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
VWL5238 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19471006 6 Oct 1947
VWL2324 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19471004 Oct 4th 1947
VWL3684 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar 19471004 October 4th [1947?]
VWL2319 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert W. Fenn 19471001 1st October 1947
VWL2323 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Kenneth Wright 19471001 1st October, 1947.
VWL4058 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to R.S. Scragg 194710-- Tuesday [October 1947]
VWL1781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the conductors of the choirs of the Leith Hill Musical Festival 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL1782 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL3967 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peggy Glanville-Hicks 194710-- [1947?]
VWL1693 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19470927 Sunday [?27th September 1947 ]
VWL4215 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Ivor Atkins 19470927 Sept 27 [1947]
VWL4527 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19470921 Sept 21 1947
VWL2318 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19470909 9th September, 1947.
VWL5146 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Janet Fraser 19470902 2nd September, 1947.
VWL4046 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Emily Kreibich 19470827 27th August, 1947.
VWL2317 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19470820 20th August, 1947.
VWL2342 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Lowe (BBC) 19470820 20th August, 1947.
VWL2316 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Lowe (BBC) 19470814 14th August, 1947.
VWL2315 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 19470814 14th August, 1947
VWL3641 Letter from Edmund Rubbra to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19470808 [8 August 1947]
VWL2312 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19470807 7th August, 1947
VWL2313 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 19470807 7th August, 1947
VWL3621 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19470807 7th August, 1947.
VWL2314 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19470807 7th August, 1947.
VWL2311 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Adrian Boult (BBC) 19470730 30th July, 1947.
VWL4748 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 19470730 30th July, 1947.
VWL4438 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eleanor Farjeon 19470730 30th July, 1947.
VWL2310 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19470728 [28th July 1947]
VWL2309 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Music Librarian (BBC) 19470721 July 21 [1947]
VWL2308 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19470717 17th July, 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