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
VWL3045 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Parry Jones 19510513 13 May 1951
VWL2231 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510513 [13th May 1951]
VWL2917 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rebecca Müller-Hartmann 19510512 12 May 1951
VWL4000 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Sellick 19510512 12 May 1951
VWL2229 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19510512 12th May 1951.
VWL3715 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Winifred Cole 19510512 12 May 1951
VWL4542 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin and Joan Shaw 19510511 11 May, 1951
VWL2228 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Wallis 19510511 May 11th 1951
VWL2227 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19510510 May 10 [1951]
VWL2225 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19510504 4 May 1951
VWL2224 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19510503 May 3 [1951?]
VWL2222 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510502 [2nd May 1951]
VWL4119 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 19510501 1st. May, 1951.
VWL2344 Lord Lechery’s song 195105-- [?May] 1951
VWL2343 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold and Jo Goldsborough 195105-- [May 1951]
VWL2220 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19510430 April 30 [1951]
VWL5143 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mr Elkin 19510430 April 30 1951
VWL2221 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Del Mar 19510430 April 30, 1951
VWL2218 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Murrill 19510429 [29 April 1951]
VWL2219 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Young 19510429 [29th April 1951]
VWL4541 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19510429 29 April, 1951
VWL2217 Letter from Edward J. Dent to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19510427 27 April 1951
VWL4964 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Covent Garden Opera Company 19510427 [late April 1951]
VWL2216 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Steuart Wilson 19510427 April 27 [1951] (7.15 A M)
VWL2215 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Birmingham Reference Library 19510422 April 22 [1951]
VWL4150 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19510413 April 13 [1951?]
VWL2212 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510409 April 9 [1951]
VWL2210 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510323 [23 March 1951]
VWL2209 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19510322 March 22 [1951]
VWL5112 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold van Wyk 19510321 21st. March, 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