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
VWL1424 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rachel Fell 19400606 About June 6th [1940]
VWL4040 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lewis Crow 19400604 June 4 [1940]
VWL1423 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Longman 19400602 Sunday [2 June 1940]
VWL3669 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar 194006-- [?mid 1940]
VWL1488 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194006-- [June 1940]
VWL4039 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lewis Crow 19400529 May 29 [1940]
VWL1422 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400527 [About 27 May, 1940]
VWL1421 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400522 [May 22 1940]
VWL1420 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400514 May 14 [1940]
VWL1418 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 19400511 May 11th [1940?]
VWL4227 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Newman 19400504 May 4th [1940]
VWL1419 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Librarian , King’s College, Cambridge. 19400425 April 25th 1940
VWL1417 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19400420 [20 April 1940]
VWL1416 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rachel Fell 19400418 April 18 [1940]
VWL1415 Letter from Henry Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19400416 April 16th, 1940.
VWL1393 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Farjeon 19400412 April 12 [1940]
VWL1414 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400410 [10 April 1940]
VWL1394 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Daniel Jones 19400406 April 6th [1940]
VWL1413 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400404 [April 4th 1940]
VWL4020 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19400404 April 4 [1940]
VWL1392 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Pilgrim Trust 19400403 April 3 [1940]
VWL1486 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194004-- [April 1940]
VWL1487 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (Oxford University Press) 194004-- [About April 1940]
VWL1412 Talk by Ralph Vaughan Williams on folk song music for the BBC 19400327 [27 March 1940]
VWL4670 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19400327 Wednesday [March 27 1940]
VWL1410 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell 19400324 March 24 [1940]
VWL5097 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 19400324 Easter Sunday [March 24 1940]
VWL1391 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell 19400322 March 22nd [1940]
VWL5145 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary 19400321 March 21 [ca 1940]
VWL4490 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19400321 March 21 [1940s?]

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