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
VWL1367 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19380722 July 22 [1938]
VWL1487 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (Oxford University Press) 194004-- [About April 1940]
VWL1507 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 1940---- [1940]
VWL1520 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19410118 Jan 18 [1941]
VWL1530 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19410407 April 7 [1941]
VWL1539 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19410613 June 13 [1941]
VWL1553 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19410803 Aug 3rd [?1941]
VWL1567 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19390612 June 12 [1939]
VWL1581 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19410912 Sep 12 [1941]
VWL1584 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19411106 Nov 6 [1941]
VWL1588 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19411117 Nov 17 [1947]
VWL1590 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19411122 Sat [22nd November 1941]
VWL1683 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19420831 Aug 31 [1942]
VWL1691 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19420923 Sept 23 [1942]
VWL1703 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19421014 Oct 14 [1942]
VWL1713 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19421020 Oct 20 [1942]
VWL1734 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19421113 Nov 13 [1942]
VWL1765 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 1948---- [1948]
VWL1843 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 194311-- [1943]
VWL1981 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19500315 15th March, l950.
VWL2069 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19500726 26th July, 1950
VWL2110 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert and Dora Foss 19501018 October 18th, 1950
VWL2177 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19510124 24th January, 1951
VWL2188 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19510207 7th February 1951
VWL2195 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19510221 21st. February, 1951
VWL2198 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19510228 28th February, 1951
VWL2236 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19510517 17th May, 1951
VWL2258 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19510624 [24th June 1951]
VWL2260 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19510627 27th June, 1951
VWL2294 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19511114 Nov 14 [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