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
VWL1467 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19401102 Nov 2 [1940]
VWL1465 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19401031 Oct 31 [1940]
VWL1464 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Imogen Holst 19401031 [31 October 1940]
VWL1463 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult (BBC) 19401026 Oct 26 [1940]
VWL1460 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401015 [15th October 1940]
VWL1458 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult (BBC) 19401004 October 4 [1940]
VWL1453 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19390101 Jan 1st 1939
VWL1450 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19411218 Dec 18 [1941]
VWL1442 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19401004 Oct 4th [1940]
VWL1441 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401011 Oct 11 [1940]
VWL1440 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401001 [About 1st October 1940]
VWL1439 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Reginald Thatcher (BBC) 19400924 Sept 24 [1940]
VWL1438 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400923 [23 Sept. 1940]
VWL1437 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400907 [Sept 7th 1940]
VWL1435 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rebecca Müller-Hartmann 19400906 Sept 6 [1940]
VWL1434 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult (BBC) 19400902 [About 2nd September 1940]
VWL1433 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Granville Bantock 19400828 August 28 [1940]
VWL1431 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19400825 [25th August 1940]
VWL1430 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Granville Bantock 19400821 August 21 [1940]
VWL1428 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19400806 Aug 6th 1940
VWL1424 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rachel Fell 19400606 About June 6th [1940]
VWL1421 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400522 [May 22 1940]
VWL1415 Letter from Henry Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19400416 April 16th, 1940.
VWL1408 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Townsend 19381115 Nov 12 [1938]
VWL1390 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 19400225 Feb 25 [1940]
VWL1385 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Newman 19400214 Feb 14 [1940]
VWL1382 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19400202 Feb 2 [1940]
VWL1225 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Lilburn 19390918 [18 September 1939]
VWL1223 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390915 [15th September 1939]
VWL1222 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390906 [6th September 1939]

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