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.

Searching:
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
VWL1616 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391019 19th October [1939]
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]
VWL1638 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391107 [7th November 1939]
VWL1644 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391129 [29th November 1939]
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]
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]
VWL1724 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1725 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1726 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [About 1945]
VWL1740 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194207-- [July 1942]
VWL1741 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194208-- [?August 1942]
VWL1742 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194209-- [About September 1942]
VWL1743 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194210-- [About October 1942]
VWL1767 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1948---- [later part of 1948]
VWL1836 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194801-- [January 1948]
VWL1837 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194902-- Tuesday morning [February 1948]
VWL1839 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194303-- [March 1943]
VWL1840 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194303-- [March 1943]
VWL1844 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1943---- [1943]
VWL1851 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194908-- Tuesday [mid-August 1949]
VWL1852 Letter from Gerald Finzi to Ursula Wood 194911-- [November 1949?]
VWL1868 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19440229 Feb 29 [1944 ] (eve of Leap year!!!)
VWL1928 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19440819 Aug 19th [1944]

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