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
VWL468 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Donald F. Tovey 19270303 March 3 [1927]
VWL634 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19280912 [12th September 1928]
VWL656 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Penelope Spencer 19290121 [Third week of January 1929]
VWL658 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19290201 [About 1st February 1929]
VWL660 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19290223 Feb 23 [1929]
VWL668 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Penelope Spencer 19290331 [About 31st March 1929]
VWL673 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193906-- [June, 1939]
VWL674 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193906-- [June, 1939]
VWL824 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 192903-- [March 1929]
VWL846 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19300310 March 10th [1930]
VWL849 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19300316 March 16 [1930]
VWL850 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 193004-- [April 1930]
VWL857 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Greaves 19300430 April 30 [1930?]
VWL1020 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19321113 [About 13th November 1932]
VWL1121 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19331112 Nov 12 [1933]
VWL1122 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19340103 [3 January 1934]
VWL1124 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19331207 Dec 7 [1933]
VWL1129 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19331226 Dec 26 [1933 ]
VWL1192 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Greaves 19340225 Feb 25 [1934]
VWL1283 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19380313 March 13 [1938]
VWL1573 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390705 [5th July 1939]
VWL1626 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19420104 Jan. 4th [1942]
VWL1856 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19460411 Thursday [April 11 1946]
VWL1996 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19500524 24th May 1950.
VWL2032 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460409 April 9 [1946]
VWL2184 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19470531 31st May, 1947.
VWL2225 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19510504 4 May 1951
VWL2301 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19470625 25th June, 1947.
VWL2404 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19520416 16th April, 1952.
VWL2431 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19471204 4th December, 1947.

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