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
VWL1915 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Mü̈ller-Hartmann 19440516 May 16th [1944]
VWL2202 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510308 March 8 [1951]
VWL2217 Letter from Edward J. Dent to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19510427 27 April 1951
VWL2220 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19510430 April 30 [1951]
VWL2222 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510502 [2nd May 1951]
VWL2223 Letter from Edward J. Dent to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19510502 2 May 1951
VWL2226 Letter from Edward J. Dent to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19510506 6 May 1951
VWL2230 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19510517 17th May, 1951
VWL2255 Letter from Hubert Foss to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19510620 20th June, 1951
VWL2265 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Tranchell 19510808 8th August, 1951.
VWL2340 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 195104-- [mid April 1951]
VWL2387 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19520403 3rd. April, 1952.
VWL2612 Letter from Michael Kennedy to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19530118 Sunday, Jan 18th, 1953.
VWL2618 Letter from Ernest Irving to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19530122 Thurs 22/1/53
VWL2619 Letter from Gerald Finzi to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19530122 Jan 22nd [1953]
VWL2628 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Hamber 19530128 28th January, 1953.
VWL2670 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19530318 18th March, 1953.
VWL2783 Letter from Serge Koussevitzky to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19480810 August 10, 1948
VWL2797 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19540302 March 2nd 1954.
VWL2813 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19540404 April 4th 1954.
VWL2867 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19401223 Dec 23 [1940?]
VWL2950 Foreword from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Society for the Promotion of New Music 195403-- [About March 1954]
VWL2959 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490309 9th March, 1949
VWL3290 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Tattersall 19580604 June 4th 1958.
VWL3311 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Bardgett 19560325 March 25th 1956.
VWL3399 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560513 May 13th 1956.
VWL3770 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19480523 May 23 1948
VWL3840 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1935---- Jan 19 [mid-1930s?]
VWL3841 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1935---- [mid 1930s?]
VWL3849 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19510926 26th September, 1951.

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