The Worldwide Moeran Database - Homepage

Transcription

The Worldwide Moeran Database
Dedicated to the memory of E J Moeran
New: Major Kenmare article and Photo Gallery
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All the extra bits!
Over 200 pages and counting!
E. J. Moeran stands as perhaps the greatest unsung genius of
English composition. His music, often lost in the noise and hubbub
of the 20th Century, is that of a uniquely beautiful lyricism, often
capturing feelings and landscapes in a way no other composer ever
has.
This website brings Moeran to you in music, pictures and words,
leaving no stone unturned in a dedicated quest to make Moeran's
voice heard in the 21st Century.
Check out 8 Essential recordings
Catalogue of Works
Documentary Film
Download
FAQ
Inspired by Jack
Interview with Moeran
Photo Galleries
Shopping:
Essential CDs reviewed
Internet Auctions
CDs and Books
Sheet Music
Photographs
Restore Records to CD
En Français
Kenmare Special: "In The Mountain Country on
the Trail of Jacko Moeran" - article and new
photo gallery.
Concert info
Listen to Real Audio:
1 - Moeran on his early interest in composition
2 - The start of Moeran's Symphony in G Minor
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Mailing List Archive
©2001 Andrew Rose
The Database:
Tues 6th Nov 2001
1pm St John's, Smith Sq,
London.
Moeran - 3 Pieces for Piano
Plus works by Gurney,
Bridge, Vaughan Williams &
Howells in a series of
concerts called "Composers
at War: British Composers at
the Western Front" by
Chamber Domaine in
association with the Imperial
War Museum.
A Moeran concert not listed
here?
e-mail:[email protected]
Music - Find out all about Moeran's compositions for orchestra, chamber groups,
solo instruments and vocal combinations by using the links to the left. Each section
has a general introduction plus links to notes on each individual work, together
On your radio
with information on recordings, reprints of articles and reviews, and links to audio
clips.
Saturday 6
Notes are all written in an easily accessible style and aim to describe not just the
music, but the feelings behind it, as well as the historical importance of each piece
Sunday 7
in Moeran's canon. No practical musical experience necessary!
1400 BBC Legends The
Hallé Orchestra and Hamilton
Harty
Articles - Much has been written by and about Moeran down the years.
Unfortunately much of this is long out of print, but thanks to the meticulous
Monday 8
research and collection by Moeran historians these can now be accessed by
anyone.
Tuesday 9
New articles written specially for this site are also here - check the Biography
Wednesday 10
section for articles about Moeran, and the Writing section for articles and letters
0600 Elgar Serenade for
written by Moeran himself.
Strings
Thursday 11
Friday 12
1130 Elgar Enigma
Variations
Moeran count = 0
FAQs and figures - All sorts of factual information has been gathered and published
here for the first time. The Chronology is a year-by-year, month-by-month and at
times day-by-day account of all that has so far been discovered about Moeran's
activities and movements.
The Catalogue of Works is the first published attempt to put Moeran's output into a
chronological and numbered order. The Frequently Asked Questions offer a starting
point for those new to Moeran, while the People and Links page gives short notes
on people and places which had influence on Moeran, together with a vast collection of links to
Moeran-related websites and other sites of interest.
Look and Listen - The site's Picture Gallery collects a wide range of pictures of
Moeran, some of which have never been seen before in public. There's an
extensive section on the town of Kenmare where he lived, composed and died. You
can also buy immaculately restored and printed photos discovered in the collection
of Moeran's great friend and doctor, Dick Jobson.
Meanwhile the Audio section contains a series of short extracts from recordings of
Moeran's music, together with clips of Moeran speaking, taken from a long
interview with Moeran conducted by Eamonn Andrews in 1947. There are also
exclusive digital restorations of 1940's broadcast performances of Moeran's Violin Concerto
and Sinfonietta for free download and playback, plus a new partial recording of the otherwise
unavailable Sonata for Two Violins.
Take Part - There are two ways of participating actively in current Moeran
discussions and debate, or merely listening in to the latest news and gossip. The
online Forum is a free-for-all online discussion forum, where anyone can post
questions and answers, opinions and up to the minute information about Moeran
Alternatively you can subscribe to the Mailing list, joining fans, academics and
musicians from around the world. Each message posted here will also be sent to
your in-box - sometimes just a general site update, sometimes a message which
sparks of global debate, which can get quite heated! All the messages ever posted
can be read in the online Archive.
Internet Shopping - Find all the available Moeran material, be it CDs and books at
Amazon or WH Smith's CD Paradise site - the Buyer's Guide can help get you
started, and each music page gives star ratings for recordings new and old.
You might be lucky and track down vintage recordings on the Internet auction site
E-Bay - it's worth regularly checking from the Auctions page to see what's
currently under the hammer - there's a guide here to the best (and worst)
recordings from days gone by.
If it's sheet music you're looking for the Internet has yet to cover the complete
output, but the Sheet Music pages give you the head start you need to find that long-desired
score.
Alternatively click to view all the current Moeran CDs at Amazon.co.uk.
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Go!
Composer of the Week:
Schubert
Listen to BBC Radio 3 online
Highlights from the week
ahead on BBC Radio 3
(except where noted). Times
indicate start of piece where
available (BST). For further
information visit Radio Times:
Complete Catalogue of Works
This works list uses a numbering system for Moeran's output which corresponds with the
order of composition. In some cases there is a degree of approximation and overlap, as
the composer did not work in a strictly linear manner!
Note that no's R98 onwards are works that are as yet undated, though those which have
publishing dates are noted. I suggest that if this numbering system is adopted the numbers be
prefaced with the letter R, as an alternatively numbered, non-sequential list is printed in
Geoffrey Self's book. Dating and ordering is based largely on the listing published by Geoffrey
Self and the additional research of Barry Marsh as shown in his Chronology.
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©2001 Andrew Rose
R0. *Juvenilia (MSS destroyed or lost)
· a - String Quartet, key unknown - 1911-12?
· b - String Quartet, key unknown - 1911-12?
· c - String Quartet, key unknown - 1911-12?
· d - Cello Sonata, key unknown - 1912?
R1. *Dance (piano) - 1913
R2. *Fields at Harvest (piano) - 1913
R3. *Four songs from A Shropshire Lad (Vocal - baritone & piano) - 1916
· a - Westward, On the High-Hilled Plains
· b - When I Last Came To Ludlow
· c - This Time Of Year, A Twelve-Month Past
· d - Far In A Western Brookland
R4. Three Piano Pieces (piano) - 1918-19
· a - The Lake Island
· b - Autumn Woods
· c - At a Horse Fair
R5. Theme and Variations (Piano) - 1920
R6. Piano Trio (Piano, Violin, Cello) - 1920-25
R7. Twilight (Vocal) - 1920
R8. Spring Goeth All In White (Vocal) - 1920
R9. Ludlow Town (Vocal) - 1920
· a - When Smoke Stood Up From Ludlow
· b - Farewell to Stack and Barn and Tree
· c - Say, Lad, Have You Things To Do?
· d - The Lads in their Hundreds
R10. In The Mountain Country (Orchestral) - 1921
R11. String Quartet in A minor (2 Violins, Viola, Cello) - 1921
R12. On A May Morning (Piano) - 1921
R13. Toccata (Piano) - 1921
R14. Stalham River (Piano) - 1921
R15. Violin Sonata (Violin and Piano) - 1922
R16. First Rhapsody (Orchestral) - 1922
R17. Three Fancies (Piano) - 1922
· a - Windmills
· b - Elegy
· c - Burlesque
R18. The Day of Psalms (Vocal) - 1922
R19. When June is Come (Vocal) - 1922
R20. Weep You No More Sad Fountains (Vocal) - 1922
R20a. Weep You No More Sad Fountains (Vocal Duet) - 1934
R21. Gather Ye Rosebuds (Vocal) - 1922
R22. Two Legends (Piano)
· a - A Folk Story
· b - Rune
R23. Six Norfolk Folk Songs (Vocal) - 1923
· a - Down By The Riverside
· b - The Bold Richard
· c - Lonely Waters
· d - The Pressgang
· e - The Shooting of his Dear
· f - The Oxford Sporting Blade
R24. Two Songs (Vocal) - 1923
· a - The Beanflower
· b - Impromptu in March
R25. Robin Hood Borne on his Bier (Vocal) - 1923
R26. Second Rhapsody (Orchestral) - 1924
R27. Lonely Waters (Orchestral) - 1924/31(?)
R28. *Overture (Orchestral) - 1924
R29. Two Songs from the repertoire of John Goss (Vocal) - 1924
· a - Can’t You Dance The Polka?
· b - Mrs Dyer the Baby Farmer
R30. The Sailor and Young Nancy (Vocal - Voice and Piano) - 1924
R30a. The Sailor and Young Nancy (Vocal - SATB) - 1948-9
R31. Gaol Song (Vocal) - 1924
R32. Under the Broom (Vocal) - 1924
R33. Commendation of Music (Vocal) - 1924
R34. Christmas Day in the Morning (Vocal) - 1924
R35. The Jolly Carter (Vocal - Unison chorus) - 1924
R35a. The Jolly Carter (Vocal - SATB) - 1944
If you have any comments to
make on this numbering
system please e-mail me:
[email protected]
R36. Bank Holiday (Piano) - 1925
R37. Summer Valley (Piano) - 1925
R38. The Merry Month of May (Vocal) - 1925
R39. Come Away, Death (Vocal) - 1925
R40. A Dream of Death (Vocal) - 1925
R41. In Youth is Pleasure (Vocal) - 1925
R42. Troll the Bowl (Vocal) - 1925
R43. ‘Tis Time, I Think, By Wenlock Edge (Vocal) - 1925
R44. Far in a Western Brookland (Vocal) - 1925
R45. The Little Milkmaid (Vocal) - 1925
R46. O Sweet Fa’s The Eve (Vocal - Voice and Piano) - 1925
R47. Irish Love Song (Piano) - 1926
R48. *Maltworms (Vocal) - 1926
R49. Whythorne’s Shadow (Orchestral) - 1926-31
R50. The White Mountain (Piano) - 1927
R51. Seven Poem of James Joyce (Vocal) - 1929
· a - Strings in the Earth and Air
· b - The Merry Greenwood
· c - Brightcap
· d - The Pleasant Valley
· e - Donnycarney
· f - Rain has Fallen
· g - Now O Now in this Brown Land
R52. Rosefrail (Vocal) - 1929
R53. Sonata for Two Violins (Two Violins) - 1930
R54. Songs of Springtime (Vocal) - 1930
· a - Under The Greenwood Tree
· b - The River-God’s Song
· c - Spring, The Sweet Spring
· d - Love is a Sickness
· e - Sigh No More, Ladies
· f - Good Wine
· g - To Daffodils
R55. Magnificat (a) and Nunc Dimitis (b) (Vocal) - 1930
R56. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem (Vocal) - 1930
R57. Te Deum (a) and Jubilate (b) (Vocal) - 1930
R58. *An April Evening (Vocal) - 1930
R59. String Trio (Violin, Viola, Cello) - 1931
R60. Six Suffolk Folk Songs (Vocal) - 1931
· a - Nutting Time
· b - Blackberry Field
· c - Cupid’s Garden
· d - Father and Daughter
· e - The Isle of Cloy
· f - A Seaman’s Life
R61. The Sweet O’ The Year (Vocal) - 1931
R62. Loveliest of Trees (Vocal) - 1931
R63. Blue Eyed Spring (Vocal) - 1931
R64. *Farrago Suite (Orchestral) - 1932
R65. Alsatian Carol (Vocal) - 1932
R66. Ivy and Holly (Vocal) - 1932
R67. Two Pieces (Piano) - 1933
· a - Prelude
· b - Berceuse
R68. The Echoing Green (Vocal) - 1933
R69. Four English Lyrics (Vocal) - 1934
· a - Cherry Ripe
· b - Willow Song
· c - The Constant Lover
· d - The Passionate Shepherd
R70. Nocturne (Orchestral and Vocal) - 1934
R71. Symphony in G minor (Orchestral) - 1924-37
R72. Diaphenia (Vocal) - 1937
R73. Rosaline (Vocal) - 1937
R74. Blessed are Those Servants (Vocal) - 1938
R75. Phyllida and Corydon (Vocal) - 1939
· a - Phyllida and Corydon
· b - Beauty Sat Bathing By A Stream
· c - On a Hill There Grows a Flower
· d - Phyllis Inamorata
· e - Said I That Amaryllis
· f - The Treasure of my Heart
· g - While She Lies Sleeping
· h - Corydon, Arise
· i - To Meadows
R76. Four Shakespeare Songs (Vocal) - 1940
· a - The Lover and his Lass
· b - Where the Bee Sucks
· c - When Daisies Pied
· d - Where Icicles Hang
R77. Second Rhapsody (Revised version) (Orchestral) - 1940-41
R78. Violin Concerto (Violin and Orchestra) - 1937-41
R79. Piano Rhapsody (Piano and Orchestra) - 1942-43
R80. Prelude (Cello and Piano) - 1943
R81. *Fanfare for Red Army Day (Orchestral, lost) - 1944
R82. Overture to a Masque (Orchestral) - 1944
R83. Sinfonietta (Orchestral) - 1944
R84. Invitation in Autumn (Vocal) - 1944
R85. Six Poems of Seamus O’Sullivan (Vocal) - 1944
· a - Evening
· b - The Poplars
· c - A Cottager
· d - The Dustman
· e - Lullaby
· f - The Herdsman
R86. The Jolly Carter (Vocal - SATB) - 1944
R87. *If There Be Any Gods (Vocal) - 1944
R88. Irish Lament (Cello and Piano) - 1944
R89. Cello Concerto (Cello and Orchestra) - 1945
R90. Fantasy Quartet (Oboe and Strings) - 1946
R91. I’m Weary, Yes Mother Darling (Vocal) - 1946
R92. Cello Sonata (Cello and Piano) - 1947
R93. Rahoon (Vocal) - 1947
R94. Parson and Clerk (Vocal) - 1947
R95. Serenade in G (Orchestral) - 1948
· a - Prologue
· b - Intermezzo [omitted from final published score]
· c - Air
· d - Galop
· e - Minuet
· f - Forlana [omitted from final published score]
· g - Rigadoon
· h - Epilogue
R96. Candlemas Eve (Vocal) - 1949
R97. Songs from County Kerry (Vocal) - 1950
· a - The Dawning of the Day
· b - My Love Passed Me By
· c - The Murder of Father Hanratty
· d - The Roving Dingle Boy
· e - The Lost Lover
· f - The Tinker’s Daughter
· g - Kitty, I am in love with you
R98. String Quartet No. 2 in E flat (2 Violins, Viola, Cello) - unknown
R99. *Second Symphony (Orchestral, unfinished) - first sketches 1939
R100. O Fair Enough are Sky and Plain (Vocal) - ? (published 1957)
R101. O Sweet Fa’s The Eve (Vocal - SATB) - ? (published 1925)
R102. Sheepshearing (Vocal) - ? (published 1927)
R103. The Lover and his Lass (Vocal) - ? (published 1934)
R104. *Rores Montium (Vocal) - ?
R105. Tilly (vocal) - ? (published 1933)
R106. Green Fire (Vocal) - ? (published 1933)
R107. To Blossoms (Vocal) - ? (published 1934)
R108. *High Germany (Vocal) - ? (Folksong collected in 1921)
R109. *The Monk's Fancy (Vocal) - ? (words H J Pope, MS Britten-Pears library)
R110. *One Morning in Spring (Vocal) - ? (Norfolk folksong, Britten-Pears library)
R111 *Mantle of Blue (Vocal) - ? (words Padraic Colum)
*Unpublished Works
List of Moeran's dedications
*
At A Horse Fair
Anthology: E J Moeran
A documentary film by RTE
Transmitted 17th February 1971
In 1971 the Irish
state broadcaster
RTE transmitted a
documentary film
that had been some
fifteen months in
the making - a 63
minute long TV
biography of Jack
Moeran, written,
prtoduced and
presented by the
late Bill Skinner.
