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
VWL2925 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19541225 December 25th 1954.
VWL2926 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19541227 December 27th [1954] .
VWL2927 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 1953---- Friday [1953?]
VWL2928 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Alan Barlow 1954---- [1954?]
VWL2929 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert John Sumsion 1953---- [1953 or later]
VWL2930 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher Hassall 19530115 15 January 1953
VWL2931 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19481211 Dec 11 [1948]
VWL2932 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sidney P. Waddington 19481215 Dec 15 [1948]
VWL2933 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19481215 15 January, 1948
VWL2934 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19481216 16th December, 1948
VWL2935 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19481216 16th December, 1948.
VWL2936 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19481216 16th December, 1948.
VWL2937 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19481222 22nd. December, 1948.
VWL2938 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19481229 29th December, 1948.
VWL2939 Letter from Adeline Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19481230 December 30 [1948]
VWL2940 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19490106 January 6 [1949]
VWL2941 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19490106 Jan 6 1949
VWL2942 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19490114 Jan 14 [1949]
VWL2943 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Veronica Gotch 19490124 [About 24th January 1949]
VWL2944 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Hamber 19490126 26th January, 1949.
VWL2945 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490126 26th January, 1949.
VWL2946 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490209 9th February, 1949
VWL2947 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eric Walter White 19490209 9th February, 1949.
VWL2948 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sinclair Logan 19490914 14th September, 1949.
VWL2949 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cambridge University Music Society 195403-- [March 1954]
VWL2950 Foreword from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Society for the Promotion of New Music 195403-- [About March 1954]
VWL2951 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Warrack (OUP) 195403-- [March 1954]
VWL2952 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19490217 17th February, 1949.
VWL2953 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19490217 17th February, 1949.
VWL2954 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490217 17th February, 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