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
VWL4548 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Simpson 19510527 May 27 [1951]
VWL4650 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19511205 5th December 1951
VWL4704 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Page 19510202 2 Feb 1951
VWL4730 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Dickinson 19511016 Oct 16 [1951]
VWL4759 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19510126 Thursday [26 Jan 1951]
VWL4778 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Boyd Neel 19511114 14th November, 1951.
VWL4859 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Montgomery 19510520 May 20 [1951]
VWL4882 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Neville Coghill and Hal Burton 19510214 14th February, 1951.
VWL4964 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Covent Garden Opera Company 19510427 [late April 1951]
VWL5005 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to James Craufurd (Madrigal Society) 19511017 17th October, 1951
VWL5015 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19510117 Jan 17 [1951]
VWL5016 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19510912 12th September, 1951.
VWL5017 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19511016 Oct 16 [1951]
VWL5056 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams and others to the Editor of The Times 19510730 [Monday July 30 1951]
VWL5110 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold van Wyk 19510725 25th July, 1951.
VWL5112 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold van Wyk 19510321 21st. March, 1951.
VWL5127 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Olga Koussevitsky 19510707 7th July, 1951.
VWL5140 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joseph Smith 19510221 21st February, 1951.
VWL5143 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mr Elkin 19510430 April 30 1951
VWL5201 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Mead 19511024 24th October, 1951.
VWL5209 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E. Barry Green 19510110 10th January, 1951.
VWL5230 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Woodgate 19510124 Jan 24 1951
VWL5253 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19511225 Xmas Day [1951]
VWL5254 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19510520 20 May 1951
VWL5289 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Grainger 19510501 1st. 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