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
VWL5282 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Carter 19481017 [17 October 1948]
VWL5272 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Miss Ramsay 19360208 February 8 [1936?]
VWL5271 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Vinicio Barocas 19440103 Jan 3/44
VWL5270 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Henry Walford Davies 19221130 [late November 1922?]
VWL5258 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Abraham 19400303 March 3 [1940]
VWL5247 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19470711 July 11 1947
VWL5244 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to May Harrison 19360215 February 16 1936
VWL5223 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an unidentified correspondent (probably Artur Rodzinski) 19350518 May 18 [1935]
VWL5221 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Bridget Fry 19440507 May 7 [1944]
VWL5220 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Bridget Fry 19430831 August 31st [1943]
VWL5217 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to André Mangeot 192----- March 13 [1920s]
VWL5207 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Joseph Weston Poole 19430622 June 22 [1943]
VWL5186 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mrs Harvey 19390212 February 12 [1939]
VWL5185 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sinclair Logan 194-0823 August 23 [1940s]
VWL5175 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to an Italian correspondent 19321213 December 13 [1932]
VWL5166 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sinclair Logan 193-0208 Feb 8 [1930s?]
VWL5155 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boris Ord 193706-- Sunday [summer 1937]
VWL5139 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cranleigh Choral Society 19451102 Nov 2 [1945]
VWL5124 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Serge Koussevitsky 1932---- [1932?]
VWL5121 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Serge Koussevitsky 19351203 Dec 3 [1935]
VWL5120 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge 19321218 December 18 [1932]
VWL5119 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge 19310605 June 5 [1931]
VWL5118 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge 19290521 May 21 [1929]
VWL5117 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge 193110-- [October 1931?]
VWL5062 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to E.J. Moeran 19350208 February 8 [1935]
VWL5033 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19351114 November 14 [1935]
VWL5015 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19510117 Jan 17 [1951]
VWL5008 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19380516 May 14 [1938]
VWL4998 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanford Robinson 193-0303 March 3 [early 1930s]
VWL4995 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Boosey 19360208 Feb 8 [1936]

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