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
VWL2875 Letter from Arthur Bliss to Ursula Vaughan Williams 19540913 Sept 13th 1954
VWL437 Letter from Arthur Boosey to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19180109 Jan 9th 1918
VWL387 Letter from Arthur Somervell to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19130204 4.2.13.
VWL3224 Letter from Benjamin Britten to Ursula Vaughan Williams 19580828 August 28th 1958
VWL1237 Letter from Carice Blake to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19340425 April 25th, 1934.
VWL588 Letter from Carl Stoeckel to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19250616 June 16th, 1925.
VWL2484 Letter from Cecil Day Lewis to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19521011 Oct. 11 [1952]
VWL556 Letter from Cecil Sharp to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19240522 22.V.24
VWL540 Letter from Cecil Sharp to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19240119 19.I.24
VWL389 Letter from Cecil Sharp to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19131109 9.11.13.
VWL370 Letter from Charles Hubert Parry to Margaret Vaughan Williams 19110519 May 19. 1911
VWL421 Letter from Charles Hubert Parry to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19150119 Jany 19. 1915
VWL428 Letter from Charles Hubert Parry to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19170226 Febry 26. 1917
VWL3339 Letter from Charles Parker to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19580221 21st February 1958
VWL508 Letter from Charles Villiers Stanford to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19230308 March 8. 23
VWL707 Letter from Clive Wigram to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19350517 17th. May, 1935.
VWL493 Letter from Crompton Llewellyn Davies to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19220227 27 Feb 1922
VWL565 Letter from Crompton Llewellyn Davies to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19240715 15 July l924
VWL1446 Letter from Donald Francis Tovey to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19381129 29th November, 1938.
VWL3785 Letter from Dorothy Davison and Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19321201 1 Dec [1932]
VWL607 Letter from Dorothy Longman to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19260610 June 10. 1926
VWL4595 Letter from Dorothy Longman to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19230330 Friday [30 March 1923]
VWL4596 Letter from Dorothy Longman to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19230408 Ap. 8 [1923]
VWL3641 Letter from Edmund Rubbra to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19470808 [8 August 1947]
VWL3719 Letter from Edward Clark to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19390104 4th January, 1938 [i.e. 1939]
VWL3718 Letter from Edward Clark to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19390311 March 11th, 1939
VWL3721 Letter from Edward Clark to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19390116 16th January, 1939
VWL3722 Letter from Edward Clark to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19390131 31st January, 1939
VWL3717 Letter from Edward Clark to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19390329 29th March, 1939
VWL2217 Letter from Edward J. Dent to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19510427 27 April 1951

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