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
VWL601 Letter from Henry Hadow to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19260223 Feb 23 1926
VWL598 Letter from Maud Karpeles to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19260112 12 January 1926
VWL594 Letter from Hubert Foss to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19251111 11-11-25
VWL588 Letter from Carl Stoeckel to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19250616 June 16th, 1925.
VWL569 Letter from Percy Scholes to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19240919 19.9.24
VWL565 Letter from Crompton Llewellyn Davies to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19240715 15 July l924
VWL556 Letter from Cecil Sharp to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19240522 22.V.24
VWL540 Letter from Cecil Sharp to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19240119 19.I.24
VWL537 Letter from Karl Straube to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19231205 Dez 5th 1923
VWL520 Letter from Margaret Vaughan Williams to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19231011 Thursday Oct: 11th 1923
VWL508 Letter from Charles Villiers Stanford to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19230308 March 8. 23
VWL507 Letter from Vally Lasker to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19230308 March 8th 23
VWL495 Letter from Edwin Evans to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19220508 May 8th, 1922.
VWL493 Letter from Crompton Llewellyn Davies to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19220227 27 Feb 1922
VWL492 Letter from Harold Child to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19220218 18 Feb. 1922
VWL488 Letter from Lucy Broadwood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19220129 Jan. 29. 1922
VWL437 Letter from Arthur Boosey to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19180109 Jan 9th 1918
VWL428 Letter from Charles Hubert Parry to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19170226 Febry 26. 1917
VWL421 Letter from Charles Hubert Parry to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19150119 Jany 19. 1915
VWL418 Letter from Gerald Finzi to Vaughan Williams 19350414 April 14th [1935]
VWL395 Letter from George Butterworth to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19140328 March 28 1914
VWL394 Letter from Steuart Wilson to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19140328 28th March l914
VWL393 Letter from Gervase Elwes to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19140328 March 28th l914
VWL391 Letter from the Moravian Church Agency to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19131231 Dec. 31st 1913
VWL389 Letter from Cecil Sharp to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19131109 9.11.13.
VWL387 Letter from Arthur Somervell to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19130204 4.2.13.
VWL367 Letter from A.E. Housman to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19101203 3 Dec. l910
VWL344 Letter from Steuart Wilson to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19421109 9 Nov. 1942
VWL287 Letter from Max Bruch to Ralph Vaughan Williams 18971031 31.10.97
VWL222 Letter from Thomas Hardy to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19081129 Nov. 29. 1908

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