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
VWL458 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19200131 [31 January 1920]
VWL485 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Fleury 192001-- [1920? ]
VWL486 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 192001-- [?January 1920]
VWL3142 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Tottenham 1920---- [between 1905-1929]
VWL4113 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ruth Charrington 1920---- [1920]
VWL4698 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George McCleary 1920---- [1920s?]
VWL715 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 1920---- [Late 1920 or early 1921]
VWL4719 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Pitt 1920---- [1920s?]
VWL3998 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louise Dyer 1920---- [1920s]
VWL4584 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 192-0617 June 17 [1920s]
VWL3239 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 192-0605 June 5 [1920s]
VWL5216 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 192----- [1920s]
VWL3011 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 192----- [1920s]
VWL5211 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 192----- [between 1921 and 1929]
VWL3931 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Philip Heseltine 192----- [1920s]
VWL5217 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 192----- March 13 [1920s]
VWL457 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19191225 Dec 25 [1919]
VWL456 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19191209 9/12/19
VWL359 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19191127 27/11/19
VWL455 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19191123 23/11/19
VWL454 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Handel Society 19191107 7/11/19
VWL357 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 191910-- [?about October 1919 ]
VWL358 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19190822 22/8/19
VWL453 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19190822 22/8/19
VWL452 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19190811 11/8/19
VWL451 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Francis Jenkinson 19190626 26/6/19
VWL450 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Longman 19190606 6/6/19
VWL5233 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 19190502 2/5/19
VWL4319 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 191905-- [May, 1919]
VWL4447 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 191905-- [ca May 1919]

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