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
VWL605 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Lock Burnaby 19260527 May 27 [1926]
VWL4008 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19260521 May 21 [1926]
VWL604 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19260503 May 3 [1926]
VWL4761 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 192604-- [April, 1926?]
VWL603 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Fly 19260328 March 28 [1926]
VWL600 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louise Alvar 19260219 Feb 19 [1926]
VWL599 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 19260214 Feb 14th [1926]
VWL587 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19250519 Tuesday [19th May 1925]
VWL3781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Horace Edward Randerson 19250409 April 9th [1925]
VWL567 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Mary Fletcher 19240718 Friday [?18th July] 1924
VWL4547 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to a representative of the British Legion 19231019 October 19 [1923]
VWL4594 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19230427 Friday [27 April 1923]
VWL5270 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Walford Davies 19221130 [late November 1922?]
VWL3242 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19221115 [Wednesday 15 Nov 1922]
VWL3240 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19221115 [15 Nov 1922]
VWL3241 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19221103 Nov 3 [1922]
VWL501 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Scholes 19220713 July 13 [1922]
VWL4597 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220712 Wednesday [12 July 1922]
VWL3236 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19220624 June 24 [1922?]
VWL3235 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19220623 June 23 [1922?]
VWL355 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220614 June 14th [1922]
VWL354 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220608 June 8 [1922]
VWL502 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220417 Friday [14th July 1922]
VWL475 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19201008 Friday [8 October 1920]
VWL4584 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 192-0617 June 17 [1920s]
VWL5217 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 192----- March 13 [1920s]
VWL438 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lady Dorothea Butterworth 19180216 Saturday [?16th February 1918]
VWL430 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19170522 May 22 [1917]
VWL429 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19170409 April 9th [1917]
VWL4084 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 1916---- [1916]

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