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
VWL2901 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19450605 June 5 [1945?]
VWL5260 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Hawkes 19450527 May 27 [1945]
VWL5261 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Hawkes 19450525 May 25 [1945]
VWL1891 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19450525 May 25 [1945]
VWL5263 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boosey & Hawkes 19450523 May 23 1945
VWL2900 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19450520 May 20 [1945]
VWL1890 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19450519 May 19 [1945]
VWL1889 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19450514 May 14th 1945.
VWL1888 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lady Dorothea Croft 19450512 May 12 [1941-1945]
VWL1992 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19450511 May 11 [1945]
VWL1887 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19450509 Wednesday [May 9 1945]
VWL5123 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Serge Koussevitsky 19450430 [April 30 1945]
VWL1886 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denys Kilham Roberts 19450429 April 29 [1945]
VWL5122 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Serge Koussevitsky 19450422 Apr 22 1945
VWL2899 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19450418 April 18 [1945]
VWL5054 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams and others to the Editor of The Times 19450416 [April 16 1945]
VWL1885 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denys Kilham Roberts 19450416 16th April [1945]
VWL1884 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19450401 April 1 [1945]
VWL1411 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eugene Goossens 19450326 March 26 [1945]
VWL1880 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Rev. Leonard Starey 19450315 [c.15th March 1945]
VWL1878 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19450314 14 March, 1945
VWL1879 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19450313 [13th March 1945]
VWL1877 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult (BBC) 19450305 March 5 [1945]
VWL1876 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denys Kilham Roberts 19450304 4th March [1945]
VWL1773 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 194503-- [March 1945]
VWL1875 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eugene Kilinski 19450225 Feb 25 1945
VWL797 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Madeleine Dring 19450219 Feb 19
VWL1874 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E.J. Dent 19450216 Feb 16 [1945]
VWL1873 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Henn Collins 19450211 Feb 11 [1945]
VWL841 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Chapman 19450210 Feb 10 [1945]

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