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
VWL3808 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Hamand 192507-- July 1925
VWL4789 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19250627 [late June 1925]
VWL4926 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Dexter Truscott 19250617 17/6/25
VWL588 Letter from Carl Stoeckel to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19250616 June 16th, 1925.
VWL4788 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19250615 [mid-June 1925]
VWL4787 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19250615 [mid-June 1925]
VWL585 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19250522 [22nd May 1925]
VWL587 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19250519 Tuesday [19th May 1925]
VWL579 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert F. McEwen 19250510 [10 May 1925]
VWL584 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19250508 [On or about 8 May 1925]
VWL583 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19250501 [About 1 May 1925]
VWL582 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lancelot Bark 19250430 April 30 [1925]
VWL3781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Horace Edward Randerson 19250409 April 9th [1925]
VWL3784 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Horace Edward Randerson 192504-- [April 1925]
VWL578 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert F. McEwen 19250329 [29 March 1925]
VWL577 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19250215 Feb 15th [c 1925]
VWL576 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19250205 [5th February 1925]
VWL791 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 192502-- [?February 1925]
VWL4770 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19250131 [31 January 1925]
VWL575 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19250113 Jan 13 [1925]
VWL574 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19250106 Jan. 6th 25.
VWL586 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 192501-- [January 1925]
VWL3041 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 1925---- [1925]
VWL3666 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar 1925---- [1925]
VWL4599 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Dearmer 1925---- [1925]
VWL4380 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robin Milford 1925---- [ca 1925]
VWL739 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1925---- Thursday [?about 1925]
VWL4792 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1925---- [1925?]
VWL573 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to J.F.R. Stainer 19241211 11/12/24
VWL572 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19241026 [26 October 1924]

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