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
VWL4982 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Boosey 19401119 [19 or 20 November, 1940]
VWL4981 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Boosey 19400802 August 2 [1940]
VWL4980 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Muriel James 19541216 December 16th 1954
VWL4979 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Muriel James 19541102 November 2nd 1954
VWL4978 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Boosey 19380703 July 3rd. [1938]
VWL4977 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W. Paston 19380522 Sunday [22 or 29 May 1938]
VWL4976 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Boosey 19380516 May 16 [1938]
VWL4975 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning 19350405 [5 April 1935]
VWL4974 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning 19381016 Oct 16 [1938]
VWL4973 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning 19400624 June 24 1940
VWL4972 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning 19460806 Aug 6 [1946]
VWL4971 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning 19480429 29th April, 1948.
VWL4970 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams and Maud Karpeles to the Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning 19400803 3 August 1940.
VWL4969 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning 19401022 Oct 22 [1940]
VWL4968 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Edmund Rubbra 19590313 March 13th [1959]
VWL4967 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth 19230829 29/8/23
VWL4966 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sylvia Spencer 19491123 23rd November, 1949.
VWL4965 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sylvia Spencer 19360319 March 19 [1936]
VWL4964 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Covent Garden Opera Company 19510427 [late April 1951]
VWL4963 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joyce Stanhope-Lovell 19550902 Sept 2d 1955
VWL4962 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joyce Stanhope-Lovell 19550824 August 24th 1955.
VWL4961 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Canon Walter Hussey 19500201 1st February, 1950.
VWL4960 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Bernard Naylor 19580125 Jan 25 1958
VWL4959 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William McKie 19470713 Sunday [13 July 1947]
VWL4958 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William McKie 19470706 July 6 [1947]
VWL4957 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William McKie 19470520 May 20 [1947]
VWL4956 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William McKie 19470405 April 5 [1947]
VWL4955 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William McKie 19470303 March 3 [1947]
VWL4954 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William McKie 19470221 Feb 21 [1947]
VWL4953 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Dean of Westminster Abbey 19571015 October 15th 1957.

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