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.

Searching:
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
VWL2078 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19500826 August 26th [1950?]
VWL1537 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lord Kennet 19410520 May 20th, 1941.
VWL1169 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19370711 July 11 1937
VWL664 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 192908-- [August 1929]
VWL645 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Longman 193712-- Monday [December 1937]
VWL392 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Athelstan Riley 19140211 February 11 1914
VWL299 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 18990129 Jan: 29th [?1899]
VWL295 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 18980530 30th May [1898]
VWL286 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to The Musician 18971027 October 27, l897
VWL284 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to The Musician 18971013 Wednesday, October 13 1897
VWL277 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19000207 [ca 7 February, 1900]
VWL276 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189912-- [late 1899]
VWL242 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189605-- [?May 1896]
VWL236 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 189910-- [October 1899]
VWL232 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 1898---- [?Late1898 (or early 1899)]
VWL203 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189710-- [Early October 1897]
VWL201 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 189802-- [February 1898]
VWL181 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 19030616 June 16 [1903]
VWL141 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 190608-- [?August 1906]
VWL136 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 190407-- [July 1904]
VWL135 Letter from Gustav Holst to Ralph Vaughan Williams 190303-- [March 1903]
VWL133 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 190203-- [mid-March 1902]
VWL128 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav Holst 190012-- [?About December 1900]

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