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
VWL136 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 190407-- [July 1904]
VWL188 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19041205 [5th December 1904]
VWL665 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 193804-- [April 1938]
VWL840 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19300125 Jan 25 [1930]
VWL1370 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19380817 [17th August 1938]
VWL1388 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19381014 Oct 14 [1938]
VWL1404 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19381018 Tuesday [18th October 1938]
VWL1406 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19381106 Sunday evening [6th November 1938]
VWL1477 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401214 [Dec 14th? '40]
VWL1582 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19411016 Thursday [16th October 1941]
VWL1613 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19411226 Christmas [1941]
VWL1923 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19440730 July 30 [1944]
VWL1924 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19440801 August 1 [1944]
VWL1953 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19441226 Dec 26 [1944]
VWL2125 Letter from Ursula Wood to Gerald Finzi 19501218 18.12.50.
VWL2135 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19501226 [Christmas 1950]
VWL2243 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19510521 May 21 [1951]
VWL2339 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 195103-- Sat [March 1951]
VWL2477 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19521110 November 10th 1952
VWL2541 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19480119 Jan 19 [1948]
VWL3058 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Tressider Sheppard, Provost of King’s College Cambridge 19491125 November 25 [1949]
VWL3062 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19491123 November 23 [1949]
VWL3078 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19491116 November 16 [1949]
VWL3079 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Tressider Sheppard, Provost of King’s College Cambridge 19491116 16th November, 1949
VWL3114 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19491109 9th November, 1949

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