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
VWL2122 Letter from Rutland Boughton to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19501208 8.12.50
VWL2121 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19501130 Nov 30 [1950]
VWL2120 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Anthony Scott 19501129 29th November, 1950
VWL2118 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Anthony Scott 19501108 8th November, 1950
VWL2116 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19501101 1st November, 1950
VWL2108 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Terence Casey 19501018 18th October, 1950.
VWL2101 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Felix Aprahamian 19501005 October 5 [1950]
VWL2096 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Parker 19460917 Sept 17 [1946?]
VWL2095 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19460915 [Mid September 1946]
VWL2093 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19460901 Sept 1 [1946]
VWL2092 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19460901 Sept 1 [1946]
VWL2091 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19460829 Aug 29 [1946]
VWL2088 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frederick Page 19501003 Oct 3rd [1950]
VWL2084 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to James McKay Martin 19500914 September 14th, 1950
VWL2080 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan 19500901 1st September 1950
VWL2078 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 19500826 August 26th [1950?]
VWL2076 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to James McKay Martin 19500816 16th August, 1950
VWL2074 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19500809 9th August, 1950
VWL2073 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Byard 19500809 9th August, 1950.
VWL2072 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19500809 9th August, 1950
VWL2069 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19500726 26th July, 1950
VWL2066 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19500719 19th July 1950
VWL2065 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Irving 19500716 [July 16th, 1950?]
VWL2063 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 195012-- [?December, 1950]
VWL2062 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 195012-- [?December, 1950]
VWL2061 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank 195011-- [November 1950]
VWL2058 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19460824 Aug 24 [1946]
VWL2055 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the performers in the Leith Hill Musical Festival of 1950 195004-- [April/May 1950]
VWL2054 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to James McKay Martin 1957---- [1957]
VWL2053 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gilmour Jenkins 19510717 [17 July 1951]

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