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
VWL3488 Transcript of VW’s contribution to Elgar Centenary Programme on the BBC 195705-- [May 1957]
VWL1412 Talk by Ralph Vaughan Williams on folk song music for the BBC 19400327 [27 March 1940]
VWL2845 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19540724 July 24th [1954]
VWL2581 Letter from Robert Müller-Hartmann to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19480321 21st March 1948
VWL4958 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William McKie 19470706 July 6 [1947]
VWL4959 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William McKie 19470713 Sunday [13 July 1947]
VWL1209 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Walter Goodchild 19380526 May 26 1938
VWL1492 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194007-- [July 1940]
VWL4019 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19400320 March 20 [1940]
VWL4020 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Performing Right Society 19400404 April 4 [1940]
VWL1286 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the BBC 19380410 Sunday [10 April 1938]
VWL1594 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19411205 Dec 5 [1941]
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.
VWL4997 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson 19411117 Nov 17 [1941]
VWL1618 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Adrian Boult (BBC) 19391024 Oct 24 [1939]
VWL1514 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Adrian Boult (BBC) 19390130 Jan 30 [1939]
VWL1620 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Adrian Boult 19391031 [October 31 1939]
VWL3806 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roger Quilter 19371219 Dec 19th [1937]
VWL3487 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roger Fiske (BBC) 19570504 May 4th 1957.
VWL3217 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roger Fiske (BBC) 19551108 November 8th 1955.
VWL2840 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roger Fiske 19540702 July 2nd 1954.
VWL1792 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19430714 July 14 1943
VWL2072 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19500809 9th August, 1950
VWL2904 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 1948---- Sunday [?1948 or later]
VWL1932 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Reverend James Welch 19440908 Sept 8 [1944]
VWL2297 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rev. W. D. Kennedy Bell (BBC) 19511114 14th November, 1951.
VWL1682 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Reginald Thatcher (BBC) 19420825 Aug: 25. 1942.
VWL4859 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Montgomery 19510520 May 20 [1951]

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