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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
VWL1331 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor H.G. Fiedler 19380626 Sunday [26 June l938]
VWL1329 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19380626 [26 June 1938]
VWL1328 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19380623 June 23 [?1938]
VWL1308 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19380614 Midnight - Tuesday [14 June 1938]
VWL4764 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19380608 [8] June, 1938
VWL4390 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evangeline Farrer 19380606 June 6 [1938 or 1939]
VWL1305 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herma Fiedler 19380603 June 3 [1938]
VWL694 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herma Fiedler 193806-- [Late June 1938]
VWL1303 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor H.G. Fiedler 19380530 Monday [30 May 1938]
VWL1302 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19380528 Sat [28th May 1938]
VWL1209 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Walter Goodchild 19380526 May 26 1938
VWL3862 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19380520 [about 20 May 1938]
VWL5266 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Arthur Boosey 19380516 May 16 [1938]
VWL4976 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Boosey 19380516 May 16 [1938]
VWL4475 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Howes 19380513 May 13 [1938]
VWL1300 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19380506 [6 May 1938]
VWL1299 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19380503 Tues May 3rd 1938
VWL3974 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams for Clarence Pinnock 19380502 May 2d 1938
VWL1285 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denis Dowling 19380414 April 14 [1938 or 1939]
VWL1286 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the BBC 19380410 Sunday [10 April 1938]
VWL4211 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Ivor Atkins 19380404 April 4 [1938]
VWL649 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193804-- [About April 1938]
VWL665 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 193804-- [April 1938]
VWL4467 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Howes 19380312 March 12 [1938?]
VWL1281 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19380213 [13 February 1938]
VWL646 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 193802-- Wed [?early 1938]
VWL647 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to The Musical Times 193802-- February 1938
VWL693 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 193802-- [After April 1935]
VWL3249 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19380126 [26 Jan 1938]
VWL1275 Letter from Sir Henry Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19380125 25th January 1938.

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