Lacking the
recordings and
research we have
today, Skinner's job
was tough. He had
to make new
recordings for all
the music featured
in the programme.
He had to do much
new research. But
he had one major
advantage - a good
number of those people who knew and remembered Moeran were still around - after all this was
just 20 years on from his death, and their memories were still fresh.
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©2001 Andrew Rose
Skinner was clearly granted the kind of budget we can only now dream of for such a
documentary. Filming in colour (surely still highly unusual in 1970/1) on 16mm film stock, he
took his cameras to Norfolk, Uppingham, Eynsford, Ludlow, London and Kerry. Recordings of
some of the piano pieces were made by Charles Lynch - the same pianist who'd played with
Peers Coetmore at the premiere of the Cello Sonata in 1947. He has the time in the film to play
extensive extracts of music, especially the Symphony in G minor, illustrated by wonderful scenic
shots designed to complement the composer's inspiration. And, quite early on, we get the first
Moeran 'pop video' - a complete rendition of At A Horse Fair with the appropriate pictures.
The only thing missing from this is any film of Moeran himself - instead we are offered several
speech-only extracts, almost certainly all taken from an iterview he gave to Eamonn Andrews in
the late 1940's and heard elsewhere on this site.
RTE are able to make copies of the film for sale (probably more quickly than mine as they've
now carried out the laborious transfer from old film stock to professional videotape) on VHS for
the princely sum of £70 IR. Full contact details can be sent to anyone who wishes to buy this
film direct from RTE - drop me a line at [email protected] and I'll send them to you.
In the meantime, I've digitised a number of stills to create the following pages, which illustrate
the film admirably. The pages are quite graphic-intensive - with 21 pictures in total how could
they be otherwise? But I hope this will give you a flavour fo the film. I've omitted long sections
of countryside shots which accompany the extended musical sections, but any Moeran lover will
find new images of people and places unseen in any current publications within this selection.
Bill Skinner wrote an artcile in the RTE Guide magazine published on February 12th, 1971, to
accompany the film - you can read the article in full here.
Video clip excerpts
I've digitised to short sequences - the discussion of Jack's death and the 'pop video' version of
At A Horse Fair, both for 56k modems. Click on the links to the right to view the clips. If you
have a slower modem or wish to save the clips, use the links below to download the files to your
hard drive and view offline.
Clip One file
Clip Two file
I've divided the film into three pages. Click here to start the film!
Film pages:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Article
Clip 1
Kenmare Pier
Clip 2*
At A Horse Fair
*Note: The second clip has
been digitised with the latest
Real Audio technology which
requires version eight of Real
Player to be viewed. This can
be downloaded for free from
www.real.com
Film pages:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Article
Clip 1
Kenmare Pier
Clip 2
At A Horse Fair
Anthology: E J Moeran - Page 1
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©2001 Andrew Rose
The film begins at Moeran's grave in Kenmare, after long sweeping shots of the Kerry
mountains, to the music of In The Mountain Country
Presenter and producer Bill Skinner narrates from Kenmare Pier.
The history begins at Heston vicarage, Moeran's birthplace.
The moves to Norfolk and school at Uppingham - spot Jack in the school orchestra!
More school photos are found...
...and the young Jack Moeran receives a close-up.
A visit is paid to Bacton, where the Moeran's lived and grandfather was vicar at the local parish
church.
Index - Next Page
Film pages:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Article
Clip 1
Kenmare Pier
Clip 2
At A Horse Fair
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©2001 Andrew Rose
The film takes us to the battlefields of the First World War, to the dramatic sounds of the
Symphony in G minor...
...and details Jack's role as a dispatch rider, and his subsequent head injury.
The film returns to Norfolk...
...and the city of Norwich.
And also travels to Ireland for At A Horse Fair.
Other places visited are Ludlow, to the song The Lads in Their Hundreds from Ludlow Town..
And the cottage in Hampstead, London where Jack and Peers lived briefly in the 1940s
Index - Previous Page - Next Page
Film pages:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Article
Clip 1
Kenmare Pier
Clip 2
At A Horse Fair
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©2001 Andrew Rose
We get to meet a number of people - "Munn the grocer" lived next door to Moeran and Warlock
in Eynsford in the 1920's, and immortalised in Warlock's 'epitaph':
Here lies Warlock, the composer
Who lived next door to Munn the grocer,
He died of drink and copulation
A great discredit to the nation.
Dick Jobson, who features prominently in Lionel Hill's book Lonely Waters and was a great friend
to Moeran in Herefordshire in the 1940's...
...a keen photographer, who inherited Jack's album of steam train photographs.
Pat Ryan, who played in clarinet on the 1942 premiere recording of the Symphony, and was a
great friend of Jack's in Kenmare, Co Kerry, in the last years of his life.
The film takes in Moeran's wedding in 1945 to Peer's Coetmore...
...and their subsequent honeymoon in Peers' notorious Wolsley Hornet.
And finally to Moeran's demise in the Kenmare River, ending appropriately with Lonely Waters.
Index - Previous Page
Anthology: E J Moeran
A documentary film by RTE
Transmitted 17th February 1971
An article published in RTE Guide on 12th February 1971
Bill Skinner writes about his colour film on the life and work of Anglo-Irish
composer, E J Moeran, which Anthology presents on Wednesday.
I think the first time I ever saw the name E J Moeran it was in the Radio Times in
the 1940's. I assumed he was some class of a Central European, with that 'e' in the
middle of his name doing duty for a German umlaut. Then I heard a BBC announcer
call him E J 'Moweran', which left me completely flummoxed about his nationality. It
was much later that I discovered he was one of those people, like myself, who are
Irish by descent and temperament but are born and educated outside Ireland. His name is, of
course, a variant or Moran, but I had some difficulty deciding how it should be pronounced in
this film because many people who knew him put the accent on the second syllable, as if it were
spelt 'Murrann', but in two radio interviews he was called Mr. 'Moran'. I decided to adopt this
pronunciation, on the grounds that, as he was there at the time, if he objected to being so
addressed he would have corrected the interviewers.
Usually, when one starts making a film about a composer or writer, a certain amount of spade
work can be got over by getting the standard biographies from the library. In Moeran's case,
however, no such work has been written, so this film is really the first biography of the
composer ever undertaken. There's one big disadvantage to this: a biography in book form can
run from two or three hundred pages upwards, while a television film about a man's life (I reject
the bastard term filmography which is creeping in these days) is limited to about an hour in
length, which is equivalent to fifty or sixty pages of script. But when the subject is a composer,
this disadvantage is more than balanced by an advantage: the music can be played instead of
relying on snippets of written music, which are meaningless to all but the most highly trained
musicians.
And in Jack Moeran's life the most important thing was music. Unlike many composers he
taught no pupils and his appearances as a performer were rare. But he spent much of his time
collecting and arranging folk-tunes; and he composed glorious original music in a style which
has its roots deep in the folk-music of these islands, without actually quoting any of it (although
I think I detected an echo of An Cailin Deas Cruaite na mBo in the Sinfonietta).
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©2001 Andrew Rose
Wednesday night's film is the result of research done over a period of some fifteen months, in
between other programme commitments. I am grateful to those many people who gave freely
of their time to talk to me, or write to me, about Jack Moeran. Those whose contributions form
parts of the actual script are listed on Wednesday's programme page, but there were others
who gave me much useful background information, like Sgt. and Mrs. McCabe, Mrs. Murphy and
Mrs. O'Shea, all of Kenmare, where Moeran lived for much of the later part of his life, and where
he was buried. Then there were the people I should have seen, but didn't because of the time,
like Michael Bowles, who conducted the first performance of the cello concerto, and Sir John
Barbirolli, who went to put some 'jizz' in the Celestial Choral Society before we could find a
mutually suitable date.
A film is the work of many hands. I hope all the other people involved won't be offended if I
mention but three outstanding names: Godfrey Graham, who is responsible for the beautiful
photography; Eimear O Broin, who brought his enthusiasm and expertise to the musical side
and conducted one session in such agonies of rheumatism that he should have been in his bed;
and Pat Hughes, my incomparable assistant, who took on much of the slow, trudging part of the
research, like going through 30 years of newspapers in search of odd paragraphs about our
subject, leaving me free for the more congenial job of interviewing people who knew Jack
Moeran, or knew something about him. Apart from these three, I mustn't forget Nora Nowlan,
whose name doesn't appear elsewhere, but who did the early part of the research before she
went off on a production of her own - which weighed about eight pounds at birth.
If, between us all, we've succeeded in painting a picture of a very human man who wrote
beautiful music, we'll think it well worth while.
Film pages:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Article
Clip 1
Kenmare Pier
Clip 2
At A Horse Fair
Frequently Asked Questions
There are of course many questions which arise about Moeran, so here are some of
the most regular, together with the best answers I can come up with! There's an
e-mail link at the bottom of the page in case your question has not been addressed.
1: How do you pronounce Moeran?
There is no easy answer to this, and it's likely that Moeran himself would have heard many
different renditions. Personally I tend to side with Peter Warlock writing in 1924, Eamonn
Andrews in discussion with Moeran in 1947, and Bill Skinner in his film documentary of 1971
and say "MOOR-an" - with MOOR stressed and pronounced as in Dartmoor.
2: Is anybody ever going to complete the 2nd Symphony (after Anthony Payne's work on Elgar's
3rd)?
So little of the Second Symphony (R99) survives, and in such little detail, that to this point
everyone who has actually seen it has come to the swift conclusion that there's not enough to
go on. The only hope for it is that somewhere in a dark attic corner in Ireland a more complete
score might one day be found, but for now this is not an option.
3: Moeran's death - did he jump or did he fall?
Hard to say - he was certainly in a very depressed and mentally unstable state of mind at the
end of his life, and may well have contemplated suicide. One has to ask what he was doing at
the end of Kenmare Pier in a storm at dusk in December. Yet as a strong swimmer it's hard to
believe the human survival instinct wouldn't have kicked in and seen him swimming for his life.
Those around him at the time had mixed opinions too, though the potential stigma caused some
to hold their tongues. Official verdict: he fell. Unofficial verdict? open.
4: Is there a Moeran Society?
It was me asking this question which kicked off this site. At present there is not, and a letter
from the holder of Moeran's estate in Australia suggests very little money coming in with which
to fund one. The Virtual Moeran Society at this site is a good opportunity to regiuster interest,
but little more than that - but a good starting point for anyone wishing to start a Society. This
site would certainly support such a move but lacks the time or resources to organise a Society
properly. Volunteers required!
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©2001 Andrew Rose
5: Where can I hear concert performances of Moeran?
You probably can't - at least not very often. There is a steady trickle of performances but they
are few and far between. This site relies on eagle-eyed Moeranites to pass on the news of any
forthcoming concerts...
6: Where can I buy sheet music?
The availability in the UK is poor. Thames Publishing did put together volumes of the complete
piano and vocal music for Moeran's anniversary in 1994, and these can be obtained directly
from their distributer. However, a search of London's music shops reveals little else, so one has
to look to the USA where Sheet Music Plus do carry a range of Moeran scores published there by
Shawnee Press, shipped internationally.
7: Has all of Moeran's music been recorded?
Although most of the instrumental music has seen commercial release and is currently available
on CD, there are huge gaps in the vocal music. For such a fine song writer and folk music
arranger as Moeran this is surely an oversight on the part of singers. Of the instrumental music
not available, the major oversight is the Sonata for Two Violins (R53), though there is a rough
recording of this available from this site.
8: What about those wonderful Lyrita recordings of the 60's and 70's?
These do come up from time to time on vinyl at auction sites like e-bay and are well worth
getting - the Boult interpretations of Moeran's orchestral music are superlative, and the
Georgiadis recording of the Violin Concerto is wonderful. Alas it seems these are destined never
to see the light of day again as CDs. I understand through Internet rumour that the owner of
the tapes and former head of Lyrita is so disillusioned with the record business that he intends
to keep his tapes to himself.
9: What are all these R numbers suddenly appearing on the site?
These refer to a new attempt to catalogue Moeran's music chronologically. Although Moeran was
meticulous in his writing he was very disorganised in his storage and often seemed even to
forget about quite major compositions. He did not assign Opus numbers, therefore it can only
be up to researchers to try and unravel and document his output. The R numbers refer to this
site's attempt to do just that.
If your question is
unanswered here feel free to
e-mail me - or join the
mailing list and tap into a
huge range of expertise!
Got a question? E-mail me: [email protected]
Irish Lullaby
When he heard of the birth of this website's owner's son, It's a way of seeing whether
Jack Rose, on 28th February 2001, the composer Francis you've really succeeded in
Pott, a longtime lover of Moeran, set out to produce a
getting inside another
new work for solo piano which would not only welcome
composer's head to any
the new Jack into the world, but also pay tribute the the
degree...
old Jack, Moeran himself.
This piece is presented here as an example of a
composer deliberately taking Moeran as a starting
influence for a piece - not altogether common, but of
interest all the same.
"Having taught compositional techniques at Oxford, "
Pott writes, "I don't see this sort of thing as setting out
to cheapen Jack M's achievement - it's more a way of
seeing whether you've really succeeded in getting inside
another composer's head to any degree.
"Also, it doesn't specifically set out to evoke the piano
works - more a general feel of Moeran in whatever
genre. Anyway, it seemed a fitting way to mark the
appearance of another Jack, so here it is."
Francis Pott
Download the score: Irish Lullaby - Adobe Acrobat Document (172 KB)
Download the music: Irish Lullaby - Stereo MP3 file (3.6MB) - Duration: 3'55"
Notes on the recording by Francis Pott: "I had to record it from an unpredictable MIDI keyboard
in the small hours with no page turner, and the last page blew away so I played it reading it
upside down from about 6 feet away. The playing's nothing to write home about -'learnt' in
minutes rather than hours!" He is of course being far too modest!
About the composer
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©2001 Andrew Rose
Francis Pott was a Music Scholar at Winchester and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, studying
composition with Robin Holloway and Hugh Wood while also pursuing piano studies with Hamish
Milne in London. Since 1981 he has received four national awards for his compositions, which
have been heard in fiftenn countries. In 1991 his two hour Passion Symphony for solo organ,
Christus, was acclaimed in the national press as "truly sensational...clearly one of the most
important organ works of our century", and in 1993 the British Council enabled him to attend
the premiere of his Piano Quintet at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC. He is now at
work on a Piano Concerto. Active also as a recitalist, he maintains a regular duo partnership
with Jeremy Filsell, with whom he has appeared at the Wigmore Hall and other venues. He holds
the post of Lecturer in Music at St Hilda's and St Hughes Colleges, Oxford and bass Lay Clerk in
the Choir of Winchester Cathedral. He lives in Winchester with his wife and children.
(Taken from the 1997 sleevenotes to his highly recommended CD of music for Cello and Piano
"Farewell to Hirta", Guild Music Ltd.)
The Radio Interview
In 1947, Moeran was interviewed for Irish radio by a young man called
Eamonn Andrews, just setting out on a career which would later make him a ...I used to love to get to the
piano and invent great
household name in Britain and Ireland, but here a rather nervous fellow, who
chords with three or four
later admitted to a particular degree of anxiety about interviewing Moeran.
notes in both hands...
Listen to the Interview - MP3 file (1.9 MB)
The Transcript:
Eamonn Andrews: I often wonder, Mr Moeran, how people how people decide ...I'm afraid that my music is
to write music at all. How did you begin to take an interest in its
considered rather old
composition?
fashioned, partly maybe
because I've always been
Moeran: Well. when I was a small boy, I was about the age of nine, my
interested in traditional
parents decided that my brother and myself should learn music. My elder
music...
brother was taught the piano, and so it was decided that I should learn the fiddle, the idea being
that we two boys should play together. But I found that scales and exercises, only playing one
note and not playing chords, was rather dull, and I used to love to get to the piano and invent,
as I thought, great chords with three or four notes in both hands, and I used to extemporise
these things by the hour. I really thought I was making great discoveries, which I was not of
course. But then of course I had the inkling that I wanted to put these things down onto paper.
Yes, but how did you eventually acquire the ability to write, say, complete works when you
graduated from these boyish chords?
