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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
VWL1641 Memorandum from Norman Peterkin to Sir Humphrey Milford 19420424 April 24th 1942
VWL1859 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19440115 [Mid January 1944]
VWL1861 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood at the BBC 19440121 Jan 21 [1944]
VWL1862 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19440205 Feb 5. [1944]
VWL1906 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Julian Herbage (BBC) 19440319 March 19 [1944]
VWL1917 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19440531 May 31 [1944]
VWL1949 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19441203 Dec 3 [1944]
VWL2028 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460314 [About 14th March 1946]
VWL2030 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460321 March 21 [1946?]
VWL2045 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460704 July 4 [1946?]
VWL2128 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19461005 Oct 5 [1946]
VWL2150 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19470125 Jan 25 [1947]
VWL2769 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19480617 17th June, 1948.
VWL3231 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to James McKay Martin 19551217 December 17th 1955.
VWL3355 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Barbirolli 19560722 July 22nd 1956.
VWL3461 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19570126 January 26th 1957.
VWL3552 Letter from Michael and Eslyn Kennedy to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19571231 Dec.31, 1957.

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