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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
VWL2119 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19501112 Nov 12 [1950]
VWL2115 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19501030 Oct. 30 [1950]
VWL2111 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19501018 18th October, 1950.
VWL2107 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19501014 Oct. 14 [1950]
VWL2104 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19501011 11th October, 1950.
VWL2082 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19500908 [About 8th September 1950]
VWL2075 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19500814 August 14 [1950]
VWL2059 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote 195007-- [About July 1950]
VWL2056 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460803 Aug 3. [1946]
VWL2044 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19460704 July 4 [1946?]
VWL2041 Letter from Jean Stewart to Alan Frank (OUP) 19460601 i vi 46
VWL2020 Oxford University Press file note on Ralph Vaughan Williams’s English version of Bach’s B minor Mass by Norman Peterkin 19451120 20.11.45
VWL2012 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19451027 Oct 27 [1945]
VWL2003 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank 19500620 [About 20th June 1950]
VWL1983 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19500308 8th March, 1950.
VWL1971 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19500108 January 8 [1950]
VWL1969 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19500125 Jan 25.[1950]
VWL1947 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19450904 Sept 4 [1945]
VWL1899 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19450729 [29th July 1945]
VWL1848 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote 194904-- [?April 1949]
VWL1847 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 194807-- [About July 1948?]
VWL1819 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19431114 Nov 14 [1943]
VWL1754 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Oxford University Press 19430309 [9 March 1943]
VWL1727 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 1945---- [1945]
VWL1694 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19420928 Sept 28 [1942]
VWL1687 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19420908 [8th September 1942]
VWL1681 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19420825 Aug: 25 [1942]
VWL1679 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19420809 Aug 9th [1942]
VWL1641 Memorandum from Norman Peterkin to Sir Humphrey Milford 19420424 April 24th 1942
VWL1585 Letter from Norman Peterkin (OUP) to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19411110 [10 November 1941]

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