Well, er, that's a difficult question to answer, because it took time. After I left school I was sent
to the Royal College of Music, London, where I studied first of all harmony and counterpoint,
and then later composition, under the late Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. Well, what Stanford
taught me, over a period of several years, I'm afraid it would be impossible to tell you in the
limited time at my disposal.
Yes. Well tell me, I believe that most of your compositions were written here in Ireland. Why
Ireland?
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Well, being the son of an Irishman - my ancestors are from Cork City - although I was born in
England, I very naturally...I used to hear so much about Ireland from my father, that from a
very early age I longed to visit this country, and when once I came over for the first time I was
fascinated, and I've been coming and going ever since. It's impossible for me to live here
altogether because, er, there's a question of performances elsewhere and the publication of my
works. But whenever I get the chance to do so, I come over here and go right into the heart of
the country, where I think out my works.
Excellent. Well we here have been honoured by many of your first performances. Where else do
you remember that your works have been performed?
Well, I had a new work only last month performed in Vienna, a Quartet for oboe and strings, it
was played by Mr Leon Goossens, who I think was with you quite recently here...
...he was indeed...
©2001 Andrew Rose
...I think so far that this thing has not been inflicted on you yet, my new quartet, but I suppose
it's a doubtful pleasure to come!
Well I don't believe that, but here's a difficult question I think or perhaps a delicate question:
Lots of people condemn what they term 'modern music' - now of course that's a wide term wouldn't you call your music 'modern music'?
Well my music is not considered modern music by modern standards. There is a school of very
modern music - some people call it 'wrong note music' - but it centres around the school of
Arnold Schoenberg and the central European school of music, some poeple call it the school of
the Atonalists, and I suppose that is the last word in modern music. It remains to be seen
whether it is leading the leading path to the future. I don't know, I wouldn't like to say. Frankly
I don't understand it very well myself, but by what really is known as modern standards, I'm
afraid that my music is considered rather old fashioned, partly maybe because I've always been
interested in traditional music. From a boy onwards, I've always been fascinated by the old
songs or old fiddling and that kind of thing.
Well Mr Moeran those who know very little about music feel that there's a great what I'd call
'musical snobbery' - you have modern dance tunes and crooning songs that give us quite an
amount of pleasure, and we're told by expert musicians that they are of no value. Would you
like to comment on that?
I can only give you my own personal reaction. I am very fond, I get a great kick, out of the
music hall songs. I'm going back a little way now, but I get a great kick out of the music hall
songs of the turn of the century, in fact up to the pre-1914 War days, and they seem rather to
have fizzled out after that. Such things as, erm, A Bicycle Made For Two, and there's one that
I'm particularly fond of, in fact I, sometimes in moments of exhilaration I come out with it
myself, Seargent Solomon Isaacstein, He's the ???......* and those kind of things. But also, I
...I think there's a great deal
to be said for Duke
Ellington...
...a crooner makes me
almost want to go to the
lavatory and vomit...
...I'm planning a new
symphony...
think there's a great deal to be said for Duke Ellington. Now I'm told by jazz experts that this is
not Hot Jazz. I'm not an expert myself and I'm not quite sure of the difference between Hot
Jazz, Jazz and Swing, because as I say I don't pretend to be an expert. But there is a lot of this
jazz dance music, this very rhythmic stuff, which always strikes me as having a great deal of
merit and a great deal of character. It may be negro influence, I don't know what it is. But as
for crooning, I think it's flaccid, emasculate and almost positively indecent...
...all right...
...in fact I can't bear it, it's...it makes me feel physically sick and I...er...a crooner makes me...I
think I almost want to go to the lavatory and vomit.
All right we'll get off that subject now! Finally I'll ask you, what are your plans, your musical
plans, for the future?
Well for the immediate future I'm planning a new symphony. I've just been down in County
Kerry, Kenmare, and transport is difficult but I'm making plans to try and get back there, and
I'm planning a new symphony that I've been commissioned to write by John Barbirolli and the
Halle Orchestra. I want to write this symphony about the mountains of Kerry and I'm planning
to get back there and walk the mountains and think out the themes and try and get on with the
work, and get it done.
*This refers to a music hall song - although the second line is hard to distinguish I am grateful
to Anne Pedley for the following research notes:
"Received MT's letter about the music hall song EJM mentions in the EA interview. He confirms
that the title of the song is Sergeant Solomon Isaacstein (sic). It is listed in Michael Kilgarriff's
book "Sing Us One of the Old Songs." It was written by the famous partnership of Weston & Lee
in 1916 - so EJM may have heard it whilst in the army during WW1 - quite a few
musically-inclined volunteers/conscripts were amazed to find an abundance of musical material
they had not come across before when they joined up. Ivor Gurney, in particular, wrote down
many folk tunes he had not heard whilst serving with the Gloucesters in the trenches between
actions, and, music, in general, was something everyone enjoyed or indulged in, either
marching to it or listening/performing to it when out of the line (the First World War is my
particular area of interest!)."
The Moeran Photo Galleries
I - Early photos - babyhood to late 1920's
These pictures show Moeran's earliest days, from this charming shot of the
baby Jack sitting on his grandfather's lap in Bacton at the end of the 19th
century, through his schooldays, to the years spent in the 1920's in the
company of the likes of Peter Warlock, John Ireland and Constant Lambert.
Gallery One - click here
II - Mature photos - generally 1940's
These are grouped into three sections, with official portrait shots of the
mature composer, informal shots of Moeran and his wife and friends, and a
series of photos recovered and restored from the huge archive of Moeran's
friend and doctor, Dick Jobson, by New Radnor photographic expert,
Laurence Smith.
Gallery Two - click here
III - Kenmare Picture Gallery - on the Moeran trail
A series of 33 shots taken around the town of Kenmare, including Moeran's
grave, the point where he died, and the hotel where he lived.
Kenmare Gallery - click here
IV - Other Pictures - assorted characters and locations
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All those pictures which add colour to the Moeran story - houses he lived
and worked in, the locations that inspired him, the pub he and Warlock
collaborated in, and more.
Gallery Three - click here
E-Mail me:
[email protected]
©2001 Andrew Rose
The Moeran Photo Gallery - I
Click on the photos to
enlarge them!
Early Pictures - Moeran's Youth
There are more photos from
later in Moeran's life on page
2 of the Gallery - Click here
to view
School picture at
Uppingham
School picture close-up
Heston Vicarage, Moeran's
birthplace
Bacton Church, where
grandfather was vicar
Moeran as a baby on his
grandfather's knee
School orchestra at
Uppingham
The Middle Years - The Young Man
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At the Five Bells, Eynsford,
with Warlock and Hal Collins
Moeran with John Ireland in
1922
Late 1920's studio portrait
©2001 Andrew Rose
Munn The Grocer - Moeran's
landlord in Eynsford, Kent
Shoreham Amateur
Dramatics Society including Moeran and
Warlock
Group photo at The Windmill,
Stalham
There are also pictures
relating to Moeran's life on
page 3 of the gallery - click
here to view
enlarge them!
The Moeran Photo Gallery - II
earlier in Moeran's life on
page 1 of the Gallery - click
here to view
Later Pictures - Portraits
There are also pictures
relating to Moeran's life on
page 3 of the gallery - click
here to view
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BBC Studio portrait with
pipe
Studio portrait at the piano
1
Studio portrait at the piano 2
Studio portrait mid-40's 1
Studio portrait with pipe and
music
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©2001 Andrew Rose
Later Pictures - Informal shots
With Peers' Wolsey Hornet
on honeymoon
Moeran's wedding photo
Out with Peers
On a hilltop
At Kenmare Bay
Moeran with Bax
Outdoor wide landscape
shot
Leafy background, possibly
Seer Green
With Lionel Hill's son
Outside with stick
Later Pictures - The Laurence Smith restorations
These restored pictures can be ordered as prints from Laurence Smith, who acquired them as
part of a large collection of photographs taken by Moeran's friend and doctor, Dick Jobson, of
New Radnor. Click pictures for more information.
Moeran - Self's book cover
shot
Moeran looks over shoulder
Moeran and Peers 1
Moeran and Peers 3
Moeran and Peers 2
Moeran and Peers 4
Moeran solemn portrait
Click here for earlier photos
The Moeran Photo Gallery - III
enlarge them!
Other Pictures
earlier in Moeran's life on
page 1 of the Gallery - click
here to view
The house Moeran shared
with Peers in Hampstead
Dr Dick Jobson
Kenmare Bay
Kenmare Pier
Pat Ryan
Moeran's train photo album
House at Valencia Island
where he composed
Moeran's room at Valencia
Island
Albert Sammons
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Cottage at Eynsford
The Five Bells, Eynsford
Plaque at Eynsford
©2001 Andrew Rose
Gravel Hill, Kington in
Moeran's day
Gravel Hill today
View from Moeran's study
window at Gravel Hill
later in Moeran's life on page
2 of the Gallery - Click here
to view
Kenmare Gallery
The Moeran connection
Click on the thumbnail shots for full views:
These pictures were all taken
on 2nd and 3rd October
2001. Read about the trip
they accompany here:
"In The Mountain Country on
the Trail of Jacko Moeran"
Moeran's Headstone
Grave with flowers
Moeran's grave
Approach to grave
Editor with grave
Grave to church
View from graveyard 1
View from graveyard 2
Jack's view
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Church entrance 1
Sign to Moeran
Church entrance 2
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©2001 Andrew Rose
Kenmare pier 1
Kenmare pier 2
Kenmare pier 3
Along the pier
Pier end
View from pier end
Back along the pier
Pier current warning
Steps out of water
Bay from beach
Across the water
Beach from pier
Lansdowne Arms
Moeran's Pub
View into Kenmare
Central Kenmare
O'Shea's Sign
Maureen O'Shea
Road out to pier
Rainbow over Kenmare
Music at Moeran's
Recommended CDs
Here are eight essential recordings of Moeran's major works which ought to have a home in
your collection - and you don't have to take my word for it - see the quotes from Gramophone
magazine too!
Symphony in G Minor, Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra
(mid price)
Ulster Orchestra, Vernon Handley, Margaret Fingerhut (piano)
A good reading of the Symphony by one of Moeran's great champions,
Vernon Handley, who has also conducted this work for the BBC. "This
performance proves that...its enduring strength lies not in its rich
lyricism, nor its vivid land- and seascape imagery but in the tense
anxiety that often disrupts them from beneath the surface" wrote
Gramophone magazine in 1988. The coupling with the Piano Rhapsody
and the low price make this a must-have CD.
Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, Lonely Waters, Whythorne's Shadow
(mid price)
Ulster Orchestra, Vernon Handley, Lydia Mordkovitch (violin),
Bournmouth Sinfonietta, Norman Del Mar, Raphael Wallfisch (cello)
Concerto.
This is another disc which should be at the top of your shopping list
for orchestral Moeran - four excellent works and four excellent
recordings. Gramophone said "Mordkovitch plays beautifully...the
Ulster Orchestra plays superbly... Vernon Handley is a sympathetic
interpreter" about the Violin Concerto and "Raphael Wallfisch...plays
with much beauty of tone and phrasing and Norman Del Mar obtains
eloquent, high-quality playing from the orchestra" about the Cello
Serenade in G, Nocturne
(full price)
Ulster Orchestra, Vernon Handley, Renaissance Singers, Hugh Mackey
(baritone)
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The Serenade in G was originally written with 8 movements but two
were cut by order of the publisher. This 1990 recording reintegrates
these two much to the work's advantage - in fact these two, together
with two other movements, originated in Moeran's 1932 Farrago
Suite, which was subsequently withdrawn. It is therefore even more
appropriate that his little heard, Delian Nocturne of 1934 is heard
here, as is Warlock's Capriol Suite - it was the constant comparison
with this work which led Moeran to with draw his Farrago Suite.
Gramophone wrote: "The performance [of the Nocturne] is sensitive and is gently
recorded...The Ulster Orchestra plays with exquisite refinement."
Serenade in G, Sinfonietta
Northern Sinfonia, Richard Hickox
(mid price)
This is the Serenade in G as published, rather than the 8 movement
version above. The coupling with the Sinfonietta is attractive, though
splitting the two works by inserting the Finzi is perhaps not the most
satisfactory solution to track listing - one for the CD programmer I
think! Gramphone magazine wrote: "Richard Hickox has flair for this
vein of British music and brings out both composers' considerable skill
in the application of orchestral colours, mostly pastel shades in Finzi,
but bolder in the Moeran pieces, which are among his more extrovert
compositions."
String Quartets, Fantasy Quartet, Piano Trio
(full price)
Vanbrugh Quartet, Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Joachim Piano Trio
Having already bought the Naxos CD of Moeran's chamber music
(below) I delayed buying this disc. This, I am happy to say, was a
mistake - the Vanbrugh Quartet bring a wonderful approach to the
music on these superbly recorded performances, and the Piano Trio
was an absolute revelation. One of the finest collections of Moeran
recordings ever made - as Gramophone agreed: "Pure enjoyment
from start to finish...the Vanbrugh Quartet makes both of Moeran’s
early quartets sound like mini-masterpieces...an enterprising,
beautifully engineered and uncommonly generous anthology – and a
release, I fancy, already destined for inclusion in my ‘Critics’ Choice’ come the year’s end."
These recordings represent
the best of Moeran available
today on CD. Click on the
covers to buy them now at
low prices from Amazon UK.
String Quartets, String Trio
Maginni Quartet
(budget price)
Another superb disc of Moeran's chamber music, this time with the
only currently available recording of his pivotal String Trio of 1931,
this was my introduction to the world of Moeran and remains a firm
favourite. To my tastes the Maginnis are just pipped to the post by
the Vanbrugh's recordings of the two quartets, but it's a very close
call. At this price you can probably afford to try both! Gramophone
wrote "Excellent sound and balance throughout. I do urge you to
investigate this enterprising, hugely enjoyable collection."
Cello Sonata
(full price)
Raphael Wallfisch, John York
Once again Raphael Wallfisch is the prime mover in bringing Moeran's
mature compositions for cello to the public, this time in a set pairing
Moeran's sonata with those by Ireland and Rubbra. I may be biased,
but Moeran's Cello Sonata seems to me to be the shining light on this
disc - as it should, being widely regarded as one of the pinnacles of
his compositional career. Gramophone wrote: "I can think of few
cellists better suited temperamentally to this repertoire than Raphael
Wallfisch. He has a warmth of tone that I find very appealing and his
playing is always deeply musical."
Songs of Springtime, Phyllida and Corydon
Finzi Singers
(full price)
These two choral works bookended Moeran's output in the 1930's and,
in Songs of Springtime, represent some of his most performed output.
The Finzi Singers manage to get well under the skin of both works in
these superb recordings, and again a pairing with various choral
works by Warlock is sympathetic. Gramophone wrote: "in these two
matchless madrigal suites there is an indefinable Englishness—the
result of a deep awareness of tradition and love of the
countryside...the innate musicality of the Finzi Singers pays handsome
dividends; these warm-toned, richly expressive voices...seem to
capture the very essence of this uniquely lovely music."
Internet Auctions
Some of the best Moeran recordings have either never made it onto CD or were released
and deleted some time ago. Tracking down these recordings can be time-consuming, but
the results are often worthwhile. To assist you in your search I've put together some of
the more likely searches - just click on the links below to see the current, "live" results.
eBay UK - returns all auctions mentioning the word 'Moeran'
available to the UK
eBay US - returns all
auctions mentioning the
word 'Moeran' available to
the US
What to look for
The most common and often desireable items are the Lyrita LPs recorded mainly in the 1970s.
These are usually of exceptionally high quality, and were sold at quite a price premium at the
time. The only duds in their catalogue were the Peers Coetmore cello recordings, which I
personally find virtually unlistenable, due to the poor quality of the soloist's playing. However,
on both LPs there is still sufficient B-side material to make the discs worth buying if that
material interests you.
Another LP which pops up with a degree of regularity is the 1973 Neville Dilkes/English Sinfonia
recording of the Symphony in G minor on EMI. In my expeirence this more regularly turns up as
an American audiophile pressing on the Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs label. It's a great recording,
the only real criticism being a certain lack of weight in numbers from the orchestra.
