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
VWL1190 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19370725 Sunday [25th July 1937]
VWL2661 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19530218 18th February, 1953
VWL2677 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19530415 15th April, 1953
VWL2699 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19530628 June 28th 1953.
VWL2703 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19530711 July 11th 1953.
VWL2716 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19530912 Sept 12th, 53
VWL2731 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frederick Page 19531011 October 11th 1953.
VWL2752 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19540110 January 10th 1954
VWL2830 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19540617 June 17 [1954]
VWL2862 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Beryl Lock 19540822 August 22nd 1954
VWL2929 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert John Sumsion 1953---- [1953 or later]
VWL2966 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19550113 Jan 13 1955
VWL3067 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Keith Falkner 19550307 March 7th 1955.
VWL3094 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Albert Sturgess 19550609 June 9th 1955.
VWL3181 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19550814 August 14th 1955.
VWL3269 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jeremy Dale Roberts 19580810 August 10th 1958.
VWL3281 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19580627 June 27th 1958.
VWL3282 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Thistleton 19580626 June 26th 1958.
VWL3351 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560708 July 8th 1956.
VWL3364 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19560818 August 18th 1956.
VWL3365 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560818 August 18th 1956.
VWL3376 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19580209 February 9th 1958.
VWL3378 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19580209 February 9th 1958.
VWL3383 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Simona Pakenham 19580209 February 9th 1958
VWL3396 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margery Cullen 19580128 January 28th 1958.
VWL3412 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19560602 June 2nd 1956.
VWL3419 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 19580115 January 15th 1958.
VWL3420 Letter from Rutland Boughton to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19580109 9.1.58
VWL3442 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19561025 October 25th 1956.
VWL3443 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19561025 October 25th 1956.

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