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
VWL4599 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Dearmer 1925---- [1925]
VWL4108 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Dearmer 19141211 Dec. 11 14
VWL4502 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Dearmer 191905-- [May, 1919]
VWL668 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Penelope Spencer 19290331 [About 31st March 1929]
VWL656 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Penelope Spencer 19290121 [Third week of January 1929]
VWL3970 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peggy Glanville-Hicks 194807-- Sunday [July 1948]
VWL3971 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peggy Glanville-Hicks 19510119 Jan 19 [1951]
VWL3967 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peggy Glanville-Hicks 194710-- [1947?]
VWL4435 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Paul Hirsch 19460411 April11 1946
VWL3436 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Paul Henry Lang 19561018 October 18th, 1956
VWL3022 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Patrick Hadley 19490608 8th June, 1949
VWL3045 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Parry Jones 19510513 13 May 1951
VWL3046 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Parry Jones 19500816 16 August 1950
VWL713 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Pablo Casals 19291229 December 29 [1929]
VWL1754 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Oxford University Press 19430309 [9 March 1943]
VWL5113 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Owen Wister 19321105 Nov 5 [1932]
VWL897 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Owen Mase (BBC) 19310105 [5th January 1931]
VWL1320 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Owen Mase (BBC) 19341018 Oct 18 [1934]
VWL3844 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Olin Downes 19410124 [24 January, 1941]
VWL3907 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Olin Downes 1953090- [early September, 1953]
VWL5114 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Olga Koussevitsky 19521014 October 14th 1952.
VWL5127 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Olga Koussevitsky 19510707 7th July, 1951.
VWL5115 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Olga Koussevitsky 19540619 June 19th 1954.
VWL3290 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Tattersall 19580604 June 4th 1958.
VWL1455 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19390106 Jan 6 [?1939]
VWL2009 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19451021 Oct. 21 [1945]
VWL1878 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19450314 14 March, 1945
VWL1899 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19450729 [29th July 1945]
VWL1669 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19420531 [31 May 1942]
VWL2012 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19451027 Oct 27 [1945]

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