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
VWL4203 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan and Martin Shaw 195302-- [February, 1953]
VWL726 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19350607 June 6 [1935]
VWL727 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19350607 [7th June 1935]
VWL1092 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19361015 Thursday [15th October 1936]
VWL1249 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss at Oxford University Press 19371025 [25th October 1937]
VWL1765 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 1948---- [1948]
VWL1964 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19451014 Oct 14 [1945]
VWL2131 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19461014 Oct 14 [1946]
VWL2134 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19461018 Oct 18 [1946?]
VWL736 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19350614 [14th June 1935]
VWL1201 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19370806 Aug 6th 1937
VWL3132 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19491018 Tuesday [18th October 1949]
VWL723 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 19350607 June 7 [1935]
VWL2130 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19461013 Oct 13 [1946]
VWL730 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian and Ann Boult 19350607 [7 June 1935]
VWL1624 Letter from R.O.Morris to Alice Sumsion 19420103 Jan 3 1942
VWL3921 Letter from Peter and Ilse [Meyer] to Alan Bush 19370115 15/1/37.
VWL3910 Letter from Olin Downes to LeRoy Van Hoesen jr 19550602 June 2, 1955
VWL768 Letter from Marion Scott to Adeline Vaughan Williams 19350819 Aug. 19th 1935
VWL3714 Letter from Margot Fonteyn to Vaughan Williams Memorial subscribers 195903-- March, 1959
VWL3909 Letter from LeRoy Van Hoesen, jr to Olin Downes 19550527 May 27, 1955
VWL2891 Letter from Keith Falkner to Luther Noss 19541212 12 xii 54
VWL3922 Letter from Ilse to Alan Bush 19370131 31/1/37.
VWL3189 Letter from Herbert Byard to Ursula Vaughan Williams 19600427 27 April 1960
VWL3962 Letter from Gustav Holst to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19330901 Sep 1, [1933]
VWL3960 Letter from Gustav Holst to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19220409 April 9
VWL3958 Letter from Gustav Holst to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19140329 Sunday [29 March, 1914]
VWL3902 Letter from Gustav Holst to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19320415 April 15 [1932]
VWL3961 Letter from Gustav Holst to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19251111 Nov 11, [1925]
VWL3919 Letter from Gustav Holst to Adeline Vaughan Williams 19310419 Tuesday [19 April, 1931]

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