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
VWL1412 Talk by Ralph Vaughan Williams on folk song music for the BBC 19400327 [27 March 1940]
VWL681 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson at the BBC 19290730 [30 July 1929]
VWL1312 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson at the BBC 19340923 Sept 23 [1934]
VWL938 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson (BBC) 19310802 August 2nd [1931]
VWL671 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson (BBC) 19290604 [4 June 1929]
VWL1078 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson (BBC) 19330810 August 10 [1933]
VWL1163 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson (BBC) 193108-- [About August 1931]
VWL1086 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson (BBC) 19330815 August 15 [1933]
VWL1263 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson 19340617 June 17th [1934]
VWL3336 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.D. Kennedy-Bell 19580223 February 23rd 1958.
VWL1889 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19450514 May 14th 1945.
VWL1937 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19441013 [13 October 1944]
VWL1959 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 194410-- [October 1944]
VWL2040 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19460528 May 28 [1946]
VWL1891 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson (BBC) 19450525 May 25 [1945]
VWL1942 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor Hely-Hutchinson 19441025 Oct 25th [1944]
VWL2309 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Music Librarian (BBC) 19470721 July 21 [1947]
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
VWL3059 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491123 23rd November, 1949.
VWL1594 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19411205 Dec 5 [1941]
VWL1626 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19420104 Jan. 4th [1942]
VWL3124 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491030 [30th October 1949?]
VWL3125 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491030 Sunday [30th October 1949]
VWL3143 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19490928 September 28th, 1949.
VWL3077 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491116 16th November, 1949.
VWL838 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson 19300119 Sunday [19th January 1930]
VWL2785 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Steuart Wilson (BBC) 19480812 12th August, 1948.
VWL1861 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood at the BBC 19440121 Jan 21 [1944]

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