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
VWL118 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 1899---- Wednesday [1899?]
VWL240 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19350219 Feb 19 [1935]
VWL241 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19350224 Feb 24 [1935]
VWL250 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19350309 March 9 [1935]
VWL333 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 191101-- [Early 1911]
VWL335 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 191107-- [July 1911]
VWL368 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19110425 April 25th [1911]
VWL417 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to David Stanley Smith 19350414 [14th April 1935]
VWL472 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19210401 1/4/21
VWL525 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Armstrong Gibbs 194001-- [January 1940?]
VWL557 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19240605 [c. September 1924]
VWL647 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to The Musical Times 193802-- February 1938
VWL655 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 193902-- [Early February 1939]
VWL769 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19350822 Aug 22 [1935]
VWL802 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19351006 October 6 [1935]
VWL943 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boris Ord 19360512 May 12th [c1936?]
VWL952 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19360614 June 14 [1936]
VWL1048 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19330311 [11 March 1933]
VWL1168 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19370514 Friday [14th May 1937]
VWL1190 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19370725 Sunday [25th July 1937]
VWL1321 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Bernard van Dieren 19341020 October 20 [?1934]
VWL1328 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19380623 June 23 [?1938]
VWL1385 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Newman 19400214 Feb 14 [1940]
VWL1392 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Pilgrim Trust 19400403 April 3 [1940]
VWL1393 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harry Farjeon 19400412 April 12 [1940]
VWL1394 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Daniel Jones 19400406 April 6th [1940]
VWL1407 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Newman 19381113 Nov 13 [1938]
VWL1419 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Librarian , King’s College, Cambridge. 19400425 April 25th 1940
VWL1430 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Granville Bantock 19400821 August 21 [1940]
VWL1433 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Granville Bantock 19400828 August 28 [1940]

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