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
VWL1256 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric and Margaret Thorpe Davie 19371229 [29th December 1937]
VWL1255 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adine O’Neill 19371205 Dec 5 [1937]
VWL1254 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19371127 Nov 27th [1937]
VWL1253 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mr ?Garstiers 19371108 Nov 8 [1937]
VWL1252 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Armstrong Gibbs 19371108 [8th November 1937]
VWL1251 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19371102 Tuesday [2 November 1937]
VWL1250 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to William Rothenstein 19371101 Nov 1st [1937]
VWL1249 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss at Oxford University Press 19371025 [25th October 1937]
VWL1248 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19371025 [24 Oct 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]
VWL1245 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor H.G. Fiedler 19371003 Oct 3rd [1937]
VWL1244 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19371003 Sunday [3rd October 1937]
VWL1243 Letter from Isobel Holst to Ralph and Adeline Vaughan Williams 19340603 June 3. 1934
VWL1242 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen and Isobel Holst 19340525 [25 May l934]
VWL1241 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19340513 [13th May 1934]
VWL1240 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19340508 [8th May 1934]
VWL1239 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 19340506 May 6th [1934]
VWL1238 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Hutchinson 19491013 13th October, 1949.
VWL1237 Letter from Carice Blake to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19340425 April 25th, 1934.
VWL1236 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward Clark 19340424 April 24th [1934]
VWL1235 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 19340413 Friday [13 April 1934]
VWL1234 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19300408 April 8 [1930]
VWL1233 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 19340404 April 4 [1934]
VWL1232 Letter from Steuart Wilson to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19340402 Ap. 2nd 1934
VWL1231 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dora Foss 19340326 March 26 [about 1934?]
VWL1230 Telegram from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elisabeth Lutyens 19391213 13 Dec 39
VWL1229 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elisabeth Lutyens 19391213 [13 December 1939]
VWL1228 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391226 Dec 26 [1939]
VWL1227 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Henry Wood 19391231 Dec 31st [1939]

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