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
VWL2353 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19520109 Jan 9th [1952]
VWL2349 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19520109 9th January, 1952.
VWL4051 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19520104 Jan 4th 1952
VWL3864 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1952---- Whit Sunday [1952?]
VWL4543 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 1952---- [1952]
VWL4115 Postcard from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Turner 19512-- [December, 1954]
VWL4271 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eva Hornstein 19511227 Dec 27 [1951]
VWL2335 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19511227 27th December 1951
VWL5253 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19511225 Xmas Day [1951]
VWL2334 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Wallis 19511225 Xmas day [1951]
VWL2330 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christian Darnton 19511212 Dec 12th 1951
VWL4158 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19511212 12th December, 1951.
VWL4159 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19511212 12th December, 1951.
VWL2321 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19511206 [6th December 1951]
VWL4353 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor and Mary Sheppard 19511205 5th December, 1951.
VWL2347 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 195112-- [?1951]
VWL2918 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rebecca Müller-Hartmann 19511124 24th November, 1951.
VWL4157 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19511118 November 18th 1951.
VWL2294 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19511114 Nov 14 [1951]
VWL4156 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19511114 14th November, 1951.
VWL2295 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19511114 Nov 14 [1951]
VWL3713 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19511114 14th November, 1951.
VWL4778 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Boyd Neel 19511114 14th November, 1951.
VWL4269 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Genia Hornstein 19511105 Nov 5 [1951?]
VWL2292 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19511101 1st. November, 1951.
VWL2346 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 195111-- [probably November 1951]
VWL5201 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Mead 19511024 24th October, 1951.
VWL2289 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19511024 24th October, 1951
VWL5005 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to James Craufurd (Madrigal Society) 19511017 17th October, 1951
VWL2283 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19511017 17th October, 1951.

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