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.

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Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL539 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19231231 Dec 31.[1923]
VWL538 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19231215 15/12/23
VWL5213 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 19231210 Monday [10 December 1923]
VWL535 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boris Ord 19231104 4.11.23
VWL780 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 192311-- [?Late 1923]
VWL534 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19231021 21/10/23
VWL4089 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Shaw 19231011 11, 10, 23
VWL4885 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19230915 [mid-September 1923]
VWL519 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19230830 [30th August 1923]
VWL4967 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth 19230829 29/8/23
VWL518 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 19230723 27/7/23
VWL517 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 19230610 [About 10 June 1923]
VWL3159 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 192306-- [June 1923]
VWL516 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19230528 28/5/23
VWL3158 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 19230418 18 April 1923
VWL515 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boris Ord 19230415 15.4.23
VWL5274 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Philip Hope Edward Bagenal 19230410 10/4/23
VWL514 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lucy Broadwood 19230403 3rd April 1923
VWL513 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19230402 April 2nd 23.
VWL510 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ray Henderson 19230330 [30th March 1923]
VWL3157 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ronald Cunliffe 19230312 March 12 1923
VWL509 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19230310 [10th March 1923]
VWL778 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 192303-- [Early 1923]
VWL506 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19230215 [15 February 1923]
VWL4580 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E Winder 19230214 Feb 14th 1923
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
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]

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