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
VWL1705 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Del Mar 19421014 Oct 14 [1942]
VWL1699 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams Geoffrey Bush 19421012 Oct 14 [1942]
VWL1696 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Armstrong Gibbs 19421001 Oct 1st [1942]
VWL1701 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194209-- Tuesday [September 1942]
VWL4512 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan and Martin Shaw 19411016 Oct 16 [1941?]
VWL699 Completed registration form for Ralph Vaughan Williams’s cultural national service 193908-- [Summer 1939]
VWL4104 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 193812-- Dec. [1938?]
VWL4103 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 19381129 Nov 29 [1938?]
VWL1363 Letter from Honorine Williamson to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19380717 Sunday [17 July 1938]
VWL1275 Letter from Sir Henry Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19380125 25th January 1938.
VWL1274 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19380124 Jan 24 [1938]
VWL4101 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 1938---- [?1938]
VWL1249 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss at Oxford University Press 19371025 [25th October 1937]
VWL4505 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan and Martin Shaw 193710-- [October 1937]
VWL1206 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19370905 Sunday aft [5th September 1937]
VWL1205 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor H.G. Fiedler 19370816 August 16 1937
VWL1201 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19370806 Aug 6th 1937
VWL1170 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19370803 August 3 [1937]
VWL1141 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Fisher 19370202 Tuesday [2nd February 1937]
VWL1138 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19370123 [23rd January 1937]
VWL809 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 19351113 Nov 13 [1935?]
VWL808 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19351103 [3rd November 1935]
VWL806 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19351018 [18 October 1935]
VWL798 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19350923 September 23 [1935]
VWL776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19350910 Tuesday [10th September 1935]
VWL736 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19350614 [14th June 1935]
VWL733 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19350608 June 8th [1935]
VWL732 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19350608 [8th June 1935]
VWL731 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19350608 [8th June 1935]
VWL727 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19350607 [7th June 1935]

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