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
VWL562 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 193505-- Friday [May 1935?]
VWL545 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 193505-- Friday [?May 1935]
VWL542 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Victor and Mary Sheppard 19501201 [4 Dec 1950]
VWL532 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arnold Goldsbrough 193504-- Sunday [?April 1935]
VWL502 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220417 Friday [14th July 1922]
VWL501 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Scholes 19220713 July 13 [1922]
VWL475 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19201008 Friday [8 October 1920]
VWL468 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Donald F. Tovey 19270303 March 3 [1927]
VWL447 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19350414 April 14 [1935]
VWL438 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lady Dorothea Butterworth 19180216 Saturday [?16th February 1918]
VWL430 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19170522 May 22 [1917]
VWL429 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 19170409 April 9th [1917]
VWL420 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Special Constabulary Chelsea Company 19141124 Nov 24th [1914]
VWL417 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to David Stanley Smith 19350414 [14th April 1935]
VWL390 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Farrar 19131205 Dec. 5 [1913]
VWL382 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Farrar 19120401 Monday [1st April 1912]
VWL377 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19111130 November 30th [1911]
VWL371 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Thompson 19110608 June 8th [1911]
VWL355 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220614 June 14th [1922]
VWL354 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19220608 June 8 [1922]
VWL341 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Calvocoressi 19130609 June 9th [1913]
VWL315 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19350408 Monday night [8th April 1935]
VWL313 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19350329 March 29 [before 1935]
VWL300 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 19001214 December 14th [1900?]
VWL298 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 18991231 31st December [1899]
VWL297 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 18980704 July 4th [1898]
VWL295 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to René Gatty 18980530 30th May [1898]
VWL293 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 18980409 April 9th [1898]
VWL280 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 18991215 Dec. 15th [1899]
VWL278 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19000207 Feb 7th [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