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.

Searching:
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
VWL4804 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19280203 [3 February 1928]
VWL4803 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1928--- [late 1920s]
VWL4802 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1928---- [1928]
VWL4801 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 192812-- [December, late 1920s]
VWL4800 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 192710-- [October 1927?]
VWL4799 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1927---- [1927?]
VWL4798 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1927---- [1927?]
VWL4797 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1927---- [1927?]
VWL4796 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1927---- [1927?]
VWL4795 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1927---- [1927?]
VWL4794 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19491022 October 22 [1949?]
VWL4793 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19491223 Dec 23 [1949?]
VWL4792 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 1925---- [1925?]
VWL4791 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19250701 [early July 1925]
VWL4790 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19261116 [16 November 1926]
VWL4789 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19250627 [late June 1925]
VWL4788 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19250615 [mid-June 1925]
VWL4787 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19250615 [mid-June 1925]
VWL4776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Malcolm Sargent 1949---- Sunday [1949?]
VWL4775 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 1949---- Sunday [1949?]
VWL4774 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Malcolm Sargent 1943---- Oct 15 [after 1943]
VWL4773 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Isidore Schwiller 19351226 Dec 26 [1935?]
VWL4772 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 193412-- [December, 1934]
VWL4771 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19340317 March 17 [1934]
VWL4770 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Maud Karpeles 19250131 [31 January 1925]
VWL4769 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher Shaw 19521012 October 12th, 1952
VWL4768 Letter from Adeline Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19310419 Sunday [19 April, 1931]
VWL4767 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19471119 19 Nov 1947
VWL4766 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19450824 [24 Aug 1945]
VWL4765 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (Oxford University Press) 19400916 September 16 [ca 1940]

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