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
VWL1802 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19430917 17.9.43
VWL1801 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19430822 [22nd August 1943]
VWL1800 Letter from Arthur Bliss to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19430817 17th August, 1943
VWL1799 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19430815 Aug 15 [1943]
VWL1798 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19430808 Aug 8 [1943]
VWL1797 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 19430808 Aug 8 [1943]
VWL1796 Letter from Ursula Wood to Joy Finzi 19430802 2.8.43
VWL1795 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19430731 July 31 [1943]
VWL1794 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 19430731 July 31 [1943?]
VWL1793 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vera Kantrovich 19430726 July 26 [1943]
VWL1792 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19430714 July 14 1943
VWL1791 Letter from Adrian Boult to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19430627 27 June 1943
VWL1790 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Wood 19430625 June 25 [1943]
VWL1789 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19430623 June 23 1943
VWL1788 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Kenneth Wright (BBC) 19430615 [15 June 1943]
VWL1787 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19430612 [12 June 1943]
VWL1786 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19430611 June 11, 43
VWL1785 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19430607 [7 June 1943]
VWL1784 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gwen Beckett (BBC) 19430523 May 23 [1943]
VWL1783 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 194712-- Friday [December 1947]
VWL1782 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL1781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the conductors of the choirs of the Leith Hill Musical Festival 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL1780 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 194704-- [?Spring 1947]
VWL1779 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 194703-- [Early March 1947]
VWL1778 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194703-- [Early March 1947]
VWL1777 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 194701-- [January 1947]
VWL1776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194603-- [?March 1946]
VWL1775 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to H. Raymond Barnett 194605-- [about May 1946]
VWL1774 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denis Dowling 194601-- [late 1945 or early 1946]
VWL1773 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller Hartmann 194503-- [March 1945]

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