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
VWL668 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Penelope Spencer 19290331 [About 31st March 1929]
VWL3780 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1929032- [Late March 1929]
VWL661 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19290311 [11th March 1929]
VWL824 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 192903-- [March 1929]
VWL659 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19290210 [10 February 1929]
VWL658 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19290201 [About 1st February 1929]
VWL4097 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19290130 30th Jan. 29
VWL3850 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Williams 19290124 Jan 24th 1929
VWL656 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Penelope Spencer 19290121 [Third week of January 1929]
VWL4808 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1929---- [late 1920s]
VWL3854 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1929---- [1929?]
VWL4814 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1929---- [Spring 1929]
VWL1137 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 1929---- [?1929]
VWL745 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1929---- [?1929]
VWL4806 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1929---- [1929]
VWL641 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19281214 [14 December 1928]
VWL4811 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19281207 [7 December 1928]
VWL4801 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 192812-- [December, late 1920s]
VWL639 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lucy Broadwood 19281107 7th November 1928
VWL636 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19281014 Oct 14 [1928]
VWL635 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss at Oxford University Press 19281001 [About 1 October 1928]
VWL820 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Ritchie 192810-- [October 1928]
VWL4496 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 192810-- [?october, 1928]
VWL5149 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cuthbert Bates 19280918 [18/9/1928]
VWL5148 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cuthbert Bates 19280918 18/9/1928
VWL634 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19280912 [12th September 1928]
VWL4812 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 192809-- [September 1928]
VWL816 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 192809-- [September 1928]
VWL4809 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 192808-- [August 1928?]
VWL4810 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19280702 [2 July 1928]

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