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
VWL2295 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19511114 Nov 14 [1951]
VWL2296 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Anthony Scott 19511114 14th November, 1951
VWL2297 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rev. W. D. Kennedy Bell (BBC) 19511114 14th November, 1951.
VWL2298 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19511121 November 21st., 1951.
VWL2299 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19511128 28th November, 1951.
VWL2320 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19511205 5th December 1951
VWL2321 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19511206 [6th December 1951]
VWL2322 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19511212 12th December, 1951.
VWL2329 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Wedgwood 19511212 12th December, 1951.
VWL2330 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christian Darnton 19511212 Dec 12th 1951
VWL2331 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19511218 18th December, 1951.
VWL2332 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19511218 18th December, 1951.
VWL2333 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Anthony Scott 19511218 18th December, 1951
VWL2334 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Wallis 19511225 Xmas day [1951]
VWL2335 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19511227 27th December 1951
VWL2341 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dr Ferdinand Rauter 19510515 [ca 15 May 1951]
VWL2492 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19511014 Oct 14 [1951]
VWL2917 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rebecca Müller-Hartmann 19510512 12 May 1951
VWL2918 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rebecca Müller-Hartmann 19511124 24th November, 1951.
VWL3045 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Parry Jones 19510513 13 May 1951
VWL3126 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19510521 [21 May 1951]
VWL3713 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19511114 14th November, 1951.
VWL3715 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Winifred Cole 19510512 12 May 1951
VWL3777 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Mayor of Colchester 19510808 8 August 1951
VWL3849 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19510926 26th September, 1951.
VWL3945 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Frederick McCleary 19510517 17 May 1951
VWL3971 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peggy Glanville-Hicks 19510119 Jan 19 [1951]
VWL3972 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peggy Glanville-Hicks 19510207 7th February 1951
VWL3996 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alexander Burnard 19510808 8 Aug 1951
VWL4000 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Sellick 19510512 12 May 1951

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