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
VWL2778 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19480716 July 16 [1948]
VWL2776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19480715 15th July, 1948
VWL2775 Letter from Alan Frank (OUP) to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19480712 12th July l948
VWL1847 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 194807-- [About July 1948?]
VWL2770 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19480617 17th June, 1948.
VWL2768 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19480610 10th June, 1948.
VWL2589 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Music Librarian (BBC) 19480414 14th April, 1948.
VWL2585 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19480402 2nd. April, 1948.
VWL2506 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19471218 18th December, 1947.
VWL2417 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19471120 20th November, 1947.
VWL2311 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Adrian Boult (BBC) 19470730 30th July, 1947.
VWL2307 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19470710 July 10 [1947]
VWL5063 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 19470706 July 6 [1947]
VWL2305 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19470704 July 4th [1947]
VWL2304 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19470703 3rd July, 1947.
VWL2186 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19470610 June 10 1947
VWL2164 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19470407 [7th April 1947]
VWL2151 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.O. May (OUP) 19470127 [27th January 1947]
VWL5065 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 1947---- [1947?]
VWL2139 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19461113 Nov 13 [1946]
VWL2056 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460803 Aug 3. [1946]
VWL2044 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460704 July 4 [1946?]
VWL2041 Letter from Jean Stewart to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460601 i vi 46
VWL2020 Oxford University Press file note on Ralph Vaughan Williams’s English version of Bach’s B minor Mass by Norman Peterkin 19451120 20.11.45
VWL2012 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19451027 Oct 27 [1945]
VWL1947 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19450904 Sept 4 [1945]
VWL1899 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19450729 [29th July 1945]
VWL1727 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 1945---- [1945]
VWL1819 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19431114 Nov 14 [1943]
VWL1754 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Oxford University Press 19430309 [9 March 1943]

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