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
VWL3369 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Juanita Berlin 19560828 August 28th 1956
VWL3368 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Laurence Taylor 19560827 August 27th 1956
VWL3367 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560827 August 27th 1956.
VWL4996 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Arthur Boosey 19560826 August 26th 1956
VWL4187 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 19560821 August 21st 1956
VWL3366 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19560820 August 20th [1956]
VWL3365 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560818 August 18th 1956.
VWL3364 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560818 August 18th 1956.
VWL3363 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19560818 August 18th 1956.
VWL3362 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19560811 August 11th 1956.
VWL5131 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Listener 19560809 [9 August, 1956]
VWL4755 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 19560802 August 2nd 1956.
VWL3491 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Simona Pakenham 195608-- [After July 1956]
VWL3499 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 195608-- [August 1956]
VWL3361 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560729 July 29th 1956.
VWL4737 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Chambers 19560725 July 25th 1956.
VWL3358 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19560723 July 23rd 1956.
VWL3357 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund and Antoinette Rubbra 19560722 July 22nd 1956.
VWL3355 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Barbirolli 19560722 July 22nd 1956.
VWL3356 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560722 July 22nd 1956.
VWL3354 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19560719 July 19th [1956]
VWL3353 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19560718 July 18th 1956
VWL4192 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 19560718 July 18th. [1956]
VWL4191 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19560715 July 15th [1956]
VWL3352 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560711 [11th July 1956]
VWL3351 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560708 July 8th 1956.
VWL3350 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19560707 July 7th [1956]
VWL3349 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Simona Pakenham 19560706 July 6th 1956
VWL4247 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 19560703 July 3rd 1956.
VWL5072 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Times 19560702 [Monday 2 July, 1956]

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