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
VWL2996 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19550210 February 10th [1955]
VWL2924 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19541225 December 25th 1954.
VWL3377 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19580209 February 9th [1958]
VWL344 Letter from Steuart Wilson to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19421109 9 Nov. 1942
VWL2360 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Librarian of the Hallé Orchestra 19520131 Jan 31 1952
VWL481 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19211011 10/11/21
VWL480 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19211007 7/10/21
VWL1514 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Adrian Boult (BBC) 19390130 Jan 30 [1939]
VWL3491 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Simona Pakenham 195608-- [After July 1956]
VWL3212 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19551028 October 28th 1955.
VWL123 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 1909---- [1909?]
VWL216 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19061126 November 26 [1906]
VWL153 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 190708-- [?Summer 1907]
VWL1694 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19420928 Sept 28 [1942]
VWL3211 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Del Mar 19551023 October 23rd 1955.
VWL2389 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19520403 April 3 [1952]
VWL2966 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19550113 Jan 13 1955
VWL4695 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maurice R.A. Reeve 19570115 January 15th 1957
VWL4804 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19280203 [3 February 1928]
VWL3911 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to LeRoy Van Hoesen jr 19550620 June 20th 1955
VWL2278 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Russell 19511012 12th October 1951
VWL2377 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19520312 12th March, 1952.
VWL2385 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19520325 25th March, 1952.
VWL2277 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19511006 Oct 6 1951
VWL5179 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hugh Percy Allen 19110310 [10 March 1911]
VWL1584 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19411106 Nov 6 [1941]
VWL331 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Thompson 191009-- [About September 1910]
VWL332 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Thompson 191009-- [About September 1910]
VWL1737 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19421217 [17 December 1942]
VWL2520 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Bardgett 19521022 Oct 22 [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