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
VWL3273 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19580724 [24 July 1958]
VWL2756 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19540122 22nd [January 1954]
VWL3223 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19551113 [13th November 1955]
VWL2829 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19540610 June 10th 1954.
VWL3689 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar 19580921 September 21st 1958
VWL4248 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Mr Martin Shaw 19570905 Tuesday [3 September, 1957]
VWL3191 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Mrs Ross Lee Finney 19581122 22nd November 1958
VWL3485 Letter from ursula Vaughan Williams to Mrs Ross Lee Finney 19570428 April 28th 1957
VWL2807 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Mrs Turner 19540325 March 25th [1954]
VWL3190 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Nigel Fortune 19590104 January 4th, 1959
VWL3194 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Norman Del Mar 19580921 September 21st 1958
VWL2748 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Robert and Beryl Lock 19531226 December 26th [1953]
VWL3976 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19560130 Jan 30th 1956
VWL3428 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 19560929 September 29th 1956
VWL4426 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Sir Edwin Herbert 19540125 January 25th [1954?]
VWL3283 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to the Secretary of the Royal Musical Association 19580625 June 25th 1958
VWL3197 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Vera Mackenzie and Molly Hodge 19580904 Sept. 4, 1958
VWL110 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to William Cole 19581018 October 18th 1958
VWL2214 Letter from Ursula Wood to Beryl Lock 19510421 Saturday [21 April 1951]
VWL2125 Letter from Ursula Wood to Gerald Finzi 19501218 18.12.50.
VWL1796 Letter from Ursula Wood to Joy Finzi 19430802 2.8.43
VWL2848 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19481026 Tuesday [26 October 1948]
VWL2340 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 195104-- [mid April 1951]
VWL1782 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL3272 Letter from Urusla Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19580727 July 27th 1958
VWL507 Letter from Vally Lasker to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19230308 March 8th 23
VWL785 Letter from Walter Damrosch to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19350919 September 19, 1935.
VWL191 Letter from William Barclay Squire to F.W. Evans 19050302 2 March 1905
VWL1196 Letter from William H. Reed to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19340503 3/5/34
VWL3817 Letter from William S. Hanham to Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth 19350829 29th August 1935.

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