The other LP which occasionally rears its head is a mid-60's Concert Artist label recording of the
Serenade in G by the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra. For the same reasons as the Peers
Coetmore discs this one is really for completionists and collectors only - not a great
performance, I'm afraid!
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Those Lyrita LPs in full:
RCS 3 - Piano works - Iris Loveridge, 1959 (mono)
SRCS 37 - Sinfonietta - London Philharmonic Orchestra, Boult, 1968
SRCS 42 - Cello Sonata, Prelude, Piano works - Peers Coetmore, Eric Parkin, 1972
/
(A side/B side)
SRCS 43 - Cello Concerto, Rhapsody No 2, Overture for a Masque - Peers Coetmore, London
/
(A side/B side)
Philharmonic, Boult, 1970
SRCS 70 - Symphony in G Minor - New Philharmonia of London, Boult, 1975
SRCS 91 - Piano Rhapsody - John McCabe, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Braithwaite, 1977
SRCS 105 - Violin Concerto - John Georgiadis, London Symphony Orchestra, Handley, 1979
A great body of essential
Moeran recordings can be
tracked down by using online
auctions such as eBay
Getting Started
Orchestral Works
Symphony (1924-37)
Violin Concerto: 1 2
(1937-41)
Click here for eight essential discs reviewed!
Cello Concerto (1945)
It's always difficult to know where to start if you're coming to a composer for the first time, and Sinfonietta (1944)
although Moeran's overall output was not extensive by comparison to others, there is still quite Serenade: 1 2 (1948)
a body of work. As the aim of this site is not only to add to the enjoyment and knowledge of
1st Rhapsody (1921)
existing Moeran lovers, but also to help introduce new listeners to hitherto hidden delights, this 2nd Rhapsody (1925/41)
short guide should help point you in the direction of currently available recordings.
Piano Rhapsody: 1 2
I've split the reviews into logical sections, as with the site itself, and suggest you start with the (1942-3)
Lonely Waters: 1 2 (1924?)
area you're most likely to enjoy and build up from there. In my case it was Moeran's chamber
Wythorne's Shadow: 1 2
music, but if it's a large orchestral sound your looking for scroll the page down a little further
and start there.
(1931?)
In The Mountain Country
Note - See also individual work pages for star ratings for all recordings
(1921)
A CD buyer's guide
Chamber Music
Chamber and Solo Works
This is what started me off as a Moeran devotee - via the string
quartets and quintets of other early 20th century composers such
as Fauré and Ravel. In fact, Moeran's string quartets do owe quite
a debt to Ravel's offering, albeit with a somewhat Irish flavour - in
a concert of his chamber music at the Wigmore Hall in January
1923 he was not afraid to offer Ravel's quartet alongside his own
and his Violin Sonata.
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Whilst the Piano Trio of 1920 is one
of my favourite works, and comes
on an excellent disc on ASV
(Catalogue Number: CDDCA1045 )
coupled with the String Quartets
and the Fantasy Quartet for Oboe
and Strings of 1946 at £11.99, I really have to recommend the
budget priced Maggini Quartet's disc on Naxos (Catalogue
Number: 8554079) as the best five pounds you'll ever spend. This
pairs the two String Quartets with the String Trio of 1931 - a
fascinating work that sits on the cusp of Moeran's mature
development of style.
Piano Music
This is a simple choice - given that there is currently only one disc
available and it is indeed excellent. Eric Parkin's 1994 CD of the
Complete Piano Works (Stafford, Catalogue Number: JMSCD2)
covers all of Moeran's published solo piano music, spanning the
years 1919 to 1933, and does so admirably. The recording quality
is good, if a little low-level and there is a slight degree of
background noise form the room when you turn up the volume.
On the whole the pieces are relatively short - only the Theme and
Variations of 1920 exceeds 10 minutes in length, with the
majority coming in at around 4 minutes or thereabouts. In general
the music is welcoming rather than challenging, much of it
showing the influence of John Ireland. Piano music lovers should
really have a copy of this £11.99 disc in their collection.
E-Mail me:
[email protected]
©2001 Andrew Rose
Orchestral Music
At first site this seems a simple category to fill. Although the
Chandos recording of the Symphony (Catalogue Number:
CHAN7106), coupled with the highly accessible mid-forties
Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra is tempting at £8.99, I would
have to plump for the double bill of concertos first. For the same
price you get the Violin Concerto and Cello Concerto, plus the Two
Pieces for Small Orchestra, Lonely Waters and Whythorne's
Shadow on an excellent disc, also from Chandos (Catalogue
Number: CHAN7078). The playing of soloists Lydia Mordkovitch
(violin) and Raphael Wallfisch (cello) on both of these concertos is
excellent, and the Violin Concerto must rate as Moeran's most
immediately accessible large-scale works. Buy this one first, then
move onto the Symphony - or better still try both! Don't forget
that a much earlier recording of the Violin Concerto is available to listen to in full on this site click here.
Piano Trio (1920-5)
1st String Quartet: 1 2
(1921)
Violin Sonata (1923)
String Trio (1931)
Cello Sonata (1947)
Oboe Quartet: 1 2 3 (1946)
Piano Works (1919-33)
2nd String Quartet: 1 2 (?)
Vocal Works
6 Folksongs From Norfolk
(1923)
Songs of Springtime (1931)
6 Suffolk Folksongs (1931)
Nocturne (1934)
Phyllida and Corydon (1939)
Other Songs 1 2
Using these links to buy CDs earns Moeran.com a
small commission which goes towards site running
costs. This does not affect the price to you.
Lionel Hill - "Lonely Waters"
Geoffrey Self - "The Music of E J
Moeran"
Book reviews here
Using these links to buy books earns Moeran.com a
But where to go next? Do we head for the Sinfonietta? Or perhaps
the earlier orchestral Rhapsodies? And what about Moeran's final
orchestral work, the Serenade in G of 1948? At this point it
becomes more a matter of personal taste. The Serenade is not
considered Moeran's finest hour, though the £11.99 1990
Chandos recording (Catalogue Number: CHAN8808) which
restores the two movements removed on the insistance of
Moeran's publisher does much to improve the work's reputation.
This disc also includes the beautiful, Delian Nocturne of 1934 and
works by Moeran's friend Peter Warlock - Capriol Suite and
Serenade, and seems a more satisfying coupling than the
recording of the shorter, published version on EMI (Catalogue
Number: CDM7647212) at £8.99, which also includes the
Sinfonietta and works by Gerald Finzi. The Sinfonietta I found a
little hard to really get to love, especially in this recording, but I know others feel quite
differently.
As for the Rhapsodies, well they're certainly tuneful and
enjoyable. Moeran's first two Rhapsodies are both relatively early
works, though the second was revised in 1941, and at times one
suspects Moeran is still honing his talents - there are some great
melodies to be found, but occasionally they are let down
somewhat by overall structural difficulties. On the Chandos CD
(Catalogue Number: CHAN8639) that brings all the Rhapsodies
together, you also get another early orchestral work, the perhaps
less successful In The Mountain Country of 1921, for £11.49, but
if you've taken my advice and bought the Symphony you'll
already have this recording of the Piano Rhapsody. The recordings
are good, but in musical terms much of this is probably second
tier by comparison to the Symphony and Concertos.
Vocal Music
want.
Here the choice becomes more limited - as you can see from the
list to the right there is a dearth of recordings, particularly with
the songs. The only work for orchestra and choir, the Nocturne,
was noted earlier. But lovers of vocal music need not despair, as
the Chandos CD (Catalogue Number: CHAN9182) that brings
together the lovely Songs of Springtime of 1931 and
madrigal-esque Phyllida and Corydon of 1939 together with a
selection of works by Warlock is an excellent introduction to both
at £11.99. The unaccompanied Finzi Singers do great justice to
works which are often taxing for any choir. At the moment I await
my disc of the folksong collections, so can't offer comment on
these, and as for individual songs, well I suggest following the
links and seeing what else is on the disc - often a single Moeran
song is slotted amongst a set of others which you may or may not
Moeran Sheet Music
Thames Publishing Editions
Orchestral Works
Symphony (1924-37)
(1937-41)
Sinfonietta (1944)
Serenade: 1 2 (1948)
Online Sheet Music Sales in the USA
1st Rhapsody (1921)
A wide variety of Moeran's music is available to buy online from Sheet Music Plus - click here for 2nd Rhapsody (1925/41)
Piano Rhapsody: 1 2
full details
(1942-3)
(1931?)
(1921)
The complete piano music and solo vocal music is available in a series of volumes compiled by
Thames Publishing in the UK - click here for full details
Piano Trio (1920-5)
(1921)
String Trio (1931)
Cello Sonata (1947)
Vocal Works
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(1923)
Nocturne (1934)
Other Songs 1 2
E-Mail me:
[email protected]
©2001 Andrew Rose
Moeran"
Book reviews here
Moeran Sheet Music
The Thames Editions
Thames Publishing, who are responsible for Lionel Hill's excellent memoir of his friendship with
Moeran, Lonely Waters, also have the complete Moeran piano and solo vocal music in compiled
editions. I understand these were put together for the 100th anniversary in 1994. They can be
ordered from William Elkin Music Services.
The volumes are as follows, copied directly from the Thames Publishing catalogue:
Collected Piano Music - Volume One - THA 978562 £8.95
The Lake Island, Autumn Woods, At A Forse Fair, Stalham River, Toccata, Windmills, Elegy,
Burlesque, Fields At Harvest, Dance
Collected Piano Music - Volume Two - THA 978703 £8.95
Theme and Variations, OnA May Morning, Two Legends, Summer Valley, Bank Holiday, Two
Pieces, Two Folksong Arrangements
Whythorne's Shadow (Piano version) THA 978401 £3.95
Collected Solo Songs - Volume One - THA 978564 £9.95
In Youth Is Pleasure, The Merry Month of May, The Sweet o' the Year, Blue-eyed Spring, Weep
You No More, Four English Lyrics, Diaphenia, Rosaline, The Monk's Fancy, Invitation in Autumn
Collected Solo Songs - Volume Two - THA 978704 £9.95
(Soprano/Mezzo-Soprano)
Mantle of Blue, Twilight, Two Songs, Three James Joyce Songs, Four Shakespeare Songs, Six
Poems of Seamus O'Sullivan, If There Be Any Gods
Collected Solo Songs - Volume Three - THA 978613 £9.95
(Baritone)
Ludlow Town, Four Housman Songs, Four songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'
Collected Solo Songs - Volume Four - THA 978706 £9.95
Two Robert Bridges Songs, Two Sociable Songs, A Dream of Death, The Day of Palms, Come
Away, Death, Troll The Bowl, Maltworms, Seven Poems of James Joyce
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E-Mail me:
[email protected]
©2001 Andrew Rose
Collected Folksongs - Volume One - THA 978563 £9.95
Six Folksongs from Norfolk, High Germany, The Sailor and Young Nancy, The Little Milkmaid,
The Jolly Carter, Parson and Clerk, Goal Song
Collected Folksongs - Volume Two - THA 978706 £9.95
(Medium Voice)
Six Suffolk Folksongs, Songs from County Kerry
"Postage/packing charges are calculated by weight so are considerably variable."
Orchestral Works
Symphony (1924-37)
(1937-41)
Sinfonietta (1944)
1st Rhapsody (1921)
2nd Rhapsody (1925/41)
Piano Rhapsody: 1 2
(1942-3)
(1931?)
(1921)
Piano Trio (1920-5)
(1921)
String Trio (1931)
Cello Sonata (1947)
Vocal Works
(1923)
Nocturne (1934)
Other Songs 1 2
For further details you can contact William Elkin Music Services as follows:
E-mail: [email protected]
Moeran"
WWW: www.elkinmusic.co.uk
Post: William Elkin Music Services, Station Road Industrial Estate, Salhouse, Norfolk, NR13 6NS, Book reviews here
England
Phone: +44 (0)1603 721302
Fax: +44 (0)1603 721801
Moeran Sheet Music - USA
It seems that the UK hasn't really got its act together in terms of selling sheet music over the
Internet. A recent search found one supposedly major site in a state of complete non-functional
disrepair - not something I'd therefore recommend to you, even if Classic FM would - and very
little else offering online ordering of Moeran works.
Orchestral Works
Symphony (1924-37)
(1937-41)
So, as has been the case since the dawn of e-commerce, we have to look over the Atlantic to
Sinfonietta (1944)
our American cousins to find a slick, efficient offering. Actually there seem to be several, but for
the time being Sheet Music Plus is a pretty good starting place.
1st Rhapsody (1921)
A search for Moeran netted the following results - click on the title for their page, the type of
Piano Rhapsody: 1 2
work for the relevant page here.
(1942-3)
Fantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings (Chamber - Oboe & Strings)
Invitation In Autumn (Vocal)
(1931?)
Lover and His Lass (Vocal)
Nunc Dimitis [mis-spelled!] (Vocal)
(1921)
Prelude (Chamber - Cello & Piano)
Serenade in G (Orchestral)
Serenade in G - Full Score (Orchestral)
Piano Trio (1920-5)
Sinfonietta (Orchestral)
Sonata (Chamber - Violin & Piano)
(1921)
Songs of Springtime (Vocal)
Symphony in G Minor (Orchestral)
String Trio (1931)
Toccata (Piano)
Cello Sonata (1947)
Two Songs (Vocal)
Windmills, from 3 Fancies (Piano)
Vocal Works
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(1923)
Nocturne (1934)
Other Songs 1 2
E-Mail me:
[email protected]
©2001 Andrew Rose
Moeran"
Book reviews here
Moeran Prints
In the summer of 2000 the extensive photographic collection of Moeran's good friend and
doctor, Dick Jobson, was acquired by a photograph collector and restorer in New Radnor,
Laurence Smith.
From over 5000 negatives Laurence has so far managed to find several pictures of Jack Moeran,
some of which will be familiar, some of which will not. The condition of the originals varies from
excellent to very dark and hard to restore. However, I was recently sent a set of seven superb
A4 prints, reproduced here.
Laurence is happy to make further A4 prints of these pictures at a cost of £10 each. I hope to be
able to offer an automated credit card ordering system here soon, but in the meantime you can
contacts Laurence directly at The Nook, 7 Broad Street, New Radnor, LD8 2SP, or via email at:
[email protected]
The Pictures
Search
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E-Mail me:
[email protected]
EJM-1
©2001 Andrew Rose
EJM-2
There are still thousands of
negatives and prints to go
through...
EJM-3
EJM-4
EJM-5
EJM-6
EJM-7
Bring your treasured LPs back to life!
Somewhere you've got at least one - a treasured album, never released on CD, tucked away and rarely listened to. Your turntable's in the
attic, gathering dust, your LPs are in a box in the garage. You'd love to hear that music again, and you'd love to hear it without the scratches
and crackles that eventually persuaded you to invest in a CD system. Well now you can, without spending huge sums of money or investing
in expensive equipment and audio software.
Based on state of the art digital systems and years of professional audio experience at the highest level, I am offering a new service of
audio transfer and restoration to CD. The results can be astonishing - "I would swear you had access to the master tapes" wrote one
satisfied customer - "I listened to and enjoyed the CD more than I ever did with the LP I'd had for nearly twenty years" wrote another.
Audio restoration can be a long, time-consuming project. Badly damaged recordings can take days to bring back to life. But for most
records, in reasonable condition, using a mixture of expert hands-on restoration and bang up to date digital software, excellent results can
be achieved in a timescale that's economically worthwhile. As such, I can suggest the following sample rates:
12" or 10" LP - £25.00
12" or 7" EP - £10.00
78 or 45 RPM single - £10.00
Discounts may be considered for the transfer of several singles to one CD
Audio cassettes - POA
1/4" Reel-to-reel (15 IPS, 7.5 IPS) - POA
Other formats (VHS, MiniDisc, DAT etc.) - POA
Additional CD (back-up) copies - £2.00 each
For further information and all enquiries, e-mail me: [email protected]
Don't just take my word for it!
