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
VWL1041 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19330119 [19 January 1933]
VWL1039 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19330116 [16th January 1933]
VWL1030 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Radio Times 19330106 6th January 1933
VWL3988 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alexander Burnard 19330102 Jan 2d 1933
VWL1034 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 193301-- [About January 1933]
VWL4821 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1933---- [1933]
VWL4135 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 1933---- [1933?]
VWL3832 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1933---- [about 1933?]
VWL4140 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 1933---- [?1933]
VWL1085 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 1933---- [About 1933?]
VWL4850 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Montgomery 1933---- [1933]
VWL3836 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1933---- [1933?]
VWL3821 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1933---- [September 1933?]
VWL3828 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1933--- [about 1933]
VWL1027 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19321229 [29th December 1932]
VWL3873 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19321228 December 1932
VWL994 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19321226 December 26 [1932]
VWL4602 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19321226 Monday [26 December 1932]
VWL4823 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19321225 Xmas 1932
VWL5120 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge 19321218 December 18 [1932]
VWL5175 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an Italian correspondent 19321213 December 13 [1932]
VWL1025 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19321202 Dec 2 [1932]
VWL3785 Letter from Dorothy Davison and Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19321201 1 Dec [1932]
VWL1033 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Anne Macnaghten 193212-- [December 1932]
VWL1024 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19321125 Nov 25th [1932]
VWL1022 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19321119 Sat [19 November 1932]
VWL1023 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19321117 [Nov. 17. 32]
VWL3835 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19321115 Nov 15 [1932]
VWL1021 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19321115 [15 November 1932]
VWL1020 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19321113 [About 13th November 1932]

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