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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.

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Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL432 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19170804 Aug 4 [1917]
VWL427 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19161205 Dec 5th l916
VWL4075 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19161205 Dec 5th 1916
VWL426 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19161021 Saturday Oct 21st [1916]
VWL352 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 191606-- [June 1916]
VWL353 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 191606-- [Late June 1916]
VWL406 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19140701 [1 July 1914 ]
VWL303 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1910---- [1910?]
VWL158 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 190801-- [January 1908]
VWL159 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 190801-- [?January 1908]
VWL139 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 190607-- [July 1906]
VWL130 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 190105-- [?May 1901]
VWL127 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19010108 Jan 8th. [1901]
VWL111 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1901---- [1901?]
VWL113 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1901---- [1901?]
VWL128 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 190012-- [?About December 1900]
VWL269 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189911-- [About September/October 1899]
VWL236 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189910-- [October 1899]
VWL264 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189907-- [Late July 1899]
VWL233 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189903-- [March 1899]
VWL114 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1899---- [1899?]
VWL262 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 18980626 Sunday [26 June 1898]
VWL234 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1898---- [1898?]
VWL231 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1898---- [Late 1898]
VWL232 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1898---- [?Late1898 (or early 1899)]
VWL247 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189707-- [July 1897]
VWL244 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189707-- [July 1897]
VWL245 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189707-- [July 1897]
VWL229 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1896---- [1896?]

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