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
VWL1757 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19430411 April 11 [1943]
VWL1755 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Wood 19430315 March 15 [1943]
VWL1754 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Oxford University Press 19430309 [9 March 1943]
VWL1753 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Wood 19430222 22 February [1943]
VWL1752 Letter from Jean Stewart to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19430218 18:2:43
VWL1751 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin 19430216 [16 February, 1942]
VWL1750 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult (BBC) 19430215 Feb 15 [1943]
VWL1749 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Wood 19430209 Feb 9 [1943]
VWL1748 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Wood 19430205 Feb 5 1943
VWL1745 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ralph Wedgwood 19430121 Jan 21 1943
VWL1744 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19430117 Jan 17 [1943]
VWL1743 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194210-- [About October 1942]
VWL1742 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194209-- [About September 1942]
VWL1741 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194208-- [?August 1942]
VWL1740 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194207-- [July 1942]
VWL1738 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adine O’Neill 19421226 Dec 26 [1942]
VWL1737 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19421217 [17 December 1942]
VWL1736 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas 19421215 Dec 15 [1942]
VWL1735 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19421204 [4th December 1942 ]
VWL1734 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss 19421113 Nov 13 [1942]
VWL1733 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cecil Armstrong Gibbs 19421104 Nov 4 [1942]
VWL1732 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Isaacs 19420111 Jan 11th 1942
VWL1731 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 1947---- [?1947]
VWL1730 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 1947---- [?1947]
VWL1728 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ann Boult 1946---- Sunday [1946]
VWL1727 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 1945---- [1945]
VWL1726 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [About 1945]
VWL1725 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1724 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1723 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vera Canning 19421030 Oct 30 [1942]

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