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.

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Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL3122 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19491101 [About 2 November 1949]
VWL4535 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 194911-- [November, 1949?]
VWL3124 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491030 [30th October 1949?]
VWL3125 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491030 Sunday [30th October 1949]
VWL4452 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19491026 26th October, 1949.
VWL3130 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19491025 Oct 25 [1949]
VWL3127 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19491025 Oct 25 [1949]
VWL4450 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19491023 Oct 23 [1949?]
VWL3140 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19491020 Oct 20 [1949]
VWL4728 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Dickinson 19491013 13th October, 1949.
VWL3137 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Isidore Schwiller 19491013 Oct 13 [1949]
VWL3135 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19491013 Thursday [Oct 13/49.]
VWL5200 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19491007 Friday [7 October 1949]
VWL3138 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19491005 5th October, 1949.
VWL3139 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19491002 Oct 2nd [?1949]
VWL4673 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Farmer 19490928 September 28th, 1949.
VWL3146 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Tillett 19490919 Sept 19, 1949
VWL3147 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E.M. Tillett 19490914 14th September, 1949
VWL4372 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Sheppard 19490914 Sept 14 1949
VWL3149 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy & Gerald Finzi 19490911 [11th September 1949]
VWL3150 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19490909 [9th September 1949]
VWL3153 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Ireland 19490814 [14] Aug [1949]
VWL3163 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Havergal Brian 19490810 10th August 1949
VWL3167 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19490805 Friday [5th August 1949]
VWL1853 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 1949080- [Early August 1949]
VWL1851 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194908-- Tuesday [mid-August 1949]
VWL4444 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 194908-- [August] 1949
VWL3173 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19490702 Saturday [2 July, 1949]
VWL1850 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 194907-- Sunday [late July 1949?]
VWL3179 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19490611 June 11 [1949]

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