22 [1943]
VWL1825 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Clarence Raybould (BBC) 19431223 [23 December 1943]
VWL1823 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Geoffrey Bush 19431221 Dec 21st [1943]
VWL1822 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19431220 Dec 20 [?1943 ]
VWL1821 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Bliss (BBC) 19431215 Dec 15 [1943]
VWL1820 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vera Kantrovich 19431127 Nov 27 [1943]

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