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
VWL1221 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19390823 Aug 23 [1939?]
VWL3727 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19390605 June 5, [1939]
VWL1457 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19390109 [9th January 1939]
VWL1407 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Newman 19381113 Nov 13 [1938]
VWL1375 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19380919 [19th September 1938]
VWL4213 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Ivor Atkins 19380818 [18 Aug 1938]
VWL1287 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19380420 April 20 [1938]
VWL3728 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Treasurer of the Gloucester Musical Festival 19371002 October 2, [1937]
VWL3726 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19370920 [20 September, 1937]
VWL1213 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19370919 [19th September 1937]
VWL1214 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19370919 [19 September 1937]
VWL5039 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19370919 Sunday [19 Sep 1937]
VWL1212 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19370908 Wednesday smorn [8th September 1937]
VWL1206 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19370905 Sunday aft [5th September 1937]
VWL3018 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Everett Helm 19370830 Aug 30 [1937]
VWL3017 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Everett Helm 193708-- [August 1937?]
VWL4474 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Howes 19370212 February 12 [1937]
VWL963 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19360802 [2 August 1936]
VWL4866 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 193508-- [August 1935]
VWL4504 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 1935---- [1935]
VWL1310 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19340923 [23rd September 1934]
VWL1296 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19340912 [12 September 1934]
VWL1294 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19340909 Sunday [?9 September 1934]
VWL1291 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19340904 Tuesday [4 September 1934]
VWL1290 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19340829 Wed [29th August 1934]
VWL1079 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19340828 Tuesday [28th August 1934]
VWL1289 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19340828 Tuesday [probably 28 August 1934]
VWL1272 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19340805 Sunday [?5th August 1934]
VWL3913 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vera Hockman 19340701 Sunday [1 or 8 July 1934]
VWL1854 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Zoltán Kodály 193311-- [November 1933]

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