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
VWL1845 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19450204 Sunday [4 February 1945]
VWL1846 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19440101 Jan 1/1944
VWL1847 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 194807-- [About July 1948?]
VWL1848 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote 194904-- [?April 1949]
VWL1849 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 194905-- [?May 1949]
VWL1850 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 194907-- Sunday [late July 1949?]
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?]
VWL1853 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 1949080- [Early August 1949]
VWL1854 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Zoltán Kodály 193311-- [November 1933]
VWL1855 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush 19431206 Dec 6 [?1943]
VWL1856 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19460411 Thursday [April 11 1946]
VWL1857 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 19450102 Jan 2nd 1945
VWL1858 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19440108 Jan 8 [1944]
VWL1859 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19440115 [Mid January 1944]
VWL1860 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19440118 Jan 18 [1944]
VWL1861 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood at the BBC 19440121 Jan 21 [1944]
VWL1862 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19440205 Feb 5. [1944]
VWL1863 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.R. Barnes at the BBC 19440208 Feb 8 1944
VWL1864 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19440213 Feb 13 [1944]
VWL1865 Letter from Adrian Boult to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19440214 14th February 1944
VWL1866 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19440218 Feb 18 [1944]
VWL1867 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19440225 Feb 25 [1944]
VWL1868 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19440229 Feb 29 [1944 ] (eve of Leap year!!!)
VWL1869 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19450104 Jan 4th [1945]
VWL1870 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush 19450110 Jan 10 [1945]
VWL1871 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19450201 Feb 1 [1945]
VWL1872 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19450207 Feb 7 [1945]
VWL1873 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Henn Collins 19450211 Feb 11 [1945]
VWL1874 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E.J. Dent 19450216 Feb 16 [1945]

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