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
VWL735 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19350614 June 14 [1935]
VWL736 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19350614 [14th June 1935]
VWL737 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 192608-- [16 August 1926]
VWL738 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 1922---- [1922?]
VWL739 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1925---- Thursday [?about 1925]
VWL740 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward Clark (BBC) 1926---- [1926]
VWL741 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Fletcher 1927---- [1927?]
VWL742 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 1927---- [Before 1928]
VWL743 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 1928---- [before 1928]
VWL744 Letter from Frederick Stock to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19350625 25 June 1935
VWL745 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1929---- [?1929]
VWL746 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1927---- [1927]
VWL747 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 1929---- Friday [after 1929]
VWL748 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to A. Wynn (BBC) 19350626 June 26 [1935]
VWL749 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19350628 [28 June 1935]
VWL750 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19350704 [4th July 1935]
VWL751 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ethel Strudwick 19350706 July 6 [1935]
VWL752 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19350708 July 8 [1935]
VWL753 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ruth Charrington 192003-- [March 1920]
VWL754 Letter from Rosa Newmarch to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19350709 July 9th 1935.
VWL755 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192011-- [About November 1920?]
VWL756 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19350710 July 10 [1935]
VWL757 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19350712 July 12th 1935
VWL758 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19360714 July 14th [1936]
VWL759 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Scholes 192201-- [January 1922]
VWL760 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker and Nora Day 192207-- July 1922
VWL761 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 19350731 Wednesday [?31st July 1935]
VWL762 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19350804 Sunday [4th August 1935]
VWL763 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192209-- [Late 1922]
VWL764 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 19350805 [5th August 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