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
VWL2242 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19510520 20 May 1951
VWL2241 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Young 19510520 [20th May 1951]
VWL2240 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19510520 [20 May 1951]
VWL2239 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Murrill 19510520 [20 May 1951]
VWL2238 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Barter 19510517 17th May 1951
VWL2237 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19510517 [17th May 1951]
VWL2235 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510516 [16th May 1951]
VWL2234 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 19510515 [15 May 1951]
VWL2233 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19510515 May 15 [1951]
VWL2232 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19510514 May 14 [1951]
VWL2228 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Wallis 19510511 May 11th 1951
VWL2227 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19510510 May 10 [1951]
VWL2154 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19470212 Feb 12 [1947]
VWL2149 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19470123 Jan 23 [1947]
VWL2144 Letter from Robert Longman to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19461225 Christmas Day 1946, 6 P.M.
VWL1835 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19441226 Dec 26 [1944]
VWL1780 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 194704-- [?Spring 1947]
VWL1624 Letter from R.O.Morris to Alice Sumsion 19420103 Jan 3 1942
VWL1363 Letter from Honorine Williamson to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19380717 Sunday [17 July 1938]
VWL992 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19320101 Jan 1 [1932]
VWL990 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19320914 [14 September 1932]
VWL947 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19360519 [19th May 1936]
VWL799 Letter from Archibald Davison to Joan Western 19350926 26.9.35
VWL565 Letter from Crompton Llewellyn Davies to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19240715 15 July l924
VWL501 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Scholes 19220713 July 13 [1922]
VWL486 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 192001-- [?January 1920]
VWL454 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Handel Society 19191107 7/11/19
VWL355 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220614 June 14th [1922]
VWL346 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19140214 [14th February 1914]
VWL263 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189906-- [June 1899]

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