Here are a some MP3 samples to download and listen to:
1 - Moeran Violin Concerto stereo LP - MP3 (1.14 MB)
This is from the 1977 Lyrita LP, in reasonably good condition, the opening of the second movement. The low level
rumble that is just audible during the violin solo section would appear to originate from the recording venue.
2 - Moeran Symphony stereo LP - MP3 (937 KB)
This is from the 1975 Lyrita LP, again in good condition with light scratches and crackles effectively removed, the
opening of the piece.
3 - 1950's mono Spanish EP - MP3 (847 KB)
Of a similar vintage to the 78 below, and with similar material, this came from a 7" EP that had seen much wear. The
original recording quality was similar to that on the 78, but clearly the surface noise levels are much lower.
4 - 1950's mono Spanish 78 - MP3 (1.00 MB)
This record was in OK condition, with the usual surface noise and scratches associated with 78s. It is a late 78, which
at least means the original recording was of a relatively decent quality. I have tried to strike a delicate balance
between retaining the vivacity of the original recording and removing as much surface noise as possible - complete
eradication almost always compromises the recorded sound to the detriment of the listener.
5 - Private recording, 78 acetate disc (very poor quality original!) - MP3 (652 KB)
This 78 was in an abysmal state - as an acetate 'home-made' disc it would never have been particularly good. This is
exacerbated by the amateur quality of the recording itself. However, for the owner, it is a unique record of the time,
and is now infinitely more listenable!
(Note - there will be some degradation of sound quality due to MP3 compression - the CDs are better!)
Note - samples are playable using Real Audio, WinAmp (download here) or any other MP3 player.
Back to Moeran.com
Audio Excerpts
This page offers you the chance to hear Moeran talking about his life and music, listen to
works in their entirety, and use Real Audio to hear short tasters from across the range or
Moeran's musical output. If you need help accessing the files full details are given at the
bottom of this page.
Looking for CDs instead? Try these links:
1 - Eight essential Moeran CDs
2 - Moeran CD Buyer's Guide
Moeran Speaks!
Here are some archive recordings of Moeran speaking
on the radio in the 1940's:
1
2
3
4
5
-
On his early childhood (48")
On joining the Royal College of Music (22")
On Ireland (17")
On plans for his second symphony (20")
Introducing Harry Cox singing (2'21")
Visit this page to read about a CD featuring material
taken from a programme on East Angian folk-singing
made by Moeran and the BBC in 1947, including audio
excerpts:
Good Order!
Full Musical Downloads
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The following pieces are available to download as
high-quality MP3 files from the site. The two orchestral
pieces are restored archive recordings, and the Sonata
Moeran in the mid 1940's
is a new recording made for this website. Each link
takes you to a full page for each recording with downloading and playing details:
1 - Sinfonietta
2 - Violin Concerto
3 - Sonata for Two Violins
E-Mail me:
[email protected]
©2001 Andrew Rose
Short Musical Clips
The selection linked to on the right of this page is designed to give a flavour of the different
aspects of Moeran's output. I've chosen the opening of the Symphony in G Minor (1937) in its
1973 EMI recording by The English Sinfonietta Orchestra under Neville Dilkes. From Chandos is
the opening of the final movements of the Sinfonietta (1944), recorded by the Bournemouth
Sinfonia under Norman Del Mar.
Also in this area is the ending of Lonely Waters (1924?). This is a piece with two alternative
endings, one vocal and one instrumental. Sadly the instrumental version is the one most often
recorded (I hesitate to say 'played' as Moeran's music gets so little concert hall attention), so
I've put the vocal version here, sung by Ann Murray with the English Chamber Orchestra under
Jeffrey Tate on the EMI compilation disc "The Banks Of Green Willow".
From Chandos comes an extract from the beautiful middle movement of the Cello Concerto
(1945), also with Norman Del Mar conducting the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, with Raphael
Wallfisch as soloist, currently the only available recording of this masterpiece of Moeran's last
years. I am told that the previously available recording with Moeran's wife Peers Coetmore is
interesting but not as well played - it was recorded quite late in her career.
Chandos have an excellent disc which includes both Rhapsody extracts here, with Vernon
Handley conducting the Ulster Orchestra, and Margaret Fingerhut soloing on the Rhapsody for
Piano and Orchestra, the nearest Moeran came to writing a full Piano Concerto.
From the chamber works I've chosen the opening to the Second String Quartet (date unknown)
as played by the Maggini String Quartet on Naxos - partly because these opening bars are the
very first Moeran I ever heard, partly because of the mystery surrounding the Quartet - was it
an early work (in which case why wasn't it either heard or destroyed?) or a later work? The
musical fingerprints are confusing - Geoffrey Self, in his excellent book "The Music of E J
Moeran", suggests a work possibly spanning both his early and later output, with the opening
movement resurrected from the 1920's but the second being more remeniscent of a later, more
mature style.
Orchestral Works
Symphony
Violin Concerto Restored
Sinfonietta
Sinfonietta Restored
Cello Concerto
Serenade in G
Rhapsodies
First Rhapsody
Second Rhapsody
Third (Piano) Rhapsody
Other Orchestral Works
Lonely Waters
Wythorne's Shadow
Farrago Suite
Overture to a Masque
Nocturne
Piano Music
Three Pieces (Autumn
Woods)
Theme and Variations
On a May Morning
Toccata
Stalham River
Three Fancies (Elegy)
Two Legends
Summer Valley
Bank Holiday
Irish Love Song
The White Mountain
Two Pieces
Piano Trio
Sonatas
Violin Sonata
Sonata for Two Violins
Sonata for Two Violins (full
recording page)
Cello Sonata
Oboe Music
Fantasy Quartet
Chamber Music
String Quartet No 1
String Quartet No 2
String Trio
Piano Trio
Fantasy Quartet
Cello Prelude
Record Company Links
ASV
Chandos
J Martin Stafford
Naxos/Marco Polo
Compare this to the Piano Trio (1920), Moeran's first large scale work and one which illustrates
not only the influences of composers such as Brahms, Schumann, Fauré and Ravel, but also
Moeran's own exuberant lyricism. In the aforementioned book, Geoffrey Self writes "the work
has been ignominiously forgotten - even the publisher retains no copy". I'm glad to say, if for
listening pleasure alone, that a full copy must have been found, for the recording illustrated
here by the Joachim Piano Trio on ASV is well worth having. It may not rank as being of any
great importance, but it's one of my favourite works.
Another early work is the Violin Sonata in E Minor of 1923, described by Geoffrey Self thus:
"here is a thrusting passion, expressed in music much aware of contemporary trends". The
recording here is from the Chandos recording by Donald Scotts and John Talbot. Scotts is also
heard on the same disc with the Melbourne String Quartet playing the First String Quartet in A
minor (1921).
Also in this category but composed
much later is the Cello Sonata
(1947), written for Moeran's wife,
Peers Coetmore, and played here by
Raphael Wallfisch and John York
from the Marco Polo CD of English
Cello Sonatas. This is a much more
abrasive and challenging work than
much of Moeran's output, and
reflects his desire to create
something truly new for his new
wife, rather than falling back on his
traditional styles.
From the piano music I've put a
small selection played by Eric Parkin
on the excellent Complete Piano
Works CD. This disc can be hard to
find, especially outside the UK,
though it is sold online by CD
Paradise. Alternatively you can
contact J Martin Stafford, who
released the disc, directly by mail at
298 Blossomfield Road, Solihull, B91
1TH, England, or by e-mail:
[email protected] - he
comments: "I will send the Moeran
disc to any address in the world (air
mail where appropriate) for £12-50
(cheque to me) or a $20-00 bill (not
cheque, as my bank would charge
me about $10 to convert it to
sterling). I am only an e-mail
message, a phone call, or a letter
away, so no one who wants my
products should have too much
difficulty in obtaining them."
Listening to the clips
Moeran in 1922
To listen to the music files click on
the links on the right of this page. You'll need the Real Audio Player installed - if you don't have
this go to www.real.com and download it - the basic version is free.
I've converted the original stereo recordings into mono, as this allows for much higher sound
quality for playback over an Internet connection.
Sinfonietta (1944)
New digital audio restoration
London Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Sir Thomas Beecham
Royal Albert Hall, London, Royal Philharmonic Society concert, 26th April 1947
1 - Allegro con brio
7'09"
MP3 (3.28MB)
2 - Tema con variazioni
11'50"
MP3 (5.42MB)
3 - Allegro risoluto
7'24"
MP3 (3.28MB)
To play these MP3 files on a PC:
here
(909 KB) - for full online documentation click
Transfer and restoration ©2000 Andrew Rose.
Copyright notice: The copyright of the original broadcast recordings has now expired, and this is
why these music files can legally offered. However, copyright does exist in these transfers and
restorations and this is held by the webmaster. The files are provided for educational and
listening use only, and are not to be used for any profitable gain.
Lionel Hill, whose book "Lonely Waters" is currently
unique in its portrait of Moeran in the later years of his
life, went to great lengths to make recordings of
particular radio broadcasts in the 1940's. These were
the years before tape recorders made such a venture a
relatively straightforward and inexpensive operation. Hill
had to hire a recording studio to record the broadcast
and then cut acetate 78 rpm discs. Each such recording
cost Hill £25 - these days that's more than £2000, or
perhaps $3000.
In addition to the recordings available on the
Symposium CD of the Violin Concerto, the Fantasy
Quartet and the Serenade in G, Hill also recorded a
Prom concert performance of the Sinfonietta in 1946. It
is currently unclear as to the date of this performance,
or whether Moeran was in attendance.
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E-Mail me:
[email protected]
©2001 Andrew Rose
Beecham was to conduct Moeran's Serenade in G at
another Prom concert a few years later, and, as Lionel
Hill recalled some years later, Moeran was somewhat
shy of the publicity this brought: "...at the end of 1950,
we went with him to see Beecham conduct the
Sir Thomas Beecham
Serenade. For some reason or other he didn't sit with
us, he went on into the balcony on the first floor, and I could see him up there. Beecham gave a
lovely performance, and then got terrific applause. Beecham turned round and pointed to the
composer. I can still see Jack going like this - ducking down into his seat; typical Jack!"
This particular recording came to me on a cassette Hill later had made from the discs, so in
addition to the disc noise and scratches there was an additional need to remove tape hiss. I've
tried to maintain the full musicality of what was a superb performance as closely as possible, so
a small amount of low hiss remains. Note how much slower Beecham takes the piece, especially
the opening movement, by comparison to Rumon Gamba's recent recording with the BBC
Philharmonic, which comes in more than 30 seconds shorter.
Sinfonietta page at Moeran.com.
"The opening movement's
strong melody and rhythm
carries me along all the way.
It is landscape in music, it is
colour in sound..."
Pete Lopeman at
Moeran.com
Violin Concerto (1937-1942)
"...I am now assured that
you are the only one to play
it..."
New digital audio restoration
Albert Sammons (violin)
BBC Symphony Orchestra cond. Sir Adrian Boult
St Andrew's Hall, Norwich, 28th April 1946
Moeran letter to Sammons,
1945
1 - Allegro Moderato
11'32"
MP3 (5.24MB)
2 - Rondo - Vivace
9'35"
MP3 (4.35MB)
3 - Lento
9'35"
MP3 (4.37MB)
here
Transfer and restoration ©2000 Andrew Rose.
Copyright notice: The copyright of the original broadcast recordings has now expired, and this is
why these music files can legally offered. However, copyright does exist in these transfers and
restorations and this is held by the webmaster. The files are provided for educational and
listening use only, and are not to be used for any profitable gain.
Albert Sammons performed the Violin Concerto on 28th
April 1946 for the second and last time at the Norwich
Festival, a performance broadcast (on Medium Wave) by
the BBC. A private recording of this broadcast was
made, from which an unknown but very limited number
of copies were later created, all on 78 rpm acetate discs.
One of the copies went to the soloist, Albert Sammons
(pictured), and this set of 4 discs has recently been
rediscovered. It is just possible that the discs had been
previously owned by Moeran - certainly until this recent
discovery it was assumed that Moeran's was the only
other set made.
Search
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The discs are in quite reasonable playing condition given
their delicate nature and age; it is not known how many
times they might have been actually played. Sammons
had many discs in his collection, including a large
number of test pressings from Decca of his commercial
releases. Visual inspection suggests these too have
rarely been played, but their storage seems to have left
much to be desired.
E-Mail me:
[email protected]
©2001 Andrew Rose
The
four
Moeran discs were somewhat dirty, and
despite careful cleaning the original sound
quality was less than perfect. Coupled to this
was a hum which may have been inaudible on
contemporary loudspeakers but which is
annoyingly clear on a modern system. For
audiophiles there is a difficult choice to be
made here: does one attempt optimum
analogue-only sound transfer, warts and all,
or does one attempt a full digital restoration?
An excellent, unadulterated CD transfer of
this material exists on the Symposium label
(Cat. 1201), and their discs do sound in
better shape than these - mine were copies
made probably from Symposium's - so I
elected to throw the full digital restoration
works at them.
The Symposium Concerto transfer, coupled
with two other historical radio recordings Leon Goosens / Carter String Trio's
Acetate Disc Label
performance of the Fantasy Quartet for Oboe
and Strings and the full Proms performance of the Serenade in G - are now available from
Amazon, together with audio excerpts. Click here for more.
Violin Concerto page at Moeran.com.
Sonata for Two Violins (1930)
New digital world premiere recording
Anonymous players
Recorded in the UK, 2000, encoded as 128 kbps Stereo MP3 files
1 - Allegro non troppo
5'44"
MP3 (5.25 MB)
2 - Presto
4'22"
MP3 (4.00 MB)
3 - Passacaglia (incomplete)
4'15"
MP3 (3.75 MB)
here
Recording ©2000 Andrew Rose/the performers.
Copyright notice: The files here are provided for educational and listening use only, and are not
to be used for any profitable gain.
The Sonata for Two Violins, written in 1930,
has remained an elusive work for lovers of
Moeran. For some time it was thought that the
only surviving score was probably the original
manuscript, held in the archive of Moeran's
music in Melbourne, Australia. However, a
chance conversation revealed a complete set
of parts in a UK university library, and this
discovery has allowed a first, tentative
recording to be made.
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This recording was not originally meant for
public distribution, as the players had planned
to put together a more 'official' version - this
is in fact a very early rehearsal. Unfortunately
the final recording proper never took place,
and at the time of writing this is the only
known recording of the piece in existence.
Hopefully this will be rectified soon, and a
more satisfactory version can be placed here.
Meanwhile, here it is, with a few notes missed
or missing, and only about half of the final
movement intact (and some extraneous
sounds in the first half), hence the anonymity
of the players.
The first violin player was very reluctant to let
this recording out of his possession, but I
Moeran in the late 1920's
managed to persuade him that with the sprinkling of a little digital magic onto his recording he'd
actually made a very worthwhile contribution to the Moeran archive and he relented - I would
like to publicly thank both of the players here.
Link to Sonata for Two Violins page at Moeran.com.
...I managed to persuade
him that with the sprinkling
of a little digital magic onto
his recording he'd actually
made a very worthwhile
contribution to the Moeran
archive...
E J Moeran - A Short Biography
This is a potted guide to the life of E J Moeran. Though condensing a man's life onto one
page can be unsatisfactory, as yet there is no full biography in print, though one is
currently being written. Use the articles on the right to supplement this biography, and
check also the Chronology, currently the best idea we have of the day-to-day activities of this
sometimes elusive composer.
A. Eaglefield-Hull
Entry from A Dictionary of Modern
Music and Musicians (1924)
Philip Heseltine (Warlock)
Article from 'The Music
Bulletin' (1924)
Ernest John Moeran, or Jack to his friends, was born in Heston on 31st December
1894, the second son of the Rev J W W and Esther Moeran. Shortly after his birth
Hubert Foss:
the family moved to Bacton, in the remote Norfolk Fen Country. As a child he
"Moeran and the English
learned to play the violin and piano, and made some early compositional efforts
Tradition" (1942)
while at Uppingham School (works he later destroyed).
Archive audio recording: On his early childhood
In 1913 he enrolled at the Royal College of Music to study piano and composition under Sir
Charles Stanford. His studies were cut short by the outbreak of war, and in 1914 he enlisted as
a motorcycle despatch rider in the 6th (cyclist) Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment.
