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
VWL368 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19110425 April 25th [1911]
VWL4733 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Chambers 19500915 Sept 15 [early 1950s]
VWL4735 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Chambers 19550528 May 28th 1955.
VWL2659 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Geoffrey Bush 19530218 18th February, 1953.
VWL5215 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Sidgwick 1908---- [probably 1908 or later]
VWL4470 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Howes 19350718 July 18 [late 1930s]
VWL4397 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frances Farrer, Secretary of the Leith Hill Musical Competitions 192910-- [October 1929]
VWL351 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 191411-- [November 1914]
VWL4132 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 192701-- Sunday, [January, ?1927]
VWL4133 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 19270113 Jan 13 [?1927]
VWL4136 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 1943---- [?1943]
VWL1061 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Charles Myers 193307-- [July 1933]
VWL388 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 19131103 [About 3 November 1913]
VWL147 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 190611-- Wed [November 1906]
VWL150 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 190705-- [After April, 1907]
VWL436 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 19171228 Dec 28th [1917]
VWL148 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 190611-- [November 1906]
VWL3214 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19551030 October 30th 1955
VWL1046 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to A.H. Fox-Strangways 19330220 Feb. 20 [?1933]
VWL3630 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to ? Cecil Sharp 19061127 27 Nov 1906
VWL3654 Letter from Maud Karpeles to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19361207 7.12.36.
VWL3714 Letter from Margot Fonteyn to Vaughan Williams Memorial subscribers 195903-- March, 1959
VWL3160 Letter from Margaret Dean-Smith to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19461104 4th November, 1946.
VWL389 Letter from Cecil Sharp to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19131109 9.11.13.
VWL151 Draft notes by Ralph Vaughan Williams relating to Cecil Sharp’s English Folksongs (London 1907) 190705-- [?May 1907]

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