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
VWL2017 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to R.L. Eastwood 19500705 5th July, 1950.
VWL5051 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams, Adrian Boult and others to the Editor of The Times 19500220 February 20 [1950]
VWL1974 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Bruce Flegg 19500119 Jan 19 [1950]
VWL1971 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19500108 January 8 [1950]
VWL1883 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19490328 Wednesday [?28 March 1949]
VWL2854 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19481208 8th December, 1948.
VWL2773 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19480624 24th June, 1948.
VWL3770 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19480523 May 23 1948
VWL4534 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19480501 May 1 [1948?]
VWL2588 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gwen Beckett 19480413 April 13 [1948]
VWL2587 Letter from Gwen Beckett (BBC) to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19480413 13th April 1948.
VWL4356 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Mary Watts 19480310 March 10 [1948]
VWL2419 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19471125 Nov 25 [1947]
VWL2417 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19471120 20th November, 1947.
VWL1828 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 194711-- November, 1947
VWL1832 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 194711-- November, 1947.
VWL1829 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 194711-- November, 1947
VWL1830 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Benjamin 194711-- November, 1947
VWL1827 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194711-- November, 1947
VWL2162 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Lowe 19470221 Feb 21 [1947]
VWL4235 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joseph Cooper 19461113 Nov 13 [1946]
VWL2129 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19461008 Oct 8 [1946]
VWL2091 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19460829 Aug 29 [1946]
VWL4679 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19460801 Thursday morning [1 August 1946]
VWL2041 Letter from Jean Stewart to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460601 i vi 46
VWL1728 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 1946---- Sunday [1946]
VWL1889 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19450514 May 14th 1945.
VWL1845 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19450204 Sunday [4 February 1945]
VWL1942 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson 19441025 Oct 25th [1944]
VWL1930 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19440826 August 26 [1944]

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