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
VWL807 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19351019 19 Oct 1935
VWL806 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19351018 [18 October 1935]
VWL805 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joan Western 19351018 Oct 18 [1935]
VWL797 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Madeleine Dring 19450219 Feb 19
VWL796 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gwen Raverat 19270701 [July 1927]
VWL795 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Sharp 192707-- [July 1927]
VWL794 Memorandum on the General Strike by Ralph Vaughan Williams 192605-- [May 1926]
VWL793 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 192602-- [February 1926]
VWL792 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Fly 192602-- [?February 1926]
VWL791 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 192502-- [?February 1925]
VWL789 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ina Boyle 192406-- [?Mid 1924]
VWL788 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward J. Dent 192405-- [Before 5th June 1924]
VWL787 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker 192404-- April, 1924
VWL786 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Glover 192404-- [April 1924]
VWL784 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Kenneth Curwen 192403-- Sunday [about March 1924]
VWL780 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 192311-- [?Late 1923]
VWL778 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 192303-- [Early 1923]
VWL777 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 192210-- [Late 1922]
VWL776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19350910 Tuesday [10th September 1935]
VWL775 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192210-- [October 1922]
VWL773 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19350908 [8th September 1935]
VWL772 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192210-- [October 1922]
VWL771 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192210-- [October 1922]
VWL770 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gustav, Isobel and Imogen Holst, Vally Lasker and Nora Day 192210-- [?October 1922]
VWL767 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19350817 [17 August 1935]
VWL764 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 19380809 [9th August 1938]
VWL763 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192209-- [Late 1922]
VWL762 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Diana Awdry 19350804 Sunday [4th August 1935]
VWL761 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fritz Hart 193807205 Wednesday [20 July 1938]
VWL760 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vally Lasker and Nora Day 192207-- July 1922

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