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
VWL272 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19350316 March 16 [1935]
VWL271 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19350316 March 16 [1935]
VWL270 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189812-- [December ?1898]
VWL269 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189911-- [About September/October 1899]
VWL268 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 189811-- [?November 1898 ]
VWL267 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 189811-- [November 1898]
VWL266 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 189808-- [August 1898]
VWL265 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 18980718 18 July 1898
VWL264 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189907-- [Late July 1899]
VWL263 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189906-- [June 1899]
VWL262 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 18980626 Sunday [26 June 1898]
VWL261 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189905-- [May 1899]
VWL260 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189805-- [May or June 1898]
VWL259 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 189805-- [May 1898]
VWL258 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to G.E. Moore 189805-- [?May 1898]
VWL257 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189712-- [December 1897?]
VWL256 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189711-- XI.97
VWL255 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fredegond and Ermengard Maitland 1897---- [September 1897]
VWL254 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189709-- [September 1897]
VWL253 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189709-- [September 1897]
VWL252 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189709-- [September 1897]
VWL251 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Laura Vaughan Williams 189707-- [July 1897]
VWL250 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19350309 March 9 [1935]
VWL249 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19350303 [3 March 1935]
VWL248 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19350303 [3rd March 1935]
VWL247 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189707-- [July 1897]
VWL246 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 19350301 March 1 [1935]
VWL245 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189707-- [July 1897]
VWL244 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189707-- [July 1897]
VWL243 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189706-- [Later June 1897]

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