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
VWL3125 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491030 Sunday [30th October 1949]
VWL3124 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491030 [30th October 1949?]
VWL3077 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491116 16th November, 1949.
VWL3059 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson (BBC) 19491123 23rd November, 1949.
VWL3030 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Fluck 19540114 January 14th 1954.
VWL3029 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Fluck 19530718 July 18th 1953.
VWL2941 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19490106 Jan 6 1949
VWL2225 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19510504 4 May 1951
VWL2108 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Terence Casey 19501018 18th October, 1950.
VWL2074 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19500809 9th August, 1950
VWL2050 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19500712 12th July, 1950.
VWL1965 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19500103 Jan 3 [?1950]
VWL1564 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390511 [11th May, 1939]
VWL1518 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss E. Price 19390227 Feb 27 [1939]
VWL1441 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401011 Oct 11 [1940]
VWL1284 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19380325 March 25 [1938]
VWL1171 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19370411 April 11 [1937]
VWL1167 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19370413 April 13 [1937]
VWL1014 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19320922 [22 September, 1932]
VWL1009 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 19320916 September 16 [1932]
VWL963 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19360802 [2 August 1936]
VWL792 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Fly 192602-- [?February 1926]
VWL784 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Kenneth Curwen 192403-- Sunday [about March 1924]
VWL681 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson at the BBC 19290730 [30 July 1929]
VWL676 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Malcolm Sargent 19290623 Sunday [23 June 1929]
VWL613 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Fly 19261217 [17th December 1926]
VWL611 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Fly 192611-- [November 1926]
VWL603 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Fly 19260328 March 28 [1926]
VWL591 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 193704-- [late April 1937]
VWL590 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Jack Gordon 193704-- [April 1937]

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