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
VWL1725 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1796 Letter from Ursula Wood to Joy Finzi 19430802 2.8.43
VWL2039 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Isaacs (BBC) 19460505 May 5th 1946.
VWL2078 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19500826 August 26th [1950?]
VWL2125 Letter from Ursula Wood to Gerald Finzi 19501218 18.12.50.
VWL2214 Letter from Ursula Wood to Beryl Lock 19510421 Saturday [21 April 1951]
VWL2262 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19510703 July 3rd [1951]
VWL2267 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Anthony Scott 19510818 18.8.51
VWL2336 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19520102 January 2 [1952]
VWL2340 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 195104-- [mid April 1951]
VWL2358 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19520126 January 26th 1952.
VWL2381 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19520316 March 16th 1952.
VWL2384 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to James McKay Martin 19520320 March 20th [1952?]
VWL2408 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19520510 May 10th 1952.
VWL2415 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19520524 May 24th 1952
VWL2416 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19520525 May 25th 1952
VWL2424 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19520603 June 3rd 1952.
VWL2465 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19520909 September 9th [1952]
VWL2522 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19521026 October 26th [1952]
VWL2523 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Merrick 19521027 October 27th 1952.
VWL2524 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19521027 October 27th 1952.
VWL2547 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19521118 November 18th 1952.
VWL2552 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank 19521129 November 29th 1952
VWL2611 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19530115 Jan. 15th 1953
VWL2848 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19481026 Tuesday [26 October 1948]
VWL2930 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher Hassall 19530115 15 January 1953
VWL3684 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar 19471004 October 4th [1947?]
VWL4163 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19520817 August 17th 1952.

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