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.

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Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL3063 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Ivor Atkins 1935---- [1935?]
VWL3064 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19550227 February 27th 1955.
VWL3067 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Keith Falkner 19550307 March 7th 1955.
VWL3074 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19550402 April 2nd 1955.
VWL3080 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19491115 [On or about 15 November 1949]
VWL3083 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19550422 April 22 [1955]
VWL3088 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.O. May (OUP) 19550511 May 11 [1955]
VWL3089 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19550517 May 17th 1955.
VWL3091 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ross Lee Finney 19550603 June 3rd 1955.
VWL3092 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Howes 19550603 June 3rd 1955.
VWL3095 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19550615 June 15th 1955.
VWL3096 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19550619 [19 June 1955]
VWL3097 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Benjamin Frankel 19550620 June 20 1955
VWL3098 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19550620 June 20th 1955.
VWL3101 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.O. May (OUP) 19550701 July 1st 1955.
VWL3111 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19550806 August 6th 1955.
VWL3112 Contribution to a party game 19491110 [10 November 1949]
VWL3113 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19491109 9th November, 1949.
VWL3115 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19541225 Xmas 1954
VWL3122 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19491101 [About 2 November 1949]
VWL3123 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19491101 [About 1 November 1949]
VWL3124 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491030 [30th October 1949?]
VWL3125 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491030 Sunday [30th October 1949]
VWL3126 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19510521 [21 May 1951]
VWL3127 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19491025 Oct 25 [1949]
VWL3129 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19550810 [August 10 1955]
VWL3130 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Stubbs 19491025 Oct 25 [1949]
VWL3135 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19491013 Thursday [Oct 13/49.]
VWL3137 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Isidore Schwiller 19491013 Oct 13 [1949]
VWL3138 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19491005 5th October, 1949.

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