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
VWL3299 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher Morris (OUP) 19580522 May 22nd 1958
VWL3297 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margery Cullen 19580526 May 26th 1958.
VWL3295 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560225 Feb 25 [1956]
VWL3294 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19560219 February 19th 1956.
VWL3293 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560219 February 19th 1956.
VWL3292 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560217 February 17th 1956.
VWL3290 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Tattersall 19580604 June 4th 1958.
VWL3288 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19560215 February 15th 1956.
VWL3286 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560210 February 10th 1956.
VWL3285 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19580616 [16 June 1958]
VWL3284 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eugene Goossens 19580624 June 24th 1958.
VWL3282 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Thistleton 19580626 June 26th 1958.
VWL3281 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19580627 June 27th 1958.
VWL3280 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rosamund Strode 19580629 June 29th 1958
VWL3279 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joyce Hooper 19580629 June 29th 1958
VWL3278 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher Morris (OUP) 19580701 July 1 1958
VWL3277 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19580706 July 6th 1958
VWL3275 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E.A. Barber, Headmaster of Swaffham Primary School 19580710 July 10th 1958.
VWL3274 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nigel Fortune 19580723 July 23rd 1958.
VWL3271 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Rev. Frank Rust 19580803 [Aug. 3rd 1959]
VWL3270 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19580810 August 10th 1958.
VWL3269 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jeremy Dale Roberts 19580810 August 10th 1958.
VWL3267 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Simona Pakenham 19580824 August 24th 1958
VWL3265 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19560210 February 10th 1956.
VWL3262 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560130 Jan 30 [1956]
VWL3261 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Howgill (BBC) 19560129 January 29th 1956
VWL3260 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560129 January 29th 1956.
VWL3259 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560122 January 22nd 1956.
VWL3257 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margery Cullen 19560119 January 19th 1956.
VWL3256 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19560103 Jan 3rd 1956

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