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
VWL3448 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19561108 November 8th 1956.
VWL3447 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19561107 November 7th 1956.
VWL5102 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Times 19561024 Wednesday 24 October, 1956
VWL3440 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19561020 Oct 20 1956
VWL3439 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19561019 [19th October 1956]
VWL3436 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Paul Henry Lang 19561018 October 18th, 1956
VWL3437 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 19561018 October 18th 1956
VWL4281 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19561018 October 18th 1956.
VWL5067 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams and others to the Editor of The Times 19561016 16 October, 1956
VWL3432 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Tom Whitestone 19561009 Oct 9th 1956
VWL3427 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Times 19561003 [29 September 1956]
VWL3429 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19561002 2nd [October 1956]
VWL3426 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19560929 [29th September 1956]
VWL5100 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Times 19560911 [11 September, 1956]
VWL3373 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560901 Sept 1 [1956]
VWL3368 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Laurence Taylor 19560827 August 27th 1956
VWL3367 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560827 August 27th 1956.
VWL4996 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Arthur Boosey 19560826 August 26th 1956
VWL3362 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19560811 August 11th 1956.
VWL5131 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Listener 19560809 [9 August, 1956]
VWL4755 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 19560802 August 2nd 1956.
VWL3491 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Simona Pakenham 195608-- [After July 1956]
VWL3499 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 195608-- [August 1956]
VWL4737 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Chambers 19560725 July 25th 1956.
VWL3358 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19560723 July 23rd 1956.
VWL3355 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Barbirolli 19560722 July 22nd 1956.
VWL3354 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19560719 July 19th [1956]
VWL3349 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Simona Pakenham 19560706 July 6th 1956
VWL4247 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 19560703 July 3rd 1956.
VWL5072 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Times 19560702 [Monday 2 July, 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