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
VWL2050 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19500712 12th July, 1950.
VWL2049 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19500712 12th July, 1950.
VWL2048 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19460803 Aug 3 [1946]
VWL2047 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19460730 Monday [30th July 1946]
VWL2046 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460715 July 15 [?1946]
VWL2045 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460704 July 4 [1946?]
VWL2044 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460704 July 4 [1946?]
VWL2043 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to H. Raymond Barnett 19460620 June 20 [?1946]
VWL2040 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19460528 May 28 [1946]
VWL2039 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Isaacs (BBC) 19460505 May 5th 1946.
VWL2038 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460505 May 5 [1946]
VWL2037 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 19460504 May 4 [1946?]
VWL2036 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Wingate 19460429 April 29 [1946]
VWL2035 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460425 April 25 [1946]
VWL2034 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 19460412 April 12 [1946?]
VWL2033 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460412 [12th April 1946]
VWL2032 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460409 April 9 [1946]
VWL2031 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460327 March 27 [1946]
VWL2030 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460321 March 21 [1946?]
VWL2029 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460320 March 20 [1946]
VWL2028 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460314 [About 14th March 1946]
VWL2027 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Ireland 19460207 Feb 7 1946
VWL2026 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19460115 Jan 15 [1946]
VWL2025 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19460101 New Year's Day [1946]
VWL2024 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19451226 Dec 26 [1945]
VWL2023 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E.J. Dent 19451211 Dec 11 [c1945?]
VWL2022 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19451206 Dec 6 [1945]
VWL2021 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19451122 Nov 22 [1945]
VWL2020 Oxford University Press file note on Ralph Vaughan Williams’s English version of Bach’s B minor Mass by Norman Peterkin 19451120 20.11.45
VWL2019 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Geoffrey Keynes 19451117 November 17 [?1945]

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