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
VWL1718 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Murrill 19421023 Oct 23 [1942]
VWL3729 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice & John Sumsion 19421023 Oct 23, [1942]
VWL1716 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Benjamin Britten 19421022 Oct 22 [1942]
VWL1717 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19421022 Oct 22 [1942?]
VWL4763 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Choir of Kensington High School 19421022 Oct 22 [1942]
VWL1715 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Shott 19421022 Oct 22 1942
VWL1714 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19421022 Oct 22 [1942]
VWL1712 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19421020 Oct 20 [1942]
VWL1713 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19421020 Oct 20 [1942]
VWL1711 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19421020 Oct 20 [1942]
VWL4659 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19421020 Oct 20 [1940]
VWL1710 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19421019 Oct 19 [1942]
VWL1709 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 19421019 Oct 19 [1942]
VWL1708 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19421018 Oct 18 [1942]
VWL1707 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19421017 Oct 17 [1942]
VWL5204 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to David Griffiths 19421017 Oct 17 [1942]
VWL1706 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss M. Goodchild 19421015 Oct 15 [1942]
VWL1705 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Del Mar 19421014 Oct 14 [1942]
VWL1703 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19421014 Oct 14 [1942]
VWL1704 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19421014 Oct 14th [1942]
VWL1700 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19421013 Oct 13 [1942]
VWL1702 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19421013 Oct 13 [1942]
VWL4043 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joseph Kreibich 19421012 Oct 12 [1944?]
VWL1699 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams Geoffrey Bush 19421012 Oct 14 [1942]
VWL1698 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 19421011 Oct 11 1942
VWL1697 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 19421009 Oct 9 [1942]
VWL1696 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Armstrong Gibbs 19421001 Oct 1st [1942]
VWL1743 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194210-- [About October 1942]
VWL1695 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ferdinand Rauter 19420929 [29. Sept 42]
VWL1694 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19420928 Sept 28 [1942]

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