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
VWL3245 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19360821 August 21 [1936?]
VWL4326 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marion Scott 19370803 August 3 [1937]
VWL4432 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Marie Stopes 19391208 December 8 [1939]
VWL631 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Keynes 19280612 June 12 [1928?]
VWL4714 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Field-Hyde 194810-- [October 1948]
VWL3014 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Deneke 19380424 April 24 [1938]
VWL676 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Malcolm Sargent 19290623 Sunday [23 June 1929]
VWL1398 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell 19400303 March 3rd [1940]
VWL1410 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell 19400324 March 24 [1940]
VWL1739 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major General Robert Lock 19430114 January 14 [1943]
VWL4492 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maja Kjöhler 19090115 [15 January 1909]
VWL637 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lucy Broadwood 19281030 October 30 [1928]
VWL3997 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louise Dyer 19370419 April 19 [1937]
VWL600 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louise Alvar 19260219 Feb 19 [1926]
VWL4781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Boyd Neel 1940---- [late 1940]
VWL4785 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Boyd Neel 19401203 Dec 3 [1940?]
VWL4780 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Boyd Neel 1937---- Monday [1937]
VWL4784 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Boyd Neel 1950---- Dec 8 [1950]
VWL4546 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lord Gorell 19291123 November 23, 1929
VWL4040 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lewis Crow 19400604 June 4 [1940]
VWL603 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Fly 19260328 March 28 [1926]
VWL4984 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Arthur Boosey 19401031 October 31 [1940]
VWL4993 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Arthur Boosey 19330813 August 13 [1933]
VWL3019 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490604 June 4 [1949]
VWL2972 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490321 March 21 [1949]
VWL2980 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490331 March 31 1949
VWL4366 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Neary 19461128 Nov 28 [1946]
VWL1591 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Isaacs (BBC) 19411127 Nov 27 [1941]
VWL3615 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Laurence Binyon 19380709 July 9 [1938]
VWL438 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lady Dorothea Butterworth 19180216 Saturday [?16th February 1918]

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