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
VWL2523 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Merrick 19521027 October 27th 1952.
VWL2522 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19521026 October 26th [1952]
VWL2521 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gordon Paget 19521024 Oct 24 1952
VWL2520 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Bardgett 19521022 Oct 22 [1952]
VWL1892 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank M. Flack 19521022 22nd. October, 1952
VWL2519 Letter from Gerald Finzi to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19521020 October 20th. [1952]
VWL2508 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19521019 October 19th 1952.
VWL4591 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Master of the Worshipful Company of Musicians 19521019 Oct 18 [1952]
VWL2491 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19521019 October 19th 1952.
VWL2507 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jo and Arnold Goldsbrough 19521018 Oct 18 [?1952]
VWL2504 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Howells 19521017 October 17th 1952.
VWL2503 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eugene Goossens 19521017 Oct 17 [1952]
VWL3991 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alexander Burnard 19521016 Oct 16 [1952]
VWL2500 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John and Evelyn Barbirolli 19521015 Oct 15 [1952]
VWL3852 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19521015 15th October, 1952.
VWL2499 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19521015 Oct 15 [1952]
VWL3634 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Hurd 19521015 Oct 15th [1952]
VWL4731 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Dickinson 19521015 Oct 15 [1952]
VWL2498 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19521015 Oct 15 [1952?]
VWL4832 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Clive Carey 19521015 [ca 15 October, 1952]
VWL2446 Letter from Rutland Boughton to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19521014 [14 Oct 1952]
VWL2490 Letter from Gerald Finzi to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19521014 [14th October 1952]
VWL2495 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19521014 October 14th 1952
VWL4292 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Walter and Edith Stanton 19521014 October 14th 1952.
VWL5114 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Olga Koussevitsky 19521014 October 14th 1952.
VWL2493 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19521014 October 14th 1952
VWL2920 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rebecca Müller-Hartmann 19521014 14 Oct 1952
VWL2489 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald and Joy Finzi 19521014 October 14th 1952.
VWL2494 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19521014 Oct 14 [1942]
VWL2496 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19521014 October 14th 1952.

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