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
VWL3156 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 19230102 [2 Jan 1923]
VWL505 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19230102 [2nd January 1923]
VWL504 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19221222 22/12/22
VWL3242 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19221115 [Wednesday 15 Nov 1922]
VWL3240 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19221115 [15 Nov 1922]
VWL3241 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19221103 Nov 3 [1922]
VWL770 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav, Isobel and Imogen Holst, Vally Lasker and Nora Day 192210-- [?October 1922]
VWL771 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192210-- [October 1922]
VWL772 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192210-- [October 1922]
VWL775 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192210-- [October 1922]
VWL777 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 192210-- [Late 1922]
VWL763 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192209-- [Late 1922]
VWL4597 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220712 Wednesday [12 July 1922]
VWL500 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19220701 [1st July 1922]
VWL760 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker and Nora Day 192207-- July 1922
VWL499 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 19220630 30/6/22
VWL498 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19220627 [27th June 1922]
VWL3236 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19220624 June 24 [1922?]
VWL355 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220614 June 14th [1922]
VWL354 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220608 June 8 [1922]
VWL226 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19220605 [About 5th June 1922]
VWL496 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19220511 Thursday [11 May 1922]
VWL3959 Letter from Gustav Holst Ralph Vaughan Williams 192205-- Friday [May, 1922]
VWL502 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220417 Friday [14th July 1922]
VWL3154 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 19220412 12/4/22
VWL3960 Letter from Gustav Holst to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19220409 April 9
VWL494 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 19220304 4/3/22
VWL493 Letter from Crompton Llewellyn Davies to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19220227 27 Feb 1922
VWL492 Letter from Harold Child to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19220218 18 Feb. 1922
VWL490 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 19220202 2/2/22

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