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
VWL500 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19220701 [1st July 1922]
VWL499 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 19220630 30/6/22
VWL498 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19220627 [27th June 1922]
VWL497 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Carl Stoeckel 19220616 Friday [16th? June 1922]
VWL496 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19220511 Thursday [11 May 1922]
VWL494 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 19220304 4/3/22
VWL491 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19220202 2/2/22
VWL490 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 19220202 2/2/22
VWL489 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19220129 [29th January 1922]
VWL487 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19220118 18/1/22
VWL486 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 192001-- [?January 1920]
VWL485 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Fleury 192001-- [1920? ]
VWL484 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Scholes 192112-- [December 1921]
VWL483 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19211222 22/12/21
VWL482 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19211127 27/11/21
VWL481 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19211011 10/11/21
VWL480 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19211007 7/10/21
VWL479 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joanna Hadley 19210816 [About 16th August 1921]
VWL478 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joanna Hadley 19210814 14/8/21
VWL477 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mr & Mrs Robert F. McEwen 19210722 [22nd July 1921]
VWL476 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19211015 [15th October 1921]
VWL474 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19210430 30/4/21
VWL473 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19210407 [?early April 1921 ]
VWL472 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19210401 1/4/21
VWL471 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19210220 20/2/21
VWL470 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Scholes 19210205 5 Feb 1921
VWL469 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to H.H. Flagler 19210201 1/2/21
VWL468 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Donald F. Tovey 19270303 March 3 [1927]
VWL467 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19201221 21 December 1920
VWL466 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19201215 15 December 1920

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