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
VWL451 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Francis Jenkinson 19190626 26/6/19
VWL450 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Longman 19190606 6/6/19
VWL5233 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 19190502 2/5/19
VWL4319 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 191905-- [May, 1919]
VWL4447 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 191905-- [ca May 1919]
VWL4502 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Dearmer 191905-- [May, 1919]
VWL4420 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 191905-- [in or after May, 1919]
VWL5229 Letter from Gustav Holst to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19190412 April 12 [1919]
VWL449 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hugh Fraser Stewart 19190226 26/2/19
VWL4082 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19190225 25/2/19
VWL4085 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19190205 5/2/19
VWL448 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to L.J. Pollard 19190203 3/2/19
VWL5060 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edgar Stafford Arthur Herbert 19190101 January 1st 1919
VWL446 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19181212 12.12.18
VWL445 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19181116 Nov. 16th [1918?]
VWL356 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 191807-- [Summer 1918]
VWL444 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19180608 8/6/18
VWL443 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Turner 19180511 May 11th [1918]
VWL442 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19180503 May 3rd [1918]
VWL441 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19180226 Feb 26th [1918]
VWL440 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19180224 Sunday [24 February 1918]
VWL439 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19180220 Feb 20th [1918]
VWL438 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lady Dorothea Butterworth 19180216 Saturday [?16th February 1918]
VWL437 Letter from Arthur Boosey to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19180109 Jan 9th 1918
VWL436 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 19171228 Dec 28th [1917]
VWL435 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Alexander Kaye-Butterworth 19171202 Dec 2nd 1917
VWL434 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19171001 Oct 1st [1917]
VWL433 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19170923 Sept 23rd [1917]
VWL432 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19170804 Aug 4 [1917]
VWL431 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19170720 July 20 [1917]

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