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
VWL850 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 193004-- [April 1930]
VWL846 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19300310 March 10th [1930]
VWL632 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19260701 July 1 [1926]
VWL604 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19260503 May 3 [1926]
VWL558 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Thomas Humphrey Marshall 19240916 9/16/24
VWL788 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 192405-- [Before 5th June 1924]
VWL3157 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 19230312 March 12 1923
VWL352 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 191606-- [June 1916]
VWL4291 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 191506-- [May or June, 1915]
VWL351 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 191411-- [November 1914]
VWL4316 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19141013 13 October, 1914
VWL403 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19140717 July 17 [1914]
VWL404 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19140514 May 14th 1914
VWL400 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19140510 May 10th 1914
VWL331 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Thompson 191009-- [About September 1910]
VWL329 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 191006-- [?Middle of 1910]
VWL307 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 191001-- [?January 1910]
VWL151 Draft notes by Ralph Vaughan Williams relating to Cecil Sharp’s English Folksongs (London 1907) 190705-- [?May 1907]
VWL148 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 190611-- [November 1906]
VWL149 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Folk Song Society 190611-- [?November 1906]
VWL269 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189911-- [About September/October 1899]
VWL261 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189905-- [May 1899]
VWL295 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 18980530 30th May [1898]
VWL260 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189805-- [May or June 1898]
VWL287 Letter from Max Bruch to Ralph Vaughan Williams 18971031 31.10.97
VWL5205 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Vaughan Williams 18891015 [15 October 1889]

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