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
VWL123 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 1909---- [1909?]
VWL125 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19110311 [About 11th March 1911]
VWL139 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 190607-- [July 1906]
VWL153 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 190708-- [?Summer 1907]
VWL216 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19061126 November 26 [1906]
VWL331 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Thompson 191009-- [About September 1910]
VWL332 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Thompson 191009-- [About September 1910]
VWL334 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 191104-- [April 1911]
VWL339 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 191311-- [late November 1913]
VWL342 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19131219 Dec 19th 1913
VWL343 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19131230 [About 30th] Dec. 1913
VWL344 Letter from Steuart Wilson to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19421109 9 Nov. 1942
VWL369 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19110429 Apr. 29/11
VWL387 Letter from Arthur Somervell to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19130204 4.2.13.
VWL395 Letter from George Butterworth to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19140328 March 28 1914
VWL428 Letter from Charles Hubert Parry to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19170226 Febry 26. 1917
VWL444 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19180608 8/6/18
VWL462 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19200311 11/3/20
VWL480 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19211007 7/10/21
VWL481 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19211011 10/11/21
VWL742 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 1927---- [Before 1928]
VWL876 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19301105 [5th November 1930]
VWL877 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19301106 [6 November, 1930]
VWL904 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19310306 [6th March 1931]
VWL959 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19360727 [27 July 1936]
VWL1093 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19361022 [?22 October] 1936
VWL1446 Letter from Donald Francis Tovey to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19381129 29th November, 1938.
VWL1448 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Donald Francis Tovey 19381210 Dec 10 [1938]
VWL1514 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Adrian Boult (BBC) 19390130 Jan 30 [1939]
VWL1584 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19411106 Nov 6 [1941]

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