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.

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Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL3486 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Juanita Berlin 19570504 May 4th 1957
VWL4057 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19570502 May 2nd [1957]
VWL3505 ‘The Fifteenth Variation’: Transcript of VW’s contribution to Elgar Centenary Programme on the BBC from the recording 195705-- [May 1957]
VWL3483 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19570426 April 26th 1957.
VWL4757 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 19570426 April 26th 1957.
VWL5077 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Times 19570425 April 25, [1957]
VWL3481 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Richardson 19570414 April 14th 1957.
VWL3480 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Anthony Scott 19570411 April 11th [1957]
VWL3478 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19570407 [7 April 1957]
VWL4715 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Field-Hyde 19570407 April 7th 1957.
VWL5069 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams and Geoffrey Bush to the Editor of The Times 19570405 Friday 5 April, 1957
VWL4738 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Chambers 19570402 April 2nd 1957.
VWL3473 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ross Lee Finney 19570329 March 29th 1957.
VWL3472 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher Morris (OUP) 19570324 March 24th 1957
VWL3470 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Simona Pakenham 19570305 March 5th [1957]
VWL3467 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19570221 February 21st 1957.
VWL4170 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19570215 February 15th 1957.
VWL3460 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19570122 January 22nd 1957.
VWL3695 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Kathleen Riddick 19570122 January 22nd 1957.
VWL4756 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 19570103 January 3rd 1957.
VWL2054 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to James McKay Martin 1957---- [1957]
VWL3492 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Richardson 1957---- [1957?]
VWL5157 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 1957---- [1957?]
VWL4264 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eva Hornstein 19561230 Dec 30 1956 [?]
VWL3457 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19561229 [29th December 1956]
VWL4425 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Edwin Herbert 19561223 December 23rd 1956.
VWL3452 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian and Ann Boult 19561213 December 13th 1956.
VWL3768 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush 19561204 December 4th 1956.
VWL3450 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19561201 [December 1st 1956]
VWL4056 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Grice at the Performing Right Society 19561117 November 17th 1956.

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