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
VWL5135 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Morning Post 19041004 4 October, 1904
VWL5132 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Listener 19350320 [20 March, 1935]
VWL5131 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Listener 19560809 [9 August, 1956]
VWL3340 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph 19580220 20th February 1958
VWL5134 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Daily Chronicle 19060526 Saturday 26 May, 1906
VWL2438 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of the Bournemouth Daily Echo. 19520624 [24th June 1952]
VWL1623 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the editor of Civil Liberty 19411231 Dec 31 1941
VWL1936 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of ‘Music & Letters’ 19441001 October 1st 1944
VWL4953 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Dean of Westminster Abbey 19571015 October 15th 1957.
VWL4964 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Covent Garden Opera Company 19510427 [late April 1951]
VWL1781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the conductors of the choirs of the Leith Hill Musical Festival 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL2974 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the conductors and the choirs of the Leith Hill Musical Festival 19490324 24th March, 1949.
VWL3445 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Committee of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust 19561029 October 29th 1956
VWL1912 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Churchwarden, Dorking Parish Church 19440504 May 4th 1944
VWL3187 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Choirmaster and members of the Budo Festival Choir 19550829 29 August 1955
VWL4763 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Choir of Kensington High School 19421022 Oct 22 [1942]
VWL2192 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the children of the Parents’ Union School, Ambleside 19510219 February, 1951
VWL433 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19170923 Sept 23rd [1917]
VWL481 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19211011 10/11/21
VWL434 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19171001 Oct 1st [1917]
VWL467 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19201221 21 December 1920
VWL482 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19211127 27/11/21
VWL487 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19220118 18/1/22
VWL466 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19201215 15 December 1920
VWL431 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19170720 July 20 [1917]
VWL480 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19211007 7/10/21
VWL491 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19220202 2/2/22
VWL1286 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the BBC 19380410 Sunday [10 April 1938]
VWL1125 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the BBC 19331214 Dec 14 [1933]
VWL2140 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the BBC 19461119 Nov 19/46

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