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
VWL1755 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Wood 19430315 March 15 [1943]
VWL1756 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19390407 April 7th [1939]
VWL1757 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19430411 April 11 [1943]
VWL1758 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19430416 April 16 [1943]
VWL1759 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vera Kantrovich 19430403 April 3rd [1943?]
VWL1760 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult (BBC) 19430501 May 1st 1943
VWL1761 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gwen Beckett (BBC) 19430506 May 6 [1943]
VWL1762 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Bliss 19430510 May 10 [1943]
VWL1763 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19430518 May 18 [1943]
VWL1764 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gwen Beckett (BBC) 19430521 [May 21st 1943]
VWL1765 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 1948---- [1948]
VWL1766 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 1948---- [?1948]
VWL1767 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1948---- [later part of 1948]
VWL1768 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Young 1950---- Friday [?1950]
VWL1769 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 1949---- Sunday [1948-9]
VWL1770 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 1949---- Friday [late 1940s?]
VWL1771 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 1949---- Sunday [about 1949]
VWL1772 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 1945012- [late January 1945]
VWL1773 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 194503-- [March 1945]
VWL1774 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denis Dowling 194601-- [late 1945 or early 1946]
VWL1775 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to H. Raymond Barnett 194605-- [about May 1946]
VWL1776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194603-- [?March 1946]
VWL1777 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 194701-- [January 1947]
VWL1778 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194703-- [Early March 1947]
VWL1779 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 194703-- [Early March 1947]
VWL1780 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 194704-- [?Spring 1947]
VWL1781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the conductors of the choirs of the Leith Hill Musical Festival 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL1782 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL1783 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 194712-- Friday [December 1947]
VWL1784 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gwen Beckett (BBC) 19430523 May 23 [1943]

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