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
VWL4743 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 19490212 Feb 12 [1949?]
VWL2947 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eric Walter White 19490209 9th February, 1949.
VWL2945 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490126 26th January, 1949.
VWL2944 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Hamber 19490126 26th January, 1949.
VWL2943 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Veronica Gotch 19490124 [About 24th January 1949]
VWL4876 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Clive Carey 19490119 19th January, 1949.
VWL2942 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19490114 Jan 14 [1949]
VWL4112 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Bernard Stevens 19490112 12th January, 1949.
VWL2941 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19490106 Jan 6 1949
VWL4874 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Clive Carey 19490105 5th January, 1949.
VWL3743 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Cole 1949---- [about 1949?]
VWL4776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Malcolm Sargent 1949---- Sunday [1949?]
VWL1771 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 1949---- Sunday [about 1949]
VWL4862 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1949---- [late 1940s?]
VWL4531 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19481226 Dec 26 [1948?]
VWL2935 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19481216 16th December, 1948.
VWL2932 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sidney P. Waddington 19481215 Dec 15 [1948]
VWL2931 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19481211 Dec 11 [1948]
VWL2854 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19481208 8th December, 1948.
VWL2853 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19481124 [24 Nov 1948]
VWL2839 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19481026 Oct 26th [1948]
VWL2837 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Hamber 19481020 20th October, 1948.
VWL2915 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Müller-Hartmann and Hornstein families 19481016 Oct 16 [about 1948?]
VWL2810 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19481014 Oct 14 [1948]
VWL2833 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19481014 14th October, 1948.
VWL4654 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19481014 Oct 14 [1948]
VWL3753 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorking Madrigal Society 19481014 14th October, 1948.
VWL2809 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker and others 19481014 14th October, 1948
VWL5255 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Beatrice Harrison 19481014 14 October, 1948.
VWL2805 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19481007 7th October, 1948.

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