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
VWL1486 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194004-- [April 1940]
VWL1485 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19400203 [3 February 1940]
VWL1483 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19401231 Dec 31 [1940]
VWL1482 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401231 Dec 31 [1940]
VWL1481 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401229 Dec 29 [1940]
VWL1480 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401225 Dec 25 [1940]
VWL1479 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Iris Lemare 19401223 Dec 23 [?1940]
VWL1478 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Woodgate 19401221 [21 December 1940]
VWL1477 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401214 [Dec 14th? '40]
VWL1476 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19401213 Dec 13 [1940]
VWL1475 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Percy Scholes 19401204 [4 December 1940]
VWL1474 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19401203 3rd December 1940
VWL1473 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19401125 Nov 25 [1940?]
VWL1471 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult (BBC) 19401115 Nov 15 [1940]
VWL1470 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19401104 Nov 4 [1940]
VWL1467 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19401102 Nov 2 [1940]
VWL1466 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Kenneth Wright (BBC) 19401031 Oct 31 [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]
VWL1462 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 19401021 Oct 21 [1940]
VWL1461 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss M. Goodchild 19401017 Oct 17 [1940]
VWL1460 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19401015 [15th October 1940]
VWL1457 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19390109 [9th January 1939]
VWL1455 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Peterkin (OUP) 19390106 Jan 6 [?1939]
VWL1454 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush 19390101 Jan 1 [1939]
VWL1453 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19390101 Jan 1st 1939
VWL1452 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Geoffrey Bush 19381227 Dec 27th [1938]
VWL1451 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19381226 Dec 26 [?1938]
VWL1450 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19411218 Dec 18 [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