Archive audio recording: On joining the Royal College of Music
On 3rd May 1917, at Bullecourt in France, Moeran received a severe head injury, with shrapnel
embedded too close to the brain for removal, and underwent what would now be considered
primitive head surgery which involved the fitting of a metal plate into the skull. Unsurprisingly
this was to affect him for the rest of his life.
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After discharge from the services on a
disability pension he returned briefly to teach
at Uppingham before returning in 1920 to the
music course at the Royal College, staying
there under John Ireland. This period, the
most active in his creative output, saw a
number of important early works, including
the String Quartet in A Minor, the First
Rhapsody for orchestra, the Piano Trio, the
Violin Sonata and a number of works for solo
piano. Moeran had also by this time begun
collecting folk songs, visiting pubs, especially
in his native Norfolk, and noting down the old
songs that were still to be heard at the time,
something he was to partake in for the rest of
his life.
Gerald Cockshott:
"E J Moeran's Recollections of
Peter Warlock" (extract, 1955)
Michael Kennedy:
"Life Behind a Watery Death"
(1986)
Barry Marsh:
"E J Moeran in Norfolk"
(1994)
Barry Marsh:
"Borderland Interlude:
E J Moeran in Herefordshire"
(1994)
Adrian Williams:
"Guided by Jack" (2000)
Andrew Rose
"Moeran in Eynsford" (2000)
Andrew Rose
"In The Mountain Country on
the Trail of Jacko Moeran"
The Moeran House in Bacton, Norfolk, c.1920
Some of these folksongs Moeran set to his own arrangements, and collections for a variety of
solo and assemble vocal settings were to follow for the rest of his life. Of particular interest are
the setting for voice and piano of Six Folksongs from Norfolk, Six Suffolk Folksongs and
Songs from County Kerry.
By the middle of the 20's Moeran had struck up a close friendship with Philip Heseltine, better
known under his pen-name as the composer Peter Warlock. In 1925, together with the artist Hal
Collins, they rented a house in Eynsford, Kent where they were to live together for three years
of allegedly wild, drunken anarchy which brought them an assortment of musical and artistic
visitors and the occasional attention of the local police. This period also saw an understandable
decline in the regularity of Moeran's musical output. It is also thought that at Eynsford Moeran
developed the alcoholism which so often overshadowed his for the rest of his life.
(2001)
Unpublished works
List of Dedications
Obituary - The Times
Obituary - The Telegraph
Obituary - Sterndale Bennett
Reading references
Don't forget to visit the Writing
page, which features Moeran in his
On leaving the house as funds ran dry Moeran began to move towards a stylistic reappraisal
own words
which was to see him moving away from the earlier influence of composers such as Delius and
Ireland, especially on his use of harmony. The first instrumental works to show signs of this
were the Sonata for Two Violins and the String Trio, written during a period of ongoing
illness and for the first time created straight onto the page rather than through experimentation
at the keyboard, as was the choral cycle Songs of Springtime.
Archive audio recording: On Ireland
It was also at this time that Moeran began to show a much greater interest in his Irish roots his father was Dublin-born though raised in England, and Moeran had spent some time in
Ireland while serving in the army, but it was not until the 1930's that Moeran began to relate his
compositions away from the Norfolk countryside and towards Ireland, particularly County Kerry
in the far south west of the country. He became particularly fond of the small town of Kenmare,
and for most of the rest of his life it was to here that here would return for musical inspiration.
The work which was to occupy much of the 1930s had in fact been commissioned and started in
1924 - his Symphony in G Minor. Almost finished in the 20's, Moeran abandoned work on it,
not to resume until 1934, and finally finish on January 24th 1937 in Kerry. The success of this
major work seemed to boost Moeran's confidence, and almost immediately he began work on
what has been seen by some as the Symphony's natural companion, the Violin Concerto. This
piece, completed in 1942 after five years, is imbued with Irish spirit and lyricism, and whereas
the Symphony is often wracked with gloom and despair, the Violin Concerto seems to offer hope
and enlightenment
in response.
Once again,
however, the
country was at
war, and one can
only assume that
the overshadowing
of what was
Moeran's finest
compositional
period has had a
lot to do with his
later obscurity. As
the forties wore on
he married the
cellist Peers
Coetmore and
wrote for her a
Cello Concerto
and Cello Sonata.
"Gravel Hill" - in Kington, Herefordshire, where Moeran lived on and off later in his life,
Other major works
c.1940
of the period
include the Sinfonietta, the third Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra (the nearest he came
to writing a full Piano Concerto), the Fantasy Quartet for Oboes and Strings and the
Serenade in G.
But as the decade wore on his health declined. Moeran was
wrestling with a second symphony which seemed imminent
at several points in time, yet was never completed and later
disappeared. The marriage to Peers, never destined to be
one of the great romances, was faltering, and his drinking
continued. By 1950 he was living in increasingly poor health
in Kenmare, worried that his instability would result in being
certified insane, unable to concentrate for more than a short
time.
Archive interview recording:
on plans for his second symphony.
On 1st December 1950, during a heavy storm, he was seen
to fall from the pier at Kenmare, and was dead on his
recovery from the sea. The cause of death would appear to
have been a cerebral haemorrhage following a heart attack.
He was buried shortly after in Kenmare.
The view from Moeran's study in Gravel
Hill, 2000
Entry from A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians - 1924
See also:
List of Unpublished Works
MOERAN, Ernest John. English compr. b. Osterley, near London, 31 Dec. 1894. Comes of an
Irish family, but has lived much in Norfolk since his childhood. Educated at Uppingham where he
began to compose at age of 17. Practically self-taught as regards music, but spent 18 months at
the R.C.M. London, 1913-14. Served in the army, 1914-19. Has collected a large number of
folk-songs in Norfolk, some of which were publ. in the Folk-Song Society's journal, 1922. Gave a
concert of his works at Wigmore Hall, London, 1923.
Rhapsody for orch. (Hallé concert, Manchester, by Hamilton Harty, 1924) (Chester); str. 4tet
(id.); sonata, vn. and pf. (id.); Toccata and Stalham River, pf. (id.); songs v. and pf. (id.);
Variations, pf. (Schott); 3 books of pf. pieces (id.); 6 folk-songs from Norfolk, arr. for v. and pf.
(Augener). In ms.: 4 str. 4tets; 2 vn. sonatas; 2 trios for pf. vn and cello; Serenade-Trio for
str.; Cushinsheean, symph. impression for orch.; Lonely Waters, for small orch.; a large number
of songs and pf. pieces.*E.-H.
(From A. Eaglefield-Hull, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, London and Toronto, J.M.
Dent & Sons. Ltd., 1924, p. 333.)
Note: There has been some discussion about this early reference to Moeran on the Forum. Some
of this discussion is reproduced here:
...The second trio is perhaps the one referred to by Hubert Foss in his Compositions of E.J.
Moeran (1948) for which Self (p. 31) can trace no other reference...
...'Cushinsheean' was the original title for 'In the Mountain Country' - the word can be seen
lightly pencilled in at the top of the mss.score. The 'Foss' reference remains puzzling, but EJM
was apt to mislay scores, rewrite pieces, only to have the originals turn up! (Lonely Waters, the
Cello Concerto) Possibly he gave Foss his personal 'opus list' but later, for official catalogues,
forgot to cross-reference what was probably one and the same work, albeit with revisions...
It would appear that at least some of the other unpublished works listed here were juvenalia,
much of which was destroyed.
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As can be deduced, this book entry does throw up a few questions with regard to unpublished
works. Moeran was not known for being particularly efficient in keeping track of his works - a
letter written to Lionel Hill in the early 1940's in which Moeran lists his compositions manages to
completely ignore major works such as the Symphony and the Violin Concerto! A complete list
of known unpublished works is available here.
E J Moeran
from The Music Bulletin (1924)
by Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock)
Jack Wilkes, the famous member for Middlesex, once remarked to Dr
Johnson that "there is something in names which one cannot help feeling.
Now Elkanah Settle sounds so queer, who can expect much from that name?
We should have no hesitation to give it for John Dryden in preference to
Elkanah Settle, from the names only, without knowing their different
merits." It does very often happen that one reads a man's name repeatedly
in the newspapers before one has any knowledge of his work or his
personality, and from the name itself an impression of its owner is made on
the mind which in some cases is apt to colour, all unconsciously, our
subsequent opinion of him. Now it is the aim of every ambitious young
author or composer to keep his name before the public, and he is fortunate
is that name is one that is easy to pronounce and to remember and,
moreover, a name that arouses pleasurable anticipation when it is heard and read. I must
confess that when I first encountered the name of E J Moeran in the Daily Telegraph some years
ago, no clear impression was made upon my mind. In the first place there is something cold and
inhuman in the indication of the Christian name by a mere initial. A good tradition has ordained
that composers shall be more than N or M until such time as fame bestows on them the dignity
of a surname tout court. J S Bach is admissible - though the sonorous Johann Sebastian is
vastly preferable; but R V Williams gives but a distorted image of a personality singularly clear
in its full denomination; and the monstrosity of F A T Delius has never even been perpetrated by
those who are pedantic enough to announce a work by W A Mozart. In the case of Moeran, the
nationality of the name is dubious at first sight; it is actually Irish (though not in accordance
with Gaelic orthography); but the oe suggests the Teutonic modified o as in Koeln - or again,
might be pronounced as in oesophagus. Whereas when we hear of Jack Moran (with the accent
on the Mor) all is clear at one and a personality is apparent. it sounds so delightfully unlike a
professional musician - and one might spend many pleasant hours in Moeran's company without
discovering that, officially at any rate, he was an accounted one.
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His strength as a composer lies in the fact that he is a human being first and a musician
afterwards. A man of many interests, he does not - for example - compete in an arduous
motor-cycling reliability trial in the vague hope that this exercise may somehow improve his
music; nor did he begin his career as a musician in the spirit of the small boy who, when asked
by his schoolmaster what he was going to be when he grew up, replied: "An author, sir!" and
was met with the facer: "But supposing you can't auth?" - a contingency the young mind had
not envisaged.
Moeran began writing music when a boy at
Uppingham. He had heard a good deal at
school concerts and elsewhere, and thought it
would be fun to try and produce some out of
his own head. In fact, one may say that he
learned composition simply by practising it. Of
all the English public schools, Uppingham
seems to provide the most favourable
conditions for the development of musical
tastes. The music master occupies a position
second only to that of the head master in
importance, and the boys are encouraged to
develop a living interest in music, quite apart
from any lessons in instrumental playing to
which they may be committed. During the four
years spent at Uppingham (1908-12) Moeran
achieved considerable proficiency as a pianist;
he also mastered the technique of the violin
sufficiently well to be able to take part in
performances of chamber music, and, under
the sympathetic guidance of Robert (grandson
of Sir William) Sterndale Bennett, he learned
also how to listen intelligently, how to read
and absorb music - far more important
accomplishments than the mere ability to
perform it - so that by the time he left the
school he had gained a very fair knowledge of
what are called the classics, from Bach to
Brahms.
[See also Sterndale Bennett's obituary of
Moeran, 1951]
Peter Warlock/Philip Heseltine
Beyond Brahms he had not pursued his
investigations. He felt no curiosity about the music of his contemporaries; even Wagner was
unknown to him. But chance came to his assistance one night in the spring of 1913 when,
finding himself crowded out of St. Paul’s Cathedral where Brahms’ "Requiem" was to be given,
he went to Queen’s Hall to hear a concert, rather than hear no music at all. This was one of the
admirable series given by Balfour Gardiner - concerts that will long be remembered in the
...there is no British
composer from whom we
may more confidently expect
work of sound and enduring
quality in the next ten years
than from Jack Moeran...
annals of British music, though they were insufficiently appreciated at the time they were given
- and the programme contained the Delius Piano Concerto, which accomplished for Moeran the
same sort of miracle that "Tristan" and certain works of Greig had effected for Delius in the
eighties, and revealed a new world of sound to his imagination.
He then spent a year at the Royal College of Music, joining the army at the outbreak of war, was
severely wounded in France in May 1917, and after his recovery was attached to the transport
section of the R.I.C, remaining in Ireland until demobilised in 1919. Military service did not,
however, entail a complete suspension of his musical activities. By the end of the war he had
acquired considerable facility on the technique of composition, and had a fair amount of
chamber music to his credit. But still feeling a little unsure of himself he had some lessons from
john Ireland, for whose work he had conceived a particular admiration. It was about this time
that Moeran discovered that the tradition of folk-singing was still vigorously alive in the district
of Norfolk in which he had lived from his eighth to his twentieth year. His familiarity with the
neighbourhood gave him facilities which are often denied to the stranger, and his collection of
songs, which now number considerably over a hundred, is undoubtedly one of the finest that
has yet been made in any part of the kingdom. There has certainly been no collector who has
entered more whole-heartedly into the spirit of the old tradition. He collects these songs from no
antiquarian, historical, or psychological reasons, but because he loves them and the people who
sing them. It is of no more interest to him whether a tune be referable to this, that or the other
mode, or whether a variant of its words is to be found on some old broadside, than it is to the
singers themselves. For him, as for them, the song itself is the thing - a thing lives, a part of the
communal life of the country; and, indeed, it is a much more heartening musical experience to
sit in a good country pub and hear fine tunes trolled by the company over their pots of beer
than to attend many a concert in the West End of London. It is no good appearing suddenly at a
cottage-door, notebook in hand, as if you might be the burn-bailey or sanitary inspector, and - if
you manage to overcome the singer’s stage fright at all - holding up your hands in pious horror
at any verses of a song which may conflict with the alleged tastes of a suburban drawing-room;
nor should you spoil the ground for other collectors (as someone has tried to do in Norfolk, its
seems) by forgetting that old throats grow dry after an hour’s singing. The scholarly folk-lorist
has his own reward, but he does not get in touch with the heart of the people. Perhaps the
finest tribute that could be paid to Moeran’s personal popularity in the district was the remark of
an old man at Sutton after a sing-song to which Moeran had brought a visitor from London: "We
were a bit nervous of him; with you it’s different, of course - you’re one of us - but he was a
regular gentleman, he was."
[See also Moeran's article "Folk Songs and some Traditional Singers in East Anglia", 1946]
Moeran, Constant Lambert, Warlock
Of the "Six Folk-songs from Norfolk" arranged
for voice and piano (Augener) which were first
sung on the concert platform (and inimitably
well sung) by John Goss at South Place last
winter, three are quiet perfect specimens of
the English tradition I its purest and most
beautiful form. These are "Down by the
Riverside", one of the most natural 5/4 tunes
imaginable (incidentally 5/4 is quite a
favourite measure in Norfolk, and any
suspicion of it being a possible distortion of
tripe or quadruple time is dispelled by the
decisive thump with which mugs come down
on the table or boots come down on the floor
to mark the rhythm); "The Shooting of his
Dear," which is an excellent example of
Moeran’s characteristically free but always
appropriate methods of harmonisation; and
"Lonely Waters," which he has treated in a
more extended manner in a very attractive
little piece for small orchestra.
The influence of English folk-song is naturally apparent in many of Moeran’s original
compositions, notably in the spacious and impressive "Rune" for piano (Augener), in his
admirable setting of "The lads in their hundreds to Ludlow come in for the fair" (Oxford
University Press), and in the principal theme of his first orchestral "Rhapsody" which - presented
by the bassoon in its upper octave - will always appeal to the ribald as the ideal tune for all
Limericks. There are occasional traces also of the very different and rather less salutary
influence of Gaelic folk-song. It is an influence that is too easily over-worked and, although
there are undoubtedly many whom no melody that suggests a Scottish or Irish origin can fail to
enchant, there are others to whom the all-too-frequent appearance of pentatonic tunes in our
music of recent years recalls the story Robert Burns tells of a gentleman who "expressed
ambition to compose a Scots air" and was told to "keep to the black keys of the harpsichord,
and preserve some hind of rhythm, and he would infallibly compose a Scots air." But Moeran
has far too strong a vein of original melodic invention to rely overmuch upon this too facile
resource.
