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
VWL2803 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19480927 Sept 27 [1948?]
VWL808 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19351103 [3rd November 1935]
VWL736 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19350614 [14th June 1935]
VWL1201 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19370806 Aug 6th 1937
VWL3020 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19490605 June 5/49
VWL3021 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19490608 8th June, 1949
VWL731 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19350608 [8th June 1935]
VWL2831 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Geoffrey Cumberlege 19540626 June 26th 1954.
VWL3114 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 19491109 9th November, 1949
VWL3053 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frederick Page 19491228 28th December, 1949.
VWL4472 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Howes 19540630 June 30th 1954
VWL2407 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Howes 19520502 May 2nd [1952]
VWL3284 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eugene Goossens 19580624 June 24th 1958.
VWL4229 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Newman 19470509 [9 May 1947]
VWL134 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 190306-- [About June 1903]
VWL3275 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E.A. Barber, Headmaster of Swaffham Primary School 19580710 July 10th 1958.
VWL2341 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dr Ferdinand Rauter 19510515 [ca 15 May 1951]
VWL4832 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Clive Carey 19521015 [ca 15 October, 1952]
VWL798 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19350923 September 23 [1935]
VWL1138 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19370123 [23rd January 1937]
VWL1696 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Armstrong Gibbs 19421001 Oct 1st [1942]
VWL1716 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Benjamin Britten 19421022 Oct 22 [1942]
VWL4478 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Benjamin Britten 195710-- [late October 1957?]
VWL809 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 19351113 Nov 13 [1935?]
VWL2397 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 19471016 16th October, 1947
VWL2130 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19461013 Oct 13 [1946]
VWL2327 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19471014 Oct 14th [1947]
VWL3135 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19491013 Thursday [Oct 13/49.]
VWL730 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian and Ann Boult 19350607 [7 June 1935]
VWL1046 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to A.H. Fox-Strangways 19330220 Feb. 20 [?1933]

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