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
VWL4768 Letter from Adeline Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19310419 Sunday [19 April, 1931]
VWL944 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19360512 Friday [12th May 1936]
VWL5247 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19470711 July 11 1947
VWL4601 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent 19310319 [19 March 1931]
VWL692 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 193703-- [?Mid or late March 1937]
VWL934 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19360213 Feb 13 [1936]
VWL4132 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 192701-- Sunday, [January, ?1927]
VWL4133 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 19270113 Jan 13 [?1927]
VWL1853 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 1949080- [Early August 1949]
VWL1905 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gwen Beckett (BBC) 19440312 March 12 [1944]
VWL1166 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19370411 April 11 [1937]
VWL5085 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 19440709 Sunday [July 1944]
VWL5033 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19351114 November 14 [1935]
VWL2849 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19481104 4th November, 1948.
VWL4366 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Neary 19461128 Nov 28 [1946]
VWL4517 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19431205 Dec 5 [1943?]
VWL4342 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Sheppard 19530408 April 8th [1953]
VWL3677 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar 19400708 July 8 [1940]
VWL260 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189805-- [May or June 1898]
VWL1736 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19421215 Dec 15 [1942]
VWL4215 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Ivor Atkins 19470927 Sept 27 [1947]
VWL4966 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sylvia Spencer 19491123 23rd November, 1949.
VWL1420 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400514 May 14 [1940]
VWL1371 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19380820 [20th August 1938]
VWL1937 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19441013 [13 October 1944]
VWL4245 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 19530617 June 17th [1953]

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