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.

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Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL942 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19360506 Wednesday [6th May 1936]
VWL944 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19360512 Friday [12th May 1936]
VWL952 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19360614 June 14 [1936]
VWL1019 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19321101 [About 1st November 1932]
VWL1057 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19330605 June 5 [1933]
VWL1059 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19330705 July 5 [1933]
VWL1081 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19330623 23 June 1933
VWL1111 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19361214 14 Dec 1936
VWL1123 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19331113 [13 November 1933]
VWL1137 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 1929---- [?1929]
VWL1165 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 193111-- [Mid October 1931]
VWL1166 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19370411 April 11 [1937]
VWL1176 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19370503 Monday [3rd May 1937]
VWL1197 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19340311 March 11 [1934]
VWL1225 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19390918 [18 September 1939]
VWL1268 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adine O’Neill 19340722 July 22 [1934]
VWL1282 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19380308 March 8 [1938]
VWL1324 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19341104 Nov 4th [1934]
VWL1328 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19380623 June 23 [?1938]
VWL1696 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Armstrong Gibbs 19421001 Oct 1st [1942]
VWL1822 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19431220 Dec 20 [?1943 ]
VWL2023 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E.J. Dent 19451211 Dec 11 [c1945?]
VWL2314 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19470807 7th August, 1947.
VWL2627 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19530128 28th January, 1953.
VWL2838 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19481022 Oct 22/48
VWL2878 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19541020 [About 20th October 1954]
VWL3015 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Everett Helm 19370321 March 21 [1937]
VWL3052 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19491228 28th December, 1949.
VWL3641 Letter from Edmund Rubbra to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19470808 [8 August 1947]
VWL3802 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Pietro Lauricella 19291031 Oct 31 [about 1929]

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