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
VWL2214 Letter from Ursula Wood to Beryl Lock 19510421 Saturday [21 April 1951]
VWL2160 Letter from Rutland Boughton to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19510108 8 Jan 1951
VWL4327 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams’s cat to Marjory Jordan 19510829 Aug 29 1951
VWL3715 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Winifred Cole 19510512 12 May 1951
VWL192 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Turner Levy 19511227 27th December, 1951.
VWL2252 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19510608 [8th June 1951]
VWL4353 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor and Mary Sheppard 19511205 5th December, 1951.
VWL2174 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Veronica Wedgwood 19510117 17th January, 1951.
VWL2285 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19511024 24th October, 1951
VWL2204 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19510312 [12th March 1951]
VWL2205 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19510313 [13th March 1951]
VWL4050 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19511003 3rd Octr., 1951.
VWL2203 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the performers in the Leith Hill Musical Festival of 1951 19510308 March 8 [1951]
VWL3777 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Mayor of Colchester 19510808 8 August 1951
VWL4964 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Covent Garden Opera Company 19510427 [late April 1951]
VWL2192 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the children of the Parents’ Union School, Ambleside 19510219 February, 1951
VWL2197 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Terence Casey 19510228 28th February, 1951.
VWL2216 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Steuart Wilson 19510427 April 27 [1951] (7.15 A M)
VWL2234 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 19510515 [15 May 1951]
VWL2245 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 19510521 Monday [?21 May 1951]
VWL4116 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ruth Watson 19510207 7th February, 1951.
VWL2209 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510322 March 22 [1951]
VWL2272 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510910 Sept 10 [1951]
VWL2256 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510621 June 21 1951
VWL2261 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510701 Sunday [?1 July 1951]
VWL2196 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510221 21st February, 1951
VWL2208 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510321 [21 March 1951]
VWL2210 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510323 [23 March 1951]
VWL2254 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510613 13th June, 1951.
VWL2335 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19511227 27th December 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