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
VWL1729 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 1947---- [1947]
VWL1756 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19390407 April 7th [1939]
VWL1769 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 1949---- Sunday [1948-9]
VWL1783 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 194712-- Friday [December 1947]
VWL1810 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19431015 October 15 [1943]
VWL1837 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194902-- Tuesday morning [February 1948]
VWL1842 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 194306-- [Late May or early June 1943]
VWL1845 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19450204 Sunday [4 February 1945]
VWL1856 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19460411 Thursday [April 11 1946]
VWL1882 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19490317 March 17 [1949]
VWL1883 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19490328 Wednesday [?28 March 1949]
VWL1887 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19450509 Wednesday [May 9 1945]
VWL1922 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19440704 July 4 [1944]
VWL1930 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 19440826 August 26 [1944]
VWL1992 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19450511 May 11 [1945]
VWL2000 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19500603 June 3 [1950]
VWL2064 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 195102-- Monday [February 1951]
VWL2079 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19500901 September 1 [1950?]
VWL2089 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19501004 October 4 [1950?]
VWL2158 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19510101 Jan 1 [1951]
VWL2200 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19510301 [March 1st 1951]
VWL2339 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 195103-- Sat [March 1951]
VWL2421 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19471126 26th November, 1947.
VWL2514 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19480104 January 4 [1948]
VWL2895 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Genia Hornstein 1942---- Friday [?1942 or later]
VWL2907 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Rebecca Müller-Hartmann 19490104 January 4 [1949]
VWL2922 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19481229 December 29 [after 1948?]
VWL2939 Letter from Adeline Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19481230 December 30 [1948]
VWL2940 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19490106 January 6 [1949]
VWL2977 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19490330 March 30 [1949]

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