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
VWL3598 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Simona Pakenham 19571025 October 25th 1957
VWL3280 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rosamund Strode 19580629 June 29th 1958
VWL2600 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19480522 May 22nd, 1948.
VWL207 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19060806 [6th August 1906]
VWL200 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19051112 [12th November 1905]
VWL210 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19061005 [5th October 1906]
VWL1205 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor H.G. Fiedler 19370816 August 16 1937
VWL2682 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Young 19530513 13th May, 1953
VWL2835 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Young 19481020 20th October, 1948.
VWL2985 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Young 19490428 28th April, 1949
VWL3022 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Patrick Hadley 19490608 8th June, 1949
VWL1705 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Del Mar 19421014 Oct 14 [1942]
VWL2595 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nikolai Malko 19480429 29th April, 1948
VWL4095 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mr and Mrs Martin Shaw 193506-- [June 1935]
VWL4265 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Molly Imlach 19571018 18 Oct 1957
VWL3365 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560818 August 18th 1956.
VWL2786 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19540210 February 10th 1954.
VWL3031 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Messrs Crow 19530420 20th April, 1953.
VWL4337 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Sheppard 19531018 October 18th 1953.
VWL2398 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19471016 16th October, 1947.
VWL4091 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19201014 15 October, 1920
VWL4086 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19160802 Wednesday Aug 2nd [1916]
VWL4092 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19200818 18/8/20
VWL4087 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 192008-- [August, 1920]
VWL4090 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19201106 [6 November, 1920]
VWL4513 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin and Joan Shaw 19421028 28 October, 1942
VWL3055 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lisette and Robert Longman 19491204 Monday [?4th December 1949]
VWL3033 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lewis Crow 19530513 13th May, 1953.
VWL2810 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19481014 Oct 14 [1948]
VWL3079 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Tressider Sheppard, Provost of King’s College Cambridge 19491116 16th November, 1949

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