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
VWL1249 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss at Oxford University Press 19371025 [25th October 1937]
VWL4003 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth 19371016 Oct 16 [1937]
VWL1247 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19371016 Oct 16 [1937]
VWL1246 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19371009 Oct 9th [1937]
VWL1244 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19371003 Sunday [3rd October 1937]
VWL1245 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor H.G. Fiedler 19371003 Oct 3rd [1937]
VWL3728 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Treasurer of the Gloucester Musical Festival 19371002 October 2, [1937]
VWL644 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193710-- [October 1937]
VWL4505 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan and Martin Shaw 193710-- [October 1937]
VWL5225 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frederick Allan Wilshire 19370927 Sept 27th [1937]
VWL5154 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boris Ord 19370923 Sept 23d [1937]
VWL1216 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Howes 19370921 September 21 [1937]
VWL3726 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alice Sumsion 19370920 [20 September, 1937]
VWL1213 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19370919 [19th September 1937]
VWL4098 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw 19370919 Sunday, (Sep 19th. 1937)
VWL1214 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19370919 [19 September 1937]
VWL5039 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19370919 Sunday [19 Sep 1937]
VWL4446 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boris Ord 19370917 [mid-September 1937]
VWL4129 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 19370917 Sep 17 [1937]
VWL4287 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Bernard Herrmann 19370917 September 17 [1937]
VWL1212 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19370908 Wednesday smorn [8th September 1937]
VWL1211 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19370907 Tuesday aftn [7th September 1937]
VWL1207 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19370906 Monday smorn [6th September 1937]
VWL1208 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19370906 Monday eve [6th September 1937]
VWL1206 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19370905 Sunday aft [5th September 1937]
VWL3018 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Everett Helm 19370830 Aug 30 [1937]
VWL1204 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19370816 Aug 16th [1937]
VWL1205 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor H.G. Fiedler 19370816 August 16 1937
VWL1203 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frederic Wilkinson 19370811 August 11th 1937
VWL1201 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19370806 Aug 6th 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