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.

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Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL2417 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19471120 20th November, 1947.
VWL1055 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19330415 [About 15th April 1933]
VWL3834 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1930---- [1930]
VWL2202 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510308 March 8 [1951]
VWL2212 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510409 April 9 [1951]
VWL2395 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19520416 16th April, 1952.
VWL1776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194603-- [?March 1946]
VWL2038 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460505 May 5 [1946]
VWL2035 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460425 April 25 [1946]
VWL2193 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19510221 21st. February, 1951.
VWL2675 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19530401 1st. April, 1953.
VWL2103 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19501011 11th October, 1950.
VWL3088 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.O. May (OUP) 19550511 May 11 [1955]
VWL1673 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eveline Reed 19420705 July 5 [1942]
VWL4388 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evangeline Farrer 19400208 Feb 8 [1940]
VWL4390 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evangeline Farrer 19380606 June 6 [1938 or 1939]
VWL4387 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evangeline Farrer 19400209 Feb 9 [1940]
VWL4396 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evangeline Farrer 19090609 9 Juin 1909
VWL4395 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evangeline Farrer 19080707 July 7th [1908]
VWL665 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 193804-- [April 1938]
VWL3925 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eila Mackenzie 19540911 September 11th 1954.
VWL1191 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward Elgar 19340219 Feb 19th [1934]
VWL1231 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dora Foss 19340326 March 26 [about 1934?]
VWL664 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 192908-- [August 1929]
VWL1241 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19340513 [13th May 1934]
VWL666 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 192908-- [July/August 1929]
VWL690 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19291016 [16th October 1929]
VWL1383 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denis Dowling 19400205 Feb 5th [1940]
VWL1395 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denis Dowling 19400215 Feb 15 [1940]
VWL5139 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cranleigh Choral Society 19451102 Nov 2 [1945]

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