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.

Searching:
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
VWL1480 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401225 Dec 25 [1940]
VWL1501 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194010-- Sunday [Autumn 1940]
VWL1552 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194111-- [Early November 1941]
VWL2427 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19520606 6.6.52
VWL1724 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1740 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194207-- [July 1942]
VWL1223 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390915 [15th September 1939]
VWL1228 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391226 Dec 26 [1939]
VWL649 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193804-- [About April 1938]
VWL1743 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194210-- [About October 1942]
VWL1414 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400410 [10 April 1940]
VWL1440 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401001 [About 1st October 1940]
VWL1582 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19411016 Thursday [16th October 1941]
VWL672 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193906-- [June, 1939]
VWL1358 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400111 Jan 11 [1940]
VWL1373 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400125 Jan 25 [1940]
VWL1477 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401214 [Dec 14th? '40]
VWL1488 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194006-- [June 1940]
VWL1492 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194007-- [July 1940]
VWL1505 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1940---- [1940]
VWL1506 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1940---- [1940]
VWL1531 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19410408 [8 April 1941]
VWL1605 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391012 [12th October 1939]
VWL1308 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19380614 Midnight - Tuesday [14 June 1938]
VWL1357 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400106 Jan 6 [1940]
VWL701 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193909-- [September 1939]
VWL2511 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19471227 December 27 [1947]
VWL1953 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19441226 Dec 26 [1944]
VWL833 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19351226 [c.26th December 1935?]
VWL1405 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19381101 [c.1 November 1938]

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