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
VWL4533 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19491223 December 23 [1949]
VWL3058 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Tressider Sheppard, Provost of King’s College Cambridge 19491125 November 25 [1949]
VWL3062 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19491123 November 23 [1949]
VWL3078 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19491116 November 16 [1949]
VWL3118 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19491106 November 6 [1949]
VWL4373 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19491028 October 28 [1949]
VWL4794 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19491022 October 22 [1949?]
VWL3132 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19491018 Tuesday [18th October 1949]
VWL4371 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Mary Sheppard 19490909 Friday [9 Sep 1949]
VWL4370 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19490903 September 3 [1949]
VWL3166 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19490807 August 7 [1949]
VWL4369 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Mary Sheppard 19490805 August 5 [1949]
VWL4368 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19490722 July 22 [1949]
VWL4367 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Mary Sheppard 19490707 July 7 [1949]
VWL4365 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19490607 June 7 [1949]
VWL3020 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19490605 June 5/49
VWL3731 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19490605 June 5 [1949]
VWL4631 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.R. Fell 19490604 June 4 [1949]
VWL3019 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490604 June 4 [1949]
VWL4935 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19490511 May 11 [1949]
VWL4364 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19490505 May 5 [1949]
VWL3771 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor and Mary Sheppard 19490421 April 21 1949
VWL2980 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490331 March 31 1949
VWL2977 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19490330 March 30 [1949]
VWL1883 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19490328 Wednesday [?28 March 1949]
VWL2972 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490321 March 21 [1949]
VWL1882 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19490317 March 17 [1949]
VWL3732 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19490225 Feb 25 [1949]
VWL1837 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194902-- Tuesday morning [February 1948]
VWL4363 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19490128 Jan 28 [1949]

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