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
VWL1782 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL1796 Letter from Ursula Wood to Joy Finzi 19430802 2.8.43
VWL3453 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19561214 [14th December 1956]
VWL1333 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19380704 [4th July 1938]
VWL1378 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19381004 [4th October 1938]
VWL1406 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19381106 Sunday evening [6th November 1938]
VWL1421 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400522 [May 22 1940]
VWL1438 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400923 [23 Sept. 1940]
VWL1481 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401229 Dec 29 [1940]
VWL1482 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401231 Dec 31 [1940]
VWL1499 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194010-- Sunday morning 7.30 [After October 1940]
VWL1655 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946?]
VWL1725 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1742 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194209-- [About September 1942]
VWL1851 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194908-- Tuesday [mid-August 1949]
VWL1558 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390410 Monday [10th April 1939]
VWL1388 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19381014 Oct 14 [1938]
VWL1399 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400313 March 13 [1940?]
VWL1449 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19381211 [11th December 1938]
VWL1489 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194008-- Wed [August 1940]
VWL1494 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194008-- [August 1940]
VWL1836 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194801-- [January 1948]
VWL1840 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194303-- [March 1943]
VWL4637 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390129 [19 Feb 1939]
VWL1593 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390726 [26th July, 1939]
VWL663 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193904-- [Newcastle, 29th March, 1939]
VWL1502 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390403 [3 April 1939]
VWL4636 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194001-- [January 1940]
VWL1389 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400215 [15th February 1940]
VWL1404 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19381018 Tuesday [18th October 1938]

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