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
VWL686 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193911-- [November 1939]
VWL685 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 193910-- [Autumn 1939]
VWL684 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193910-- Sunday [October 1939]
VWL683 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 193909-- Sept [1939]
VWL682 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 193908-- Sunday [before September 1939]
VWL681 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson at the BBC 19290730 [30 July 1929]
VWL680 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 19290721 July 21 [1929]
VWL679 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 19290712 [12 July 1929]
VWL678 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson of the BBC 193907-- [July 1939]
VWL677 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sylvia Drew 193906-- [June 1939]
VWL676 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Malcolm Sargent 19290623 Sunday [23 June 1929]
VWL675 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to H.G. Fiedler 193906-- Sunday [?June 1939]
VWL674 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193906-- [June, 1939]
VWL673 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193906-- [June, 1939]
VWL672 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193906-- [June, 1939]
VWL671 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to W.W. Thompson (BBC) 19290604 [4 June 1929]
VWL670 Letter from Evangeline Farrer and the Conductors of the LHMF choirs to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19290501 May Day 1929
VWL669 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19290402 [2nd April 1929]
VWL668 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Penelope Spencer 19290331 [About 31st March 1929]
VWL667 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Royal College of Music 19290322 March 22 1929
VWL666 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 192908-- [July/August 1929]
VWL665 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 193804-- [April 1938]
VWL664 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 192908-- [August 1929]
VWL663 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193904-- [Newcastle, 29th March, 1939]
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

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