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.

Searching:
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]
VWL3258 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19560119 Jan 19th [1956]
VWL3305 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19580408 April 8th [1958]
VWL3471 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19570317 March 17th [1957]
VWL3377 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19580209 February 9th [1958]
VWL3463 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19570208 February 8th [1957]
VWL2753 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19540110 January 10th 1954.
VWL4190 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw 19570321 March 21st [1957]
VWL4250 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Joan and Martin Shaw 19580226 February 26th [1958]
VWL2664 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19530302 March 2nd 1953
VWL3964 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19520224 February 24th [1952]
VWL3340 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph 19580220 20th February 1958
VWL2974 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the conductors and the choirs of the Leith Hill Musical Festival 19490324 24th March, 1949.
VWL4966 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sylvia Spencer 19491123 23rd November, 1949.
VWL3280 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rosamund Strode 19580629 June 29th 1958
VWL4588 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Richard Standen 19560326 March 26th 1956.
VWL5169 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Nicholson 19491221 21st. December, 1949.
VWL4648 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19530320 March 20 [1953]
VWL4649 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19521203 3rd. December, 1952.
VWL4655 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19480115 [15 January 1948]
VWL4650 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19511205 5th December 1951
VWL4651 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19501206 6th December, 1950.
VWL4653 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19481208 8th December, 1948.
VWL3754 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Mitchell 19461008 October 8th, 1946
VWL3137 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Isidore Schwiller 19491013 Oct 13 [1949]
VWL3007 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Bowen 19461008 October 8th, 1946
VWL2786 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19540210 February 10th 1954.
VWL3385 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19580205 February 5th 1958
VWL3461 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19570126 January 26th 1957.
VWL3468 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19570303 3 March 1957

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