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
VWL999 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19320320 March 20 [1932]
VWL3832 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1933---- [about 1933?]
VWL3874 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 193----- [1930s?]
VWL5268 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gillian Addis 194-0419 April 19 [1940s]
VWL5269 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gillian Addis 194-0519 May 19 [1940s]
VWL1648 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194-0620 June 20th [194-?]
VWL2349 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19520109 9th January, 1952.
VWL1670 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19420603 June 3rd, 1942
VWL1583 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19411102 Nov 2d [?1941]
VWL4741 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 19451004 Oct 4 [1945]
VWL5256 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Abraham 19490324 24th March, 1949.
VWL2462 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.O. May (OUP) 19520827 27th August, 1952.
VWL4325 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frederick Dwelly 193503-- [c. March 1935]
VWL2523 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Merrick 19521027 October 27th 1952.
VWL969 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19311106 Nov 6 1931
VWL853 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19300408 April 8 [1930]
VWL856 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19300413 Sunday [April 13 1930]
VWL5262 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernst Roth 19561117 November 17th 1956
VWL2934 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19481216 16th December, 1948
VWL3605 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Needham 19310112 January 12 [1931]
VWL3604 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Needham 19310101 Jan 1st 1931
VWL740 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward Clark (BBC) 1926---- [1926]
VWL3618 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19481216 16th December 1948
VWL5209 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E. Barry Green 19510110 10th January, 1951.
VWL779 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19350911 Sep 11 [1935]
VWL765 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19350805 Monday [about 5th August 1935]
VWL5155 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boris Ord 193706-- Sunday [summer 1937]
VWL2873 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Beryl Lock 19540911 September 11th 1954.
VWL3993 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alexander Burnard 19390514 May 14 1939
VWL2994 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19550203 February 3rd 1955.

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