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
VWL4788 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19250615 [mid-June 1925]
VWL1020 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19321113 [About 13th November 1932]
VWL4864 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1936---- [1936]
VWL3245 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19360821 August 21 [1936?]
VWL4326 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19370803 August 3 [1937]
VWL2993 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margery Cullen 19550130 January 30th 1955
VWL4760 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Malcolm Sargent 19541124 November 24th 1954.
VWL1364 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell 19400120 Jan 20 [1940]
VWL826 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lucy Broadwood 192908-- [Before August 1929]
VWL639 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lucy Broadwood 19281107 7th November 1928
VWL1962 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19450915 Sept 15 [1945]
VWL4234 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joseph Cooper 19461026 Oct 26 [1946]
VWL4282 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Warrack (OUP) 19540502 May 2nd 1954
VWL2522 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19521026 October 26th [1952]
VWL5086 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 19450104 Jan 4 [1945?]
VWL5082 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jean Stewart 1947---- [1947?]
VWL1124 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19331207 Dec 7 [1933]
VWL1129 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19331226 Dec 26 [1933 ]
VWL249 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19350303 [3 March 1935]
VWL1766 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 1948---- [?1948]
VWL1339 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foster Clark (BBC) 19341127 Nov 27 [1934]
VWL635 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss at Oxford University Press 19281001 [About 1 October 1928]
VWL1487 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (Oxford University Press) 194004-- [About April 1940]
VWL4765 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (Oxford University Press) 19400916 September 16 [ca 1940]
VWL1248 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19371025 [24 Oct 1937]
VWL1530 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19410407 April 7 [1941]
VWL1584 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19411106 Nov 6 [1941]
VWL1359 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19400120 Jan 20 [1940]
VWL803 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19351007 October 7 [1935]
VWL1507 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 1940---- [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