Of his original compositions the most important that have yet appeared in print are the Violin
Sonata and the String Quartet which were first introduced to the public at the concert of his
works given at Wigmore Hall early in 1923 with the co-operation of Miss Harriet Cohen, M.
Désiré Dufauw, and the Allied String Quartet. Both works have three or four predecessors in the
form lying in manuscript, which accounts for the entire absence of any of the signs of technical
limitation and uncertainty which are often conspicuous in a composer’s earliest publications.
Both display a notable wealth of ideas very completely expressed, but the quartet is
undoubtedly the more original work of the two. In the Sonata the texture and disposition of
notes in the piano part, as well as certain harmonic progressions, betray too obviously the
composer's intimate acquaintance with the work of John Ireland, and several pages are
conceived in a turgid style which contrasts very markedly with the delightful clarity and
simplicity of the Quartet. Moeran has a fine harmonic sense, wide in its range and subtle in its
workings, intuitive and quite untheoretical, but in his piano writing it occasionally runs away
with him at a moment of stress and defeats its own object by producing a blurred and clotted
effect. But these lapses are not of frequent occurrence, and in the "Toccata" (Chester) we have
as brilliant - and in its middle section, as sensitive - a piece of piano writing as any British
composer has given us.
Moeran's classical predilections have fortunately secured him from the too common error of
supposing that a piece of music can consist exclusively of a series of curious chords. His work is
always distinguished by clear melodic outlines and firm rhythmic structure, and if in his chamber
music he adheres very largely to traditional forms, the admirable continuity of line and sense of
climax displayed in his smaller pieces afford ample proof that this adherence is far from being
servile or mechanical. In spite of his tendency to work outwards, so to speak, from a purely
harmonic basis, he contrives very ingeniously to impart a quasi-contrapuntal vitality to the
texture of his piano-writing by means of little wayward inflections of rhythm; even in his most
massive progressions of heavy chords the sense of direction and line always predominates over
the more harmonic interest of the moment.
If there is an emotional shortcoming in his work, it is that where we might look for passion we
find only restless energy and a rather physical sort of exuberance; but in his quieter moments
he has contrived, like Butterworth, to capture and reflect in his music in a very delightful and
individual way something of the indefinable spirit of the English landscape and the life of the
English countryside. There is a refreshing open-airiness about his music which is as untainted by
the futility of academic prejudices as it is unaffected by the stupendous musical revolutions
which take place on the continent with monotonous regularity two or three times every week.
Moeran is at present in his thirtieth year. Dr. Ernest Walker, in his "History of Music in England,"
suggests forty as the earliest age at which a composer can challenge opinion of his work as a
whole; and in recent generations British musical talent seems to have come very slowly to
maturity. The reputations of Delius, Elgar, and Vaughan Williams, for example, would be slender
indeed, did they depend entirely on works composed before the age of thirty. But there is no
British composer from whom we may more confidently expect work of sound and enduring
quality in the next ten years than from Jack Moeran; there is certainly no one of his years who
has as yet achieved so much.
June 1924
Download this article as an Adobe Acrobat pdf file (145 KB)
From The Listener, July 3rd, 1942
Moeran and the English Tradition
By HUBERT FOSS
The first performance of Moeran's Violin Concerto will be broadcast on July 8 at 8.0 p.m. (Home
Service)
THE second phase of what we might call 'the English revival' in composition kept very closely to
its own lines of development. The Russian ballet might reveal new exotic charms, Stravinsky
could thunder his practical theories of aural values across a world willing for novelty. Schönberg
from another angle of approach could attract attention for the very unattractiveness of his
intellectual sounds But the still young - at least not more than partially adult - spirit of English
musical composition was affected by two quiet separate elements - English folk-song, and what
is called too vaguely 'old music'.
There is room for a study in detail of how English movements in music have nearly always
followed, and neither kept pace with nor anticipated, the literary movements of the country. For
example, into this second phase we are discussing, there came a new Wordsworthism: a spirit
of nature that is not in the least naturalistic. It is a form of musical contemplation from the soil
upwards: the peaceful growth of the plant is philosophically as important as its flower, and
indeed it might be said that English music has not been content, not even sometimes willing, to
pluck the flowers and make them into a lover's garland. There has been a neglect of the very
thing which by his mastery of it made Stravinsky successful: effect. For effect is (dare I say?)
effective and so successful, catching, compelling. To read the scores of Cowen and Mackenzie,
Stanford and Parry, alongside the scores of Warlock, Vaughan Williams, and Butterworth, is to
read two groups of completely different prose styles. The later group shows no more sincerity of
intention, but it shows a far greater critical sense of musical values, and of the absolute truth of
the musical phrases it writes down. From phrase-making in a conventional manner we proceed
to the delicate management of a pithy and flexible language. The English musical tongue has
become a real national medium again; but from its very truthfulness it is not compelling. And, in
the state of apathy towards native-born music which has been our musical heritage since
Purcell, this music, lacking compulsion, has no chance of attack, adopting a defensive, almost
entrenched position, while frequently the international battle has moved its centre to another
front. The result is for the English composer disastrous: his virtues are not noticed, his existence
not believed in. He is hard put to it to get a hearing, much less a living, and as Alan Bush points
out in the current issue of The Author, the English composer is the last person recognised by the
English concert-goer.
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I do not for one moment accept this popular neglect as a slur on English composition. I have my
own beliefs, but they do not permit me such perspective of eye as will tell me whether the forty
years of this century will live or not. I am convinced that musically, for England, they are years
of splendid composing: and I am equally convinced that a majority of those who do not think so
have not taken the trouble to know the music which they decry.
Moeran's music has the firm, growing attractiveness of a tree. It is not difficult to neglect its
existence for it does not command one's attention. The fault is not the composer's, for it is
there, this music. The reference books say that Moeran's music is indebted to folk-tunes.
Perhaps: but far less than Grieg's, or Falla's, or Dvorák's, whose local colour we extol. And as an
actual fact, to what extent? There is the pentatonic scale, a scale without semitones. Moeran's
harmony is in general based upon the tone, as Walton's finds its characteristic flavour from the
semitone. Thus Moeran's dissonances are of mellower sound than Walton's; his harmonic
scheme never deviates far from the pentatonic scale - he startles us by richness rather than
surprise of sound. The English folk-idiom has persisted more in song than in dance, and the
older instruments of the dance have not survived in their original shape - the rebeck is now the
violin and the tabor is a charming archaistic revival. Moeran's music is therefore infected by
song rather than by instrumental music. I personally perceived an advantage here. Years ago I
pointed out that the viola part of 'Flos Campi' by Vaughan Williams is vocal, whereas the voice
part in Hindemith's 'Marienlehen' derives from the viola. The opening of the second movement
of Moeran's String Quartet is a song: it speaks from within, as song must. Not paradoxically, it
may be said that to discover how small an extent Moeran's idiom is influenced by folk-song, the
best way is to examine closely his folk-song arrangements: in particular 'The Little Milk-maid'
and 'Down By The Riverside'. Here, with reverence, he makes the songs his own: they do not
absorb him. And, in his original works, there is more trace of Irish influence than English in the
dialect.
Moeran's output is not very large. There are three outstanding chamber works of the early
1920's - a String Quartet, a Violin Sonata, and a Pianoforte Trio. The first two have moments of
great noisiness, of a passionate and even violent statement. The Piano Trio comes from the time
when Moeran was a prolific and continuous writer, of a flow that dried up as he matured: it
represents in its published form a very reduced version of the original conception. The String
Quartet does not fade in beauty by one shade of colour. The slow movement is as beautiful as
ever, inspired by pure musicality of conception, expressed in a medium of lyrical style and
precision of phrase very like that of the verses of A. E. Housman. The Violin Sonata is more
rugged: it opens with what appears to be an epigram and turns out to be a dramatic speech:
and in its last movement there is a variety of rhythmic excitements which are almost too much
for the slender instrumental forces. Then Moeran gives us a number of lovely songs, where, for
example in 'Come Away, Death', he shows that, though his technique is not creative but based
on a traditional language, he has a precise and delicate ear for original sound and for exact
"Moeran's music has the
firm, growing attractiveness
of a tree"
registration. Perhaps his most perfect song is ' 'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock Town'. In a more
dramatic way, the four James Joyce songs are of outstanding interest: they epitomise this
philosophic attitude towards musical expression. Moeran is not a miniature painter: but he
excels in swift development of big ideas in a small time-space.
The contemplative Moeran, the composer who dreams his music irrespective of life's conditions,
dreams it for long periods and writes it with 'emotion remembered in tranquillity', is seen again
the the String Trio and the Duo for two violins. This management of stringed instruments dates
from Moeran's schooldays at Uppingham. He revels in these difficult mediums: but he is
nowhere trying to startle us with them. Yet the technical skill is such that one is agog to hear
how he will treat the solo part in a violin concerto. Of the orchestral pieces, I like best the quiet,
tender 'Thomas Whythorne's Shadow'. The Symphony has been played too seldom for me to
know it: there is always in it, as there is in all Moeran's music, a purely musical, touching
quality which defies analysis. It has the human tenderness of the country people, and a sense of
the long endurance of the countryside. I have not assimilated it as a symphony: on another
performance, I hope I should. And later there came two groups of part-songs, in longish cycles,
'Songs of Springtime' and 'Phyllida and Corydon'. They have a strange individuality: there is a
personal flavour about them. I have often wished to get to know them by conducting them,
which would be the way of finding out their worth.
As English as this land, Moeran's music has, as Hadow said of Schumann, the power to make its
hearers go on dreaming after the music has stopped. The nostalgic quality is healthy. It must be
sought before it reveals itself. It does not display its charms in the limelight of the day. It is
neither topical or fashionable. It does not shout. I would not call it masterly, certainly not
masterful. But its singing quality is undeniable, something to treasure.
Extract from: "E J Moeran's Recollections of Peter Warlock"
Maltworms (1926)
R48
Published
Unpublished
One work, an engaging unison
song called 'Maltworms', was
written by Warlock and
Moeran in collaboration.
Moeran had the poem with
him on a midday visit to a
pub* in Eynsford and had set
the chorus when Watlock
came in. Warlock suggested a
tune for the first two lines of
the verse, doing, as Moeran
put it, "the steps up" - a
series of ascending thirds of
which he was very fond.
Moeran then continued with
lines three and four.
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This photo was taken on the pavement outside the door to A local dramatic society at
Moeran and Warlock's cottage, facing the Five Bells pub, Shoreham was putting on
indicating its proximity
some one-act plays and it had
been suggested that Warlock and Moeran should provide the music. Th villlage boasted a
good brass band of from twelve to fifteen players and both composers wanted to make
use of it. The band was holding its practise that evening and the two composers therefore
went home, harmonized the song and scored the accompaniment. When an
accompaniment had been written to the verses, Moeran set to work harmonizing the
chorus, while Warlock scored the verses in the next room,writing out the parts in pencil.
There was no full score. Moeran then recopied the parts in ink, the composers caught the
seven o'clock bus to Shoreham, and the work was rehearsed there and then.
Unfortunately the
performance never took place.
The bandmaster's wife did not
hold with play-acting and, on
the night, the band was
forbidden to appear. The
song, however, was given a
piano accompaniment, and in
place of a Dowland dance
which Warlock had arranged
for brass band the two
composers played piano
duets. All the band parts have
since been lost; but it is said
that "Maltworms" is still to be
heard in the "Crown" at
Shoreham, and Moeran had a
fine photograph of the three
original singers flanked by the
composers, each holding a
mug of beer.
Warlock, Moeran, members of Shoreham Amateur
Dramatic Society, 1928
E J Moeran's Recollections of Peter Warlock
by Gerald Cockshott
Musical Times March 1955
*According to Gwen McIntyre's booklet "Peter Warlock" (Farningham and Eynsford Local
History Society) this took place in the Five Bells at Eynsford, just a few yards across the
road from the house shared by Moeran and Warlock between 1925 and 1928 - see also
"Moeran in Eynsford"
"Moeran set to work
harmonizing the chorus,
while Warlock scored the
verses in the next
room,writing out the parts
in pencil"
Life behind a watery death
MICHAEL KENNEDY- Daily Telegraph, 10th May 1986
ON A STORMY December night in Co. Kerry in 1950, the composer E. J. (Jack) Moeran fell off
the pier and was dead when pulled from the water. He was 56. Some who knew him feared it
was suicide; others who thought they knew him even better suspected he was drunk and had
accidentally drowned.
Neither theory was correct. There was no water in his lungs and he had had a cerebral
haemorrhage, the final victory for the shrapnel which had lodged in his head on the Western
Front in 1917 and for the plate which doctors had fitted into his skull. For six months before his
death he had not touched alcohol and had lived in solitude with the knowledge that his powers
of concentration would soon utterly fail him.
For 32 years he was a walking casualty, his "alcoholism" regarded as either a joke or an
embarrassment, whereas it was an escape. Often his unsteadiness was not drink, but a
symptom of the shrapnel pressing on his brain. Not that the legend of his drinking was
unfounded. No man who consorted with Peter Warlock at Eynsford in the 1920s or shared a
mistress with Augustus John could escape untainted and Moeran did both. When Harriet Cohen
complained of discordance in one of his works, Moeran told her it was scarcely surprising as it
had been inspired by the four-ale bars of Kerry.
Considering what a hold Moeran's music still has on a substantial minority of devotees of British
music of this century, it is odd that no full-length study has appeared until now when, as often
happens, two books* arrive simultaneously. They are complementary: Geoffrey Self's is a study
of the works, with biography mixed in; Lionel Hill's is a vivid account of his seven-year
friendship with the composer, unpretentiously and affectionately written and enlivened by many
of Moeran's letters.
Moeran belongs to what Lutyens maliciously and jealously called the "cowpat" school, a jibe
against composers like Vaughan Williams, who favoured folk song and pastoral lyricism in some
of their works rather than the acerbities of atonalism. It is an unperceptive jibe, for it reveals
inability or unwillingness to peer beneath the surface of this music into its complex emotional
depths. He was also, like several of his colleagues between the wars, under the sway of Sibelius,
too much for the ultimate good of his Symphony in G minor.
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Mr Self lists all the borrowings in this long-gestated work and speculates that they were used by
Moeran as points of reference to reinforce a hidden emotional programme. This is ingenious and
frank but perhaps a little unfair. More significant is the revelation that the work is probably a
personal war requiem, its message encoded by reference to the folk song "The Shooting of His
Dear", quoted not so much for its melody as for its words which suggest an allegory of war
("Cursed be that old gunsmith that made my old gun").
Moeran was not a natural symphonist and realised it (his friend Bax was less self-perceptive and
wrote seven symphonies). The symphony will survive because it is an intimate human document
but also because it contains some unforgettable passages of nature painting in sound. Like Bax
(born in Streatham), Moeran (born in Isleworth) had a love affair with Ireland, although it was
the people and the landscape rather than its history and legends which ensnared him.
He consummated this love in one of his finest works, the Violin Concerto (1937-42). Here, too,
poetry germinated the music, in this case James Joyce, and the mood of "taking sad leave at
close of day" haunts all three movements, even during an Irish jig. Concerto form suited
Moeran's style, as he showed late in the marvellous Cello Concerto he wrote for Peers
Coetmore, his partner in a disastrous but musically fruitful marriage. (He was not cut out to be
a husband, being a vagabond-tinker at heart, longing for a job "minding a railway crossing in
some remote spot with two trains a week". He has, by the way, an encyclopaedic knowledge of
locomotives.)
Moeran was a romantic, in the line of Delius, Bax and John Ireland. Yet, as Mr Self convincingly
and readably demonstrates, at his best he composed in an economic, lucid and self-disciplined
manner, controlling the self-indulgence with which his emotional temperament could easily have
become enmeshed. His technique was always adroit, sometimes highly sophisticated, and clarity
of texture was his watchword. The Sinfonietta is the proof of this.
Through all Moeran's compositions runs that vein of melancholy which, as in Dowland or Elgar,
pervades the finest of English music. Lionel Hill calls him "a gifted and loveable man" and those
epithets apply equally to his works. These books send us back to the music and we find here
desolation and anguish expressed with a certainty and precision which are now all too
poignantly understandable.
