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
VWL1631 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Bax 19420205 [About 5th February 1942]
VWL1632 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19420211 Feb 11 [1942]
VWL1633 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19420308 [About 8th March 1942]
VWL1634 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 194201-- [January 1942]
VWL1636 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Tippett 19420321 March 21 [1942?]
VWL1638 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391107 [7th November 1939]
VWL1640 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Amy Spurgeon 19420330 [30 March 1942]
VWL1642 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19391128 Nov 28 [1939]
VWL1643 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19391128 Nov 28 [1939]
VWL1644 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391129 [29th November 1939]
VWL1645 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rosamund Gotch 19391210 Dec 10 [??1939]
VWL1650 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Thomas Pitfield 1945---- [Before May 1945]
VWL1651 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 1945---- Friday [c.1945?]
VWL1652 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 1928---- Undated [?1928]
VWL1654 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1943 and 1945]
VWL1655 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946?]
VWL1656 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1662 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harold Child 19420518 May 18 [1942]
VWL1663 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19420520 [20 May 1942]
VWL1664 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1940 and 1946]
VWL1665 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1666 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946?]
VWL1667 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1668 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Blech 19420525 May 25 [1942]
VWL1671 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Beryl Lock 19410627 June 27 [1941]
VWL1674 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Beryl Lock 19420714 July 14 [1942]
VWL1677 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Blech 19420728 July 28 [1942?]
VWL1678 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Chapman 19420728 [28 July 1942]
VWL1683 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19420831 Aug 31 [1942]
VWL1685 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Calvocoressi 19420903 September 3rd 1942

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