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
VWL2216 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Steuart Wilson 19510427 April 27 [1951] (7.15 A M)
VWL2215 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Birmingham Reference Library 19510422 April 22 [1951]
VWL2213 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Anthony Scott 19510410 10th April, 1951
VWL2212 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510409 April 9 [1951]
VWL2211 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alec Robertson (BBC) 19510329 29th March, 1951.
VWL2210 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510323 [23 March 1951]
VWL2209 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510322 March 22 [1951]
VWL2208 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510321 [21 March 1951]
VWL2207 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19510317 2.oc [about 17th March 1951]
VWL2206 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19510316 16th March, 1951.
VWL2205 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19510313 [13th March 1951]
VWL2204 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19510312 [12th March 1951]
VWL2203 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the performers in the Leith Hill Musical Festival of 1951 19510308 March 8 [1951]
VWL2202 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510308 March 8 [1951]
VWL2201 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Benjamin Britten 19510308 March 8 [1951?]
VWL2199 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19510228 28th February, 1951.
VWL2198 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19510228 28th February, 1951
VWL2197 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Terence Casey 19510228 28th February, 1951.
VWL2196 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510221 21st February, 1951
VWL2195 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19510221 21st. February, 1951
VWL2194 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19470619 19th June, 1947.
VWL2193 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19510221 21st. February, 1951.
VWL2192 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the children of the Parents’ Union School, Ambleside 19510219 February, 1951
VWL2191 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510218 [?18 Feb, 1951]
VWL2190 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19510214 14th February, 1951.
VWL2189 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19510207 7th February, 1951.
VWL2188 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19510207 7th February 1951
VWL2186 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19470610 June 10 1947
VWL2185 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Kenneth Wright (BBC) 19470531 31st May, 1947.
VWL2184 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19470531 31st May, 1947.

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