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.

Searching:
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
VWL3022 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Patrick Hadley 19490608 8th June, 1949
VWL3002 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Butterworth 19490525 25th May, 1949
VWL4578 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Macaulay Trevelyan 19490525 25th May, 1949.
VWL4049 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Clarice Newbery 19490516 May 16 [1949]
VWL3001 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490511 11th May, 1949.
VWL5128 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Serge Koussevitsky 19490508 May 8th [1949?]
VWL4652 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19490501 May 1st [1949]
VWL1849 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 194905-- [?May 1949]
VWL5038 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19490429 [29 April 1949]
VWL2987 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490428 28th April, 1949.
VWL4125 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 19490420 20th April, 1949.
VWL5111 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frits Stegmann 19490413 13th April, 1949.
VWL2983 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490413 13th April, 1949.
VWL1848 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote 194904-- [?April 1949]
VWL4310 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Phyllis Tate 19490330 30th March, 1949.
VWL2976 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eric Walter White 19490325 25th March, 1949.
VWL4749 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 19490324 24th March, 1949.
VWL5256 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Abraham 19490324 24th March, 1949.
VWL5210 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 19490324 24th March, 1949.
VWL2971 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19490317 [17 March 1949]
VWL2969 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19490316 March 16 [1949]
VWL2961 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490315 March 15 [1949]
VWL2960 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19490309 9th March, 1949
VWL2959 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490309 9th March, 1949
VWL2958 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19490303 March 3 [1949]
VWL2957 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19490303 March 3 [1949]
VWL4646 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 194903-- [March 1953]
VWL2956 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eric Walter White 19490228 Feb 28 [1949]
VWL2955 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490225 25th February, 1949.
VWL2954 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490217 17th February, 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