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
VWL3748 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Cole 19500125 25th January 1950.
VWL3749 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Cole 19500104 4th January, 1950.
VWL3750 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19491214 14th December, 1949.
VWL4966 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sylvia Spencer 19491123 23rd November, 1949.
VWL3061 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margery Cullen 19491123 23rd November, 1949.
VWL4652 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19490501 May 1st [1949]
VWL3752 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Cole 19490324 24th March, 1949.
VWL2974 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the conductors and the choirs of the Leith Hill Musical Festival 19490324 24th March, 1949.
VWL4646 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 194903-- [March 1953]
VWL3743 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Cole 1949---- [about 1949?]
VWL4775 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 1949---- Sunday [1949?]
VWL4216 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Ivor Atkins 19480504 May 4 [1948]
VWL2590 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19480414 14th April, 1948.
VWL2433 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19471210 10th December, 1947.
VWL2417 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19471120 20th November, 1947.
VWL5249 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19471113 13th November, 1947
VWL1781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the conductors of the choirs of the Leith Hill Musical Festival 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL2309 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Music Librarian (BBC) 19470721 July 21 [1947]
VWL2169 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 19470423 [23rd April 1947]
VWL2168 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19470420 April 20 [1947]
VWL2166 Internal BBC memorandum to the Home News Editor from Sir Adrian Boult 19470418 April 18th 1947
VWL2163 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19470226 Feb 26 [1947]
VWL2156 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19470215 [mid February 1947]
VWL2137 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 19461101 Nov 1 [1946]
VWL2093 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19460901 Sept 1 [1946]
VWL4656 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19460526 [26 May 1946]
VWL2038 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460505 May 5 [1946]
VWL2035 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460425 April 25 [1946]
VWL1776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194603-- [?March 1946]
VWL5139 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cranleigh Choral Society 19451102 Nov 2 [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