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
VWL4929 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Kennedy 19380116 16th January 1938
VWL4928 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Douglas Kennedy 19371218 18 Dec 1937
VWL3318 Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19560402 Easter [1 April 1956]
VWL1302 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19380528 Sat [28th May 1938]
VWL1218 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 19390730 Sunday [30th July 1939]
VWL1217 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Denis Dowling 19390726 [About 26th July 1939]
VWL1203 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frederic Wilkinson 19370811 August 11th 1937
VWL886 Letter from Gustav Holst to Edwin Evans 19301223 Dec 23 [1930]
VWL882 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edwin Evans 19301214 Sunday [14 December 1930]
VWL880 Letter from Gustav Holst to Edwin Evans 19301203 Dec. 3rd, 1930.
VWL866 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frederic Wilkinson 19360208 Feb 8th [1936]
VWL814 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gwen Raverat 19271001 [October 1927]
VWL807 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP) 19351019 19 Oct 1935
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]
VWL763 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Dorothy Newton 192209-- [Late 1922]
VWL698 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ursula Wood 193908-- [August 1939?]
VWL668 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Penelope Spencer 19290331 [About 31st March 1929]
VWL656 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Penelope Spencer 19290121 [Third week of January 1929]
VWL530 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Maconchy 193502-- [February 1935]
VWL517 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Burnaby 19230610 [About 10 June 1923]
VWL515 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Boris Ord 19230415 15.4.23
VWL468 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Donald F. Tovey 19270303 March 3 [1927]
VWL450 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Longman 19190606 6/6/19

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