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
VWL2571 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19480225 Feb 25th [1948]
VWL2616 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19530120 20th January, 1953.
VWL2624 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19530128 28th January, 1953.
VWL2645 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19530208 February 8th 1953.
VWL2700 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19530703 July 3rd 1953.
VWL2704 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19530711 July 11th 1953
VWL2711 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19530810 August 10th, 1953.
VWL2725 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19530927 September 27th 1953.
VWL2776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19480715 15th July, 1948
VWL2793 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19540222 February 22nd [1954]
VWL2816 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19540504 [4 May 1954]
VWL2830 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19540617 June 17 [1954]
VWL2846 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19540724 July 24th 1954
VWL2873 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Beryl Lock 19540911 September 11th 1954.
VWL2876 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19540914 September 14th 1954.
VWL2934 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19481216 16th December, 1948
VWL2940 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19490106 January 6 [1949]
VWL2993 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margery Cullen 19550130 January 30th 1955
VWL2994 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19550203 February 3rd 1955.
VWL3095 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19550615 June 15th 1955.
VWL3180 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19490608 8th June, 1949.
VWL3182 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19550815 August 15 1955.
VWL3186 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19550819 August 19th 1955.
VWL3245 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19360821 August 21 [1936?]
VWL3291 Letter from John Barbirolli to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19560217 Friday 17/II/56
VWL3292 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560217 February 17th 1956.
VWL3295 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560225 Feb 25 [1956]
VWL3346 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560629 [29 June 1956]
VWL3442 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19561025 October 25th 1956.
VWL3523 Letter from Elizabeth Poston to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19570610 10th June, 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