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
VWL537 Letter from Karl Straube to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19231205 Dez 5th 1923
VWL312 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19231117 17/11/23
VWL536 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Lock Burnaby 19231117 17/11/23
VWL535 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boris Ord 19231104 4.11.23
VWL780 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 192311-- [?Late 1923]
VWL534 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19231021 21/10/23
VWL4547 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to a representative of the British Legion 19231019 October 19 [1923]
VWL4089 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Shaw 19231011 11, 10, 23
VWL520 Letter from Margaret Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19231011 Thursday Oct: 11th 1923
VWL4885 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19230915 [mid-September 1923]
VWL519 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19230830 [30th August 1923]
VWL4967 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth 19230829 29/8/23
VWL518 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 19230723 27/7/23
VWL517 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 19230610 [About 10 June 1923]
VWL3159 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 192306-- [June 1923]
VWL516 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19230528 28/5/23
VWL4594 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19230427 Friday [27 April 1923]
VWL3158 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 19230418 18 April 1923
VWL515 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boris Ord 19230415 15.4.23
VWL5274 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Philip Hope Edward Bagenal 19230410 10/4/23
VWL4596 Letter from Dorothy Longman to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19230408 Ap. 8 [1923]
VWL514 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lucy Broadwood 19230403 3rd April 1923
VWL513 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19230402 April 2nd 23.
VWL510 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ray Henderson 19230330 [30th March 1923]
VWL4595 Letter from Dorothy Longman to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19230330 Friday [30 March 1923]
VWL3157 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 19230312 March 12 1923
VWL509 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19230310 [10th March 1923]
VWL507 Letter from Vally Lasker to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19230308 March 8th 23
VWL508 Letter from Charles Villiers Stanford to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19230308 March 8. 23
VWL778 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 192303-- [Early 1923]

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