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
VWL5009 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Buckland 19480211 12 [i.e.11] February, 1948.
VWL4776 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Malcolm Sargent 1949---- Sunday [1949?]
VWL4610 Letter from Patrick Hadley and Henry Balfour Gardiner to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19350412 12 April 1935
VWL4489 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Evans 19580306 March 6th 1958.
VWL4486 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Editor of The Times 19550528 [May 28 1955]
VWL4485 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Evans 19550529 May 29th 1955.
VWL4395 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evangeline Farrer 19080707 July 7th [1908]
VWL4394 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lady Goodrich 191405-- [May 1914]
VWL4286 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dennis Arundell 19570303 March 3rd 1957.
VWL4284 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evelyn Richmond 19481014 14th October, 1948.
VWL4036 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to L.W. Wale 19311022 October 22 [1931]
VWL4035 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams for the Coldharbour parish magazine 19311022 [22 October 1931]
VWL3885 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19391028 [late October 1939]
VWL3883 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 193108-- [August 1931]
VWL3876 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19360226 [Late February 1936]
VWL3862 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19380520 [about 20 May 1938]
VWL3855 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1931---- [1930s?]
VWL3849 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 19510926 26th September, 1951.
VWL3841 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1935---- [mid 1930s?]
VWL3840 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Grace Williams 1935---- Jan 19 [mid-1930s?]
VWL3770 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Victor Sheppard 19480523 May 23 1948
VWL3399 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560513 May 13th 1956.
VWL3311 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Bardgett 19560325 March 25th 1956.
VWL3290 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Norman Tattersall 19580604 June 4th 1958.
VWL2959 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490309 9th March, 1949
VWL2950 Foreword from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Society for the Promotion of New Music 195403-- [About March 1954]
VWL2867 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Müller-Hartmann 19401223 Dec 23 [1940?]
VWL2813 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19540404 April 4th 1954.
VWL2797 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Cedric Thorpe Davie 19540302 March 2nd 1954.
VWL2783 Letter from Serge Koussevitzky to Ralph Vaughan Williams 19480810 August 10, 1948

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