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
VWL3136 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19491013 13th October, 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]
VWL3144 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 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
VWL4371 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Mary Sheppard 19490909 Friday [9 Sep 1949]
VWL4370 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19490903 September 3 [1949]
VWL3791 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guy Oldham 19490824 24th August, 1949.
VWL3151 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Anthony Vercoe 19490824 24th August, 1949
VWL3164 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Howes 19490810 10th August, 1949.
VWL3165 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19490810 10th August, 1949
VWL3166 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19490807 August 7 [1949]
VWL4369 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Mary Sheppard 19490805 August 5 [1949]
VWL3167 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19490805 Friday [5th August 1949]
VWL1851 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194908-- Tuesday [mid-August 1949]
VWL4368 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19490722 July 22 [1949]
VWL4367 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Mary Sheppard 19490707 July 7 [1949]
VWL3173 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19490702 Saturday [2 July, 1949]
VWL3174 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19490629 29th June, 1949
VWL3176 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490622 22nd. June, 1949.
VWL4550 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dante Pilara 19490608 8th June, 1949.
VWL4365 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19490607 June 7 [1949]
VWL3731 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19490605 June 5 [1949]
VWL3004 Letter from Adrian Boult to Adeline Vaughan Williams 19490526 May 26th 1949
VWL3003 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19490525 25th May, 1949.
VWL4578 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Macaulay Trevelyan 19490525 25th May, 1949.
VWL4935 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19490511 May 11 [1949]
VWL2999 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19490505 5th May, 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