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.

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Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL3614 Note on Cecil Sharp’s accompaniments of folk songs 1935---- [ca 1935]
VWL3214 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19551030 October 30th 1955
VWL3160 Letter from Margaret Dean-Smith to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19461104 4th November, 1946.
VWL3028 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1934---- Sunday [1934?]
VWL2659 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Geoffrey Bush 19530218 18th February, 1953.
VWL1152 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rutland Boughton 1932---- [1932 or 1933]
VWL1061 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Charles Myers 193307-- [July 1933]
VWL1046 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to A.H. Fox-Strangways 19330220 Feb. 20 [?1933]
VWL790 Note from Cecil Sharp [to Ralph Vaughan Williams] 192405-- [Written before June 1924]
VWL514 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lucy Broadwood 19230403 3rd April 1923
VWL449 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hugh Fraser Stewart 19190226 26/2/19
VWL436 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 19171228 Dec 28th [1917]
VWL435 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sir Alexander Kaye-Butterworth 19171202 Dec 2nd 1917
VWL389 Letter from Cecil Sharp to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19131109 9.11.13.
VWL388 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 19131103 [About 3 November 1913]
VWL368 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilbert Murray 19110425 April 25th [1911]
VWL351 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 191411-- [November 1914]
VWL320 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ruth Charrington 191003-- [March 1910]
VWL189 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19050115 Jan 15th 1905
VWL179 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lucy Broadwood 19020724 [24 July 1902]
VWL151 Draft notes by Ralph Vaughan Williams relating to Cecil Sharp’s English Folksongs (London 1907) 190705-- [?May 1907]
VWL150 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 190705-- [After April, 1907]
VWL149 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Folk Song Society 190611-- [?November 1906]
VWL148 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 190611-- [November 1906]
VWL147 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Sharp 190611-- Wed [November 1906]

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