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
VWL1351 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 193508-- [August 1935?]
VWL2359 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19520127 Jan 27 [1952?]
VWL2050 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19500712 12th July, 1950.
VWL3402 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19580122 January 22nd 1958.
VWL2902 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19451103 Nov 3 [1945?]
VWL1773 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 194503-- [March 1945]
VWL578 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert F. McEwen 19250329 [29 March 1925]
VWL696 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor H.G. Fiedler 193905-- [?May 1939]
VWL1513 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor H.G. Fiedler 19390126 January 26 [1939]
VWL1754 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Oxford University Press 19430309 [9 March 1943]
VWL1368 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to OUP 19380725 July 25 [1938]
VWL1722 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19421027 Oct 27 [1942]
VWL1910 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19440404 [4th April 1944]
VWL1911 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19440430 [30th April 1944]
VWL3686 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Mullinar 19500821 Aug 21 [1950]
VWL2444 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19520702 2nd. July, 1952.
VWL3035 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Messrs. Hampton & Sons 195306-- [June 1953?]
VWL3031 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Messrs Crow 19530420 20th April, 1953.
VWL3623 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 193612-- Dec. 1936
VWL4861 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1935---- [1930s?]
VWL597 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19260108 [8th January 1926]
VWL3168 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19490803 3rd. August, 1949.
VWL3162 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19490810 10th August, 1949.
VWL4083 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19240103 [?3 January, 1924]
VWL3566 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margery Cullen 19571115 November 15th 1957
VWL3615 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Laurence Binyon 19380709 July 9 [1938]
VWL2420 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joyce Hooper 19471125 Nov 25 [1947]
VWL4231 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joseph Cooper 19461125 Nov 25 [1946]
VWL4234 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joseph Cooper 19461026 Oct 26 [1946]
VWL4617 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19360131 Jan 31 [1936]

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