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.

Searching:
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
VWL2513 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gwen Beckett (BBC) 19471227 27th December, 1947.
VWL4530 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19471227 27th December, 1947.
VWL2512 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19471227 27th December, 1947
VWL2510 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Fletcher 19471226 Dec 26 [1947]
VWL2509 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19471225 Xmas Day [1947?]
VWL2505 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to BBC Copyright Dept 19471218 18th December 1947
VWL2143 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 19471218 Dec 18 [1947]
VWL2506 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19471218 18th December, 1947.
VWL2502 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19471217 Dec 17 [1947]
VWL2501 Letter from Robert Müller-Hartmann to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19471216 16th December 1947
VWL2497 Letter from Ernest Irving to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19471216 16th December, 1947.
VWL4309 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank 19471211 11th December, 1947.
VWL2435 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isolde Menges 19471211 Dec 11 [1947]
VWL2436 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush 19471211 11th December, 1947.
VWL2434 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Benjamin 19471210 10th December, 1947.
VWL2433 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19471210 10th December, 1947.
VWL4360 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19471206 December 6 [1947]
VWL3758 Letter from Alan Bush to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19471205 December 5th, 1947.
VWL2431 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19471204 4th December, 1947.
VWL2432 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19471204 4th December, 1947.
VWL4308 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank 19471203 Dec 3 [1947]
VWL2430 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush 19471203 Dec 3 [1947]
VWL1783 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 194712-- Friday [December 1947]
VWL2421 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19471126 26th November, 1947.
VWL2419 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19471125 Nov 25 [1947]
VWL2420 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joyce Hooper 19471125 Nov 25 [1947]
VWL2417 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19471120 20th November, 1947.
VWL2402 Letter from Ernest Irving to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19471119 19th November, 1947.
VWL4767 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19471119 19 Nov 1947
VWL2401 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19471113 13th November, 1947

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