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
VWL662 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Clifford 193903-- [Early 1939]
VWL661 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19290311 [11th March 1929]
VWL660 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19290223 Feb 23 [1929]
VWL659 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19290210 [10 February 1929]
VWL658 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19290201 [About 1st February 1929]
VWL657 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19290127 27th January 1929
VWL656 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Penelope Spencer 19290121 [Third week of January 1929]
VWL655 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 193902-- [Early February 1939]
VWL654 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193901-- [January 1939]
VWL653 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193901-- [January, 1939]
VWL652 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Ivor Atkins 193809-- [September 1938]
VWL651 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 193809-- [September 1938]
VWL650 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 193809-- [?September 1938]
VWL649 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193804-- [About April 1938]
VWL648 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 193803-- Wednesday [March 1938?]
VWL647 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to The Musical Times 193802-- February 1938
VWL646 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 193802-- Wed [?early 1938]
VWL645 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Longman 193712-- Monday [December 1937]
VWL644 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193710-- [October 1937]
VWL643 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hermann Fiedler 193707-- [July 1937]
VWL642 Letter from H.G. Fiedler to Ralph Vaughan Williams 193707-- [July 1937]
VWL641 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19281214 [14 December 1928]
VWL640 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Lucy Broadwood 19281107 Wednesday [7th November 1928]
VWL639 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lucy Broadwood 19281107 7th November 1928
VWL638 Letter from Lucy Broadwood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19281101 [About 1st November 1928]
VWL637 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lucy Broadwood 19281030 October 30 [1928]
VWL636 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19281014 Oct 14 [1928]
VWL635 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss at Oxford University Press 19281001 [About 1 October 1928]
VWL634 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 19280912 [12th September 1928]
VWL633 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19280815 Aug 15 [1928]

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