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
VWL507 Letter from Vally Lasker to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19230308 March 8th 23
VWL2340 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 195104-- [mid April 1951]
VWL1232 Letter from Steuart Wilson to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19340402 Ap.2nd 1934
VWL2783 Letter from Serge Koussevitzky to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19480810 August 10, 1948
VWL509 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19230310 [10th March 1923]
VWL286 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to The Musician 18971027 October 27, l897
VWL4486 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Times 19550528 [May 28 1955]
VWL1330 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Times 19380626 June 26 [1938]
VWL1912 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Churchwarden, Dorking Parish Church 19440504 May 4th 1944
VWL1915 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Mü̈ller-Hartmann 19440516 May 16th [1944]
VWL1757 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19430411 April 11 [1943]
VWL2867 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19401223 Dec 23 [1940?]
VWL188 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19041205 [5th December 1904]
VWL2265 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Tranchell 19510808 8th August, 1951.
VWL2628 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Hamber 19530128 28th January, 1953.
VWL3290 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Tattersall 19580604 June 4th 1958.
VWL4485 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Evans 19550529 May 29th 1955.
VWL4489 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Evans 19580306 March 6th 1958.
VWL3399 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560513 May 13th 1956.
VWL2813 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19540404 April 4th 1954.
VWL4776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Malcolm Sargent 1949---- Sunday [1949?]
VWL4394 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lady Goodrich 191405-- [May 1914]
VWL4036 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to L.W. Wale 19311022 October 22 [1931]
VWL2959 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490309 9th March, 1949
VWL5009 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19480211 12 [i.e.11] February, 1948.
VWL906 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19310322 [22 March 1931]
VWL977 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foster Clark (BBC) 19360810 August 10 [1936]
VWL807 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19351019 19 Oct 1935
VWL1566 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Murrill 19390601 June 1 [1939]
VWL3311 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Bardgett 19560325 March 25th 1956.

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