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.

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Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL3484 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19570426 April 26th 1957.
VWL3534 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Vaughan Williams 19570724 Wednesday [about 24th July 1957]
VWL667 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Royal College of Music 19290322 March 22 1929
VWL1139 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19370131 January 31 [1937]
VWL952 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19360614 June 14 [1936]
VWL1096 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19330923 [23 September 1933]
VWL3819 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 193309-- [September 1933?]
VWL3820 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1932---- [1930s]
VWL3835 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19321115 Nov 15 [1932]
VWL3895 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1931---- [1931]
VWL3854 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1929---- [1929?]
VWL3832 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1933---- [about 1933?]
VWL3894 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1930---- [1930]
VWL3855 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1931---- [1930s?]
VWL3861 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19480708 8th July, 1948.
VWL3885 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19391028 [late October 1939]
VWL3886 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 194----- Nov 2 [1940s]
VWL3898 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1931---- [1931]
VWL3821 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1933---- [September 1933?]
VWL3827 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1932---- [1932?]
VWL3847 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1930---- [1930s?]
VWL3896 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1930---- [1930]
VWL4742 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Cockshott 1940---- [1940s?]
VWL3218 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19551110 November 10th 1955
VWL687 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 193912-- [Christmas 1939?]
VWL1049 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19330313 [about 13 March 1933]
VWL1483 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19401231 Dec 31 [1940]
VWL530 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 193502-- [February 1935]
VWL1082 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 193303-- [March ?1933]
VWL1085 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 1933---- [About 1933?]

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