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
VWL790 Note from Cecil Sharp [to Ralph Vaughan Williams] 192405-- [Written before June 1924]
VWL792 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Fly 192602-- [?February 1926]
VWL793 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 192602-- [February 1926]
VWL794 Memorandum on the General Strike by Ralph Vaughan Williams 192605-- [May 1926]
VWL795 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 192707-- [July 1927]
VWL796 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gwen Raverat 19270701 [July 1927]
VWL799 Letter from Archibald Davison to Joan Western 19350926 26.9.35
VWL800 Letter from Laurence Irving to Joan Western 19350928 28.9.35
VWL802 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19351006 October 6 [1935]
VWL805 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19351018 Oct 18 [1935]
VWL808 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19351103 [3rd November 1935]
VWL809 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 19351113 Nov 13 [1935?]
VWL810 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Hutchings 19351113 November 13 [1935 or later]
VWL812 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19351124 [24] Nov. 1935
VWL814 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gwen Raverat 19271001 [October 1927]
VWL815 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 192708-- [August 1927]
VWL816 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 192809-- [September 1928]
VWL818 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lady Wimborne 19351201 About 1st December 1935
VWL819 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19351202 [2 December 1935]
VWL820 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Ritchie 192810-- [October 1928]
VWL821 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19351208 December 8 [1935]
VWL822 Letter from Lady Wimborne to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19351212 December 12th l935
VWL823 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 192810-- [October 1928]
VWL824 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 192903-- [March 1929]
VWL825 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 192907-- Sunday [mid-July 1929]
VWL829 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19300107 7 Jan 1930
VWL830 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19351217 [17 December 1935]
VWL831 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19351224 Dec 24 [1935]
VWL832 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19351225 Xmas day [25th December 1935]
VWL833 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19351226 [c.26th December 1935?]

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