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
VWL3877 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 194----- [1940s?]
VWL4919 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fiona McCleary 194----- [1940s?]
VWL5095 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 194----- [1940s?]
VWL4570 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 194----- Oct 31 [1940s?]
VWL4758 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 194----- Sunday [1940s]
VWL5091 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 194----- Nov 12 [1940s?]
VWL3882 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 194----- Wed. [1940s?]
VWL3939 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Frederick McCleary 194----- Sep 12 [1940s?]
VWL3942 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Frederick McCleary 194----- Jan 20 [1940s?]
VWL3010 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Scott 194----- [1940s?]
VWL3886 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 194----- Nov 2 [1940s]
VWL5093 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 194----- Wednesday [early 1940s]
VWL4890 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Fletcher 194----- [1940s?]
VWL5089 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 194----- Jan 21 [1940s?]
VWL3938 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Frederick McCleary 194----- Oct 14 [1940s?]
VWL3944 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Frederick McCleary 194----- Oct 19 [1940s?]
VWL3637 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Kathleen Merritt 194---- [late 1940s?]
VWL1227 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19391231 Dec 31st [1939]
VWL1226 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19391231 Dec 31 [1939]
VWL1228 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391226 Dec 26 [1939]
VWL4015 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19391226 Dec 26 1939
VWL1230 Telegram from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elisabeth Lutyens 19391213 13 Dec 39
VWL1229 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elisabeth Lutyens 19391213 [13 December 1939]
VWL1646 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell (BBC) 19391211 Dec 11 [1939]
VWL1645 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rosamund Gotch 19391210 Dec 10 [??1939]
VWL4432 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marie Stopes 19391208 December 8 [1939]
VWL4739 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 19391206 Dec 6th [1939]
VWL687 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 193912-- [Christmas 1939?]
VWL1644 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391129 [29th November 1939]
VWL1642 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19391128 Nov 28 [1939]

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