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
VWL4762 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19500103 Jan 3d [1950?]
VWL4878 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 1950---- [ca 1950]
VWL3056 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19491130 30th November, 1949.
VWL4966 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sylvia Spencer 19491123 23rd November, 1949.
VWL3077 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491116 16th November, 1949.
VWL3080 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19491115 [On or about 15 November 1949]
VWL3113 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19491109 9th November, 1949.
VWL3116 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19491109 9th November, 1949
VWL3117 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19491109 9th November, 1949
VWL3120 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19491102 2nd November, 1949
VWL3119 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19491102 2nd November, 1949.
VWL3123 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19491101 [About 1 November 1949]
VWL3125 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491030 Sunday [30th October 1949]
VWL4794 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19491022 October 22 [1949?]
VWL3140 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19491020 Oct 20 [1949]
VWL3131 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19491019 19th October 1949
VWL3137 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Isidore Schwiller 19491013 Oct 13 [1949]
VWL4775 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 194910-- Sunday [October 1949]
VWL3143 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19490928 September 28th, 1949.
VWL3149 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy & Gerald Finzi 19490911 [11th September 1949]
VWL3150 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19490909 [9th September 1949]
VWL3166 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19490807 August 7 [1949]
VWL3167 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19490805 Friday [5th August 1949]
VWL3168 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19490803 3rd. August, 1949.
VWL1851 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194908-- Tuesday [mid-August 1949]
VWL3022 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Patrick Hadley 19490608 8th June, 1949
VWL2766 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19490605 June 5 [1949]
VWL2982 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19490406 6th April, 1949.
VWL2978 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs H.F. Stewart 19490330 30th March, 1949.
VWL2583 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 19490325 March 25 [1949]

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