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
VWL812 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19351124 [24] Nov. 1935
VWL939 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Sumsion 19310809 August 9 [1931]
VWL945 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19360522 Friday [22nd May 1936]
VWL977 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foster Clark (BBC) 19360810 August 10 [1936]
VWL981 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19360831 Monday smorn [31st August 1936]
VWL1036 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 193302-- [Late February 1933]
VWL1085 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 1933---- [About 1933?]
VWL1091 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to A. Wynn (BBC) 19361010 Oct 10th [1936]
VWL1093 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19361022 [?22 October] 1936
VWL1122 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19340103 [3 January 1934]
VWL1124 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19331207 Dec 7 [1933]
VWL1140 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19370131 January 31 [1937].
VWL1142 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19370221 Sunday [21st February 1937]
VWL1161 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Geoffrey Bush 19370317 March 17 [1937]
VWL1162 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19370401 April 1 [1937]
VWL1167 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19370413 April 13 [1937]
VWL1170 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19370803 August 3 [1937]
VWL1171 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19370411 April 11 [1937]
VWL1202 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to James Craufurd (Madrigal Society) 19501206 6th December, 1950
VWL1207 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19370906 Monday smorn [6th September 1937]
VWL1213 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19370919 [19th September 1937]
VWL1214 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19370919 [19 September 1937]
VWL1226 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19391231 Dec 31 [1939]
VWL1241 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19340513 [13th May 1934]
VWL1244 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19371003 Sunday [3rd October 1937]
VWL1246 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19371009 Oct 9th [1937]
VWL1251 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19371102 Tuesday [2 November 1937]
VWL1252 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Armstrong Gibbs 19371108 [8th November 1937]
VWL1284 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19380325 March 25 [1938]
VWL1285 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denis Dowling 19380414 April 14 [1938 or 1939]

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