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
VWL2434 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Benjamin 19471210 10th December, 1947.
VWL2433 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19471210 10th December, 1947.
VWL4360 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19471206 December 6 [1947]
VWL3758 Letter from Alan Bush to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19471205 December 5th, 1947.
VWL2431 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19471204 4th December, 1947.
VWL4308 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank 19471203 Dec 3 [1947]
VWL2430 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush 19471203 Dec 3 [1947]
VWL2420 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joyce Hooper 19471125 Nov 25 [1947]
VWL4767 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19471119 19 Nov 1947
VWL3776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Winser 19471107 7th. November, 1947.
VWL1834 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 194711-- [November 1947]
VWL1828 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 194711-- November, 1947
VWL1829 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 194711-- November, 1947
VWL1830 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Benjamin 194711-- November, 1947
VWL4528 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 19471031 Oct 31 [1947?]
VWL4359 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19471029 October 29 [1947]
VWL4726 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Kirby 19471022 22nd October, 1947.
VWL2400 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Richard Walthew 19471018 Oct 18th 1947
VWL2399 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Fletcher 19471017 Oct 17 1947
VWL2397 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 19471016 16th October, 1947
VWL2328 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lady Jessie Wood 19471015 15th October, 1947.
VWL2326 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19471013 [13th October 1947]
VWL4839 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Montgomery 19471008 8th October, 1947.
VWL2325 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19471008 8th October, 1947
VWL2324 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19471004 Oct 4th 1947
VWL2319 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert W. Fenn 19471001 1st October 1947
VWL1782 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL4215 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Ivor Atkins 19470927 Sept 27 [1947]
VWL4527 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19470921 Sept 21 1947
VWL5146 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Janet Fraser 19470902 2nd September, 1947.

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