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
VWL5247 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19470711 July 11 1947
VWL4557 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19310715 [15 July 1931]
VWL5216 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 192----- [1920s]
VWL5213 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 19231210 Monday [10 December 1923]
VWL5211 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 192----- [between 1921 and 1929]
VWL5217 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 192----- March 13 [1920s]
VWL5210 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 19490324 24th March, 1949.
VWL5243 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Beatrice Harrison 19430910 10 Sep [1943]
VWL5255 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Beatrice Harrison 19481014 14 October, 1948.
VWL4559 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Clive Carey 1946---- [early 1946]
VWL2504 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Howells 19521017 October 17th 1952.
VWL3455 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Howells 19561223 December 23rd 1956.
VWL4562 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harold Watkins Shaw 19540601 June 1st 1954
VWL5270 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Walford Davies 19221130 [late November 1922?]
VWL550 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19360710 [?10, July 1936]
VWL1172 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19370412 [12th April 1937]
VWL1189 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19370712 July 12 [1937]
VWL3335 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19580223 February 23rd 1958.
VWL2564 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19521231 31st December 1952
VWL1710 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19421019 Oct 19 [1942]
VWL1737 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19421217 [17 December 1942]
VWL811 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19351123 [23 November 1935]
VWL2113 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19501018 18th October, 1950.
VWL2189 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19510207 7th February, 1951.
VWL966 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19360802 2nd August 1936
VWL572 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19241026 [26 October 1924]
VWL3433 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19561013 October 13th 1956.
VWL2338 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19471015 15th October, 1947.
VWL1798 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19430808 Aug 8 [1943]
VWL1807 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19431006 Oct 6 [1943]

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