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
VWL4661 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harold Haig-Brown 1926---- [1926-1929]
VWL4658 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Nancy Marsden 19440218 Feb 18 [1944]
VWL4657 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mr Marsden 194402-- [Feb 1944]
VWL4637 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390129 [19 Feb 1939]
VWL4636 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194001-- [January 1940]
VWL4579 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mr Thorpe 1930---- [1930-1934]
VWL3453 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19561214 [14th December 1956]
VWL2511 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19471227 December 27 [1947]
VWL2427 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19520606 6.6.52
VWL2025 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19460101 New Year's Day [1946]
VWL1975 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 19500122 Jan 22 [1950]
VWL1953 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19441226 Dec 26 [1944]
VWL1851 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194908-- Tuesday [mid-August 1949]
VWL1840 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194303-- [March 1943]
VWL1836 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194801-- [January 1948]
VWL1835 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Robert Trevelyan 19441226 Dec 26 [1944]
VWL1796 Letter from Ursula Wood to Joy Finzi 19430802 2.8.43
VWL1782 Letter from Ursula Wood to Ralph Vaughan Williams 194710-- [October 1947]
VWL1743 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194210-- [About October 1942]
VWL1742 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194209-- [About September 1942]
VWL1740 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 194207-- [July 1942]
VWL1725 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1724 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946]
VWL1655 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 1945---- [Sometime between 1938 and 1946?]
VWL1648 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 194-0620 June 20th [194-?]
VWL1632 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19420211 Feb 11 [1942]
VWL1605 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19391012 [12th October 1939]
VWL1593 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390726 [26th July, 1939]
VWL1582 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19411016 Thursday [16th October 1941]
VWL1571 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Professor H.G. Fiedler 19390625 June 25 [1939]

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