* "The Music of E. J. Moeran" by Geoffrey Self (Toccata Press)
"Lonely Waters, the diary of a friendship" by Lionel Hill (Thames Publishing).
The symphony will survive
because it is an intimate
human document but also
because it contains some
unforgettable passages of
nature painting in sound...
E.J.Moeran in Norfolk
An article by Barry Marsh
A report in the Eastern Counties Newspapers for September 1924 reads:
On the programmes of recent concerts in London, a comparatively unfamiliar name has
appeared...to awaken a good deal of curiosity. To the young composer E.J.Moeran has fallen the
honour of writing a new work for the Norwich Centenary Festival. We have it on Mr.Moeran’s
own authority that Rhapsody No.2 owes its basis to the Norfolk countryside and people.
‘Jack’ Moeran grew up in the sheltered atmosphere of a vicarage, his Irish father Joseph having
entered the priesthood like his father before him.Up until this time the family had been
constantly on the move, but now settled in Norfolk, a natural choice as Jack’s mother Esther
was a native of King’s Lynn, and his grandfather was already installed as Vicar of Bacton. Joseph
was appointed priest in charge to the joint parishes of ‘Salhouse with Wroxham’ in 1905.
Sunday morning hymns in church provided Jack with his earliest musical experience. Dressed in
his smart muslin frock the boy would listen attentively, returning home to (in his own words)
‘invent great chords’ on the piano. At the age of eight he became a pupil at Suffield Park
Prep.School in Cromer, and in September 1908 was sent away to Uppingham public school.
Here he quickly learnt the violin, joined the orchestra and formed his own string quartet. The
school concert programme for July 1912 records the first performance of a Sonata for Cello and
Piano by the Lorne House pupil Master E. Moeran. Jack learnt to compose simply by practising
it; this accounts for his later mastery of the orchestra.
Folk song collectors had been active in Norfolk since the turn of the century - Vaughan Williams
in particular had written three rhapsodies based on tunes from the county. By the time Moeran
became aware of the tradation of "Saturday night frolics" at the local pub, the custom was
already dying out, yet he still succeeded in rescuing some 150 songs from oblivion, moreover
preserving something of the original freshness that was becoming obscured by academic piano
accompaniments. There is a fine set of Six Folksongs from Norfolk in particular. As Philip
Heseltine [AKA Peter Warlock] observed in 1923:
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His familarity with the neighbourhood gave him facilities which are often denied to the
stranger....he collects these songs from no antiquarian or historical motives, but because he
loves them and the people who sing them. (1)
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Cliff House, Bacton, in Norfolk, (built by Moeran's father) c.1930
CREDIT: copyright Alan Childs: Barry Marsh collection 2000.
And as an old man from Sutton remarked after a sing-song to which Moeran had brought a
visitor from London: "We were a bit nervous of him; with you, it’s different, of course - you’re
one of us."
Unless he was actually living in the place and amongst the people from which the music
originated, Jack Moeran could not find the inspiration to compose. His was a dual ancestry, and
even though he was later to produce his greatest work in the mountain country of Southern
Ireland, there are still constant reminders of the East Anglian county with its wide horizons, tall
church towers and windswept dunes.
‘Stalham River’(1921) and ‘Lonely Waters’(1931) both speak of their composer’s desire to be ‘at
"We were a bit nervous of
him; with you, it’s different,
of course - you’re one of us"
one’ with nature amidst the Norfolk landscape. The rugged splendour of the western Irish coast
might finish the Symphony in G minor of 1937, but the North Sea gales sweeping in over Bacton
certainly colour its opening, first conceived there in 1924. Even as late as 1946 the small village
of Rockland St.Mary on the edge of the Norfolk Broads would see the birth of the Fantasy Oboe
Quartet.
In the last few months of his life Moeran was struggling to complete his Second Symphony, but
at the same time his mind was also contemplating "a piece for strings(a la Barber)"(2) or "a
work of a lighter nature"(3) for Norwich. One enthusiastic letter makes mention of a "mad wild
Scherzo for orchestra. Denny Island is its title", another that the piano piece ‘The White
Mountain’ is to form the basis of an extended "Symphonic Scena".
What would the future have held? It is impossible to speculate. On December 1st 1950 the
lonely waters of the Kenmare River claimed the life of one who was described by the ‘Musical
Times’ as having had a great gift for friendship - his music will always be a mine of interest for
seekers after truth and beauty.
copyright Barry Marsh
1 - Introductions XX111 : E.J.Moeran : Music Bulletin 1924
2 - EJM letter to Peers Coetmore, May 30th 1947
3 - EJM letter to Peers Coetmore, July 26th 1949
Borderland Interlude:
E J Moeran in Herefordshire
My dearest Peers,
At Kington I can go into the pastures or up the
hill and somehow feel that you are there with
me in a telepathic way. Don't forget to think of
me up on Bradnor planning out my music.
15th December, 1943
E J Moeran - 'Jack' to all his friends - loved
walking. A stroll to the local Post Office could
finish, quite without plan, alone on the summit
of some high mountain. No one looked less
like a hiker, the formality of a pinstripe suit
Gravel Hill, Kington, c.1940
contrasting with the informality of an open
necked shirt, whatever the weather; on his way out of the house, always stopping to talk to the
gardener, then striding out along the river path, puffing away at his pipe. On his return, relaxed,
smiling contentedly, sometimes whistling softly, enthusing openly about 'this wonderful air of
Kington - the healthiest place in the British Isles!'
A close contact with nature was something that his future wife, the cellist Peers Coetmore, had
to experience with him. Together they would create great music:
"...the thing is how to round it off so as to make a satisfying ending. Anyhow, after some days
sedentary I shall have to summon up the energy to go up the hills and try and think out the
finish"
4th May, 1945, Kington [Work on the Cello Concerto in progress]
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The market town of Kington lies some 19 miles northwest of
Hereford. Sheltered by a valley of the River Arrow, it is
surrounded by hills which form the centre of a great circle
dominated by Bradnor Hill and Hergest Ridge. Nearby lies the
vastness of the Radnor Forest, 25 square miles of mountains
reaching out across the border into the heart of mid Wales. From
the summit of Great Rhos, Moeran would proudly point towards
'Housman country' or 'Elgar country'. Today we might add, 'and
here is Moeran country.'
No one could have been more aware of the 'Spirit of Place'. Some
of Moeran's earliest childhood memories were of North Sea gales
sweeping over the family house on the Norfolk coast and the
sighing of the wind through the reeds of Broadland. As Peter
Warlock observed, 'something of the indefinable spirit of the
English landscape' is already present in Moeran's earliest
compositions.
Like many of his contemporaries, Moeran encountered the poetry
of A E Housman. But the Borderland seen through the eyes of
Moeran and Peers on Hergest 'The Shropshire Lad' was dreamlike, remote and hardly much of a
reality. Friendship and travel with Warlock were to alter the
Ridge
perspective.
Warlock shared with Moeran a passion for Ireland, fast motor bikes and railways. For Housman's
'nostalgic fantasies' he had little time. His 'Heaven on Earth' was the Golden Valley, that stretch
of country which lies between Ross-on-Wye and the Black Mountains. It was part of Elgar's
'sweet borderland', a tangible landscape waiting to be explored. Moeran first experienced it
during the late 1920s but showed little desire to turn his impressions into music. Perhaps too
many had already done so; not for him the path of 'pale imitation'.
Jack might not have returned to Herefordshire but for a strange co-incidence. His brother
Graham had followed their father Joseph into the priesthood; by 1937 Graham was the vicar of
Leominster, midway between Hereford and Ludlow. Norfolk, now in danger of losing its rural
calm to the construction of new airfields, was no longer a suitable family base.
'Gravel Hill Villa' first receives mention in the 1845 History of Kington as 'a praiseworthy
example of building in the Italian Style, surrounded by plantations situated on a gentle
eminence'. By the time Graham came to purchase it for his parents, the property was in need of
extensive renovation. Esther Moeran took the opportunity of converting a small studio at the
side of the house for her 'Eddie John', in the hope that Jack could be persuaded to come and live
permanently there.
So far as is known, Moeran's first visit to Kington was on 11 August 1938, but a letter addressed
from there to a Norfolk friend doubts whether 'I will ever see you again'. The mood is wistful,
sad, with no mention of the new house. Two days later he had returned to his own 'Heaven on
Earth' - Kenmare in Southern Ireland. From mid 1941, however, he was beginning to spend
much more time at 'Gravel Hill'; its secluded position on the edge of the town was ideal. From
this period emerges a new picture of the composer at work:
after some days sedentary I
shall have to summon up the
energy to go up the hills and
try and think out the finish...
Breakfast time was at nine o'clock and he always had it with his
parents. The rest of the day he was in his study. I had to finish
everything before Mr Jack started on his composing. The whole
house had to be silent. Mrs Moeran told us 'No one must make a
noise or any sound'.*
Salads replaced hot meals because the cook, Jessie, was not
allowed to open the oven door. After long silences the piano would
suddenly be heard:
It flowed from that study...like the rippling of a stream.
Sometimes it would be like the rustling of the trees, another time
it would be like he was going for the sound of the birds.*
The maids would take in a tray:
Gravel Hill today
He'd be in a world of his own...the piano was on the left hand side; he had his desk with all his
stuff on it, and there was one window - he was right under it when he was composing. He'd do
something, then he'd put the paper on one side, throwing the music across, as if he was sorting
out what he didn't want on one side, and what he was going to try out the other side. He had
half a dozen wastepaper baskets, all full up, but nobody dared empty them.*
From this small room, in four years, came music that sprang from
the surrounding hills and mountains - the Rhapsody for Piano and
Orchestra, the Overture to a Masque, first ideas for the Cello
Sonata and part of the Cello Concerto. There was one other work
- the Sinfonietta, Moeran's 'symphony of the Welsh Marches', in
which he aspired to greatness and achieved it. Whether
accompanied by his friend Dr Dick Jobson from New Radnor on his
rounds or disappearing for weeks at a time into the Cambrian
Mountains, the small attache case containing his manuscript paper
would never leave Jack's side.
It was at St Mary's Church, Kington, on 26 July, 1945, that Jack
Moeran finally married Peers Coetmore. Shortly afterwards the
family association with 'Gravel Hill' ceased. The Revd Joseph
Moeran had died two years previously; with Jack's departure,
Esther Moeran sold the house, paid off the servants and went to
live with Graham, now Rector of Ledbury. 'Cottie' was expected to
provide Jack with the continuing security.
View from Moeran's study Within two years the marriage was in trouble. Peers, annoyed by
window at Gravel Hill
Jack's reluctance to accept London as a permanent home, insisted
on pursuing her own career, accepting lengthy engagements abroad. Jack went back to being a
restless wanderer. So-called 'friends' would engage him in senseless drinking bouts. 'Without
you I am like a ship without a rudder', he wrote to Peers in one of many letters begging her to
return. Ledbury Rectory could have brought back stability for Jack, but as sympathy gave way
to intolerance there were few happy moments. Esther Moeran was no longer mistress of her
own house and Graham soon felt a moral obligation to shield her from the worst excesses of
Jack's alcoholism. Work on a Second Symphony continued during periods of convalescence, but
only fitfully. On one occasion Jack returned from a walk on the Malvern Hills convinced that
Elgar had placed a curse on it. E flat had been the key of another 'Second' - Elgar's 'Spirit of
Delight'. Jack's letters to Peers written in 1949 are still loving but always tinged with sadness.
Where can he settle down? Where will he go? Who will have him?
I am going up to New Radnor tomorrow for a few days, & my immediate suggestion is going to
be to Dick that, provided I can get a room in the village during the hot weather, whether I
couldn't come into the Jobsons' house for as much time as I want to use the piano...if I could do
this, I could ring the changes between there & Ledbury during the interim period till I settle
somewhere for the winter...It's this promised Symphony for next year which is the trouble.
Ledbury 1949
But the spirit of 'Gravel Hill' could not be
recaptured. Jack celebrated his return to
Kington with a prolonged visit to 'Ye Olde
Taverne': the result was disastrous. All that
Dick Jobson could do was counsel a terribly
depressed man who no longer had faith in
himself as a composer.
Eighteen months later, Jack Moeran was dead.
The Second Symphony remained incomplete.
There is a strange postscript. At 'Gravel Hill', if
anyone interrupted a radio concert that Jack
was listening to, he would quickly put up his
Moeran in the Borderlands
hand and silence the offender with a 'stop
traffic' gesture. At about 4 pm on 1 December, 1950, a Ledbury woman who knew the Moeran
family spotted Jack walking up the main street. Surprised but glad to see him back in town, she
made to cross over to talk to him; up came his hand in the manner that would suffer no
interruption. The woman turned away, offended. At the earliest opportunity she complained to
Esther about her son's conduct, blissfully unaware that at the same moment when she had
encountered Jack, his dead body was being brought ashore from the waters of Kenmare River in
Southern Ireland.
It is fitting that the Hereford meeting of the Three Choirs will celebrate the Centenary of the
composer's birth. Now that much of Moeran's music is available on disc, the time has come for a
re-evaluation of his work through live performances. One thing is sure - the 'last of the true
Romantics' should win many new friends.
by Barry Marsh
from Three Choirs Festival Programme, Hereford 1994
(*Mrs Maud Parry in conversation with the author, July 1985)
Guided By Jack
...in my head as I lazed in
poppy fields or on old bridge
abutments in silent
My love of English music started in childhood Hertfordshire with the Tallis
mid-Norfolk reverie, the slow
Fantasia and Enigma on an old record, aged about 13. Then a friend's records of
movement from the
VW's Oxford Elegy, Dives and Lazarus, Flos Campi, Five Tudor Portraits, VW
Symphony in G minor,
teeny boppers we were in those early 70's. Big names soon led to a growing
especially those glorious last
fascination with the 'lesser', forgotten ones. 'Why do you waste money on scores
few pages, gentle wind
by Robin Milford and Havergal Brian?' some of my sneering Royal College of
through East Anglian reeds,
Music contemporaries asked, those who attended smokey, interminable
such special poignancy, such
composers' workshops in the basement. Even my teacher, Bernard Stevens, who an unmistakable composer...
I hugely respected, had a go at me for refusing to attend workshops. Hearing
Adrian Jack scoffing at English music in his lectures on 20th C music caused me to provoke him
by visibly reading the score of Delius's 'Mass of Life' throughout future sessions. But I did try
and be open to all kinds of music; upon borrowing Stockhausen's Kontacte on disc from college,
I secretly listened at home on headphones but screamed for several minutes afterwards to the
alarm of my parents. I went almost as an ascetic to the Society for the Promotion of New Music
composers' courses at York, but after just one day of hot air (once blowing up balloons with
David Bedford) I usually escaped to the Yorkshire Wolds on my bike, damned but happy, ears
ringing with 'songs of the high hills'.
by Adrian Williams
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During this burgeoning of my love of
English music I remember seeing
the name 'Moeran' on big
Metropolitan line billboards,
performances of a 'Symphony in G
minor' at the Festival Hall. The name
didn't suggest my sort of little world,
even less a G minor symphony, and
so I stupidly ignored it.... I can't
remember how I eventually
discovered Moeran - it might have
been the record of Bax's November
Woods and Holst's Fugal overture on
which Moeran's Sinfonietta took the
B side.
View of the Yorkshire Wolds, east of York
Or was it that mysterious Cello
Concerto and Overture to a Masque? (Ah, such thanks we owe to 'Lyrita Recorded Edition,
Slough, England') Come to think it might have been a radio broadcast of that G minor
Symphony, was it under Neville Dilkes?
I remember saying to my friend and mentor the late John Russell at the RCM that I was born
about 50 years too late. I so wished I had known those greats who were around and working in
the 20's or 30's. Russell often shared memories of his great friend Gerald Finzi. I was nostalgic,
almost by nature it seemed, about a time I didn't know. It seems that Jack Moeran was the
same in his day - also 50 years out of his time!
At school I was much influenced by the musical tastes of my friend Nick, who first introduced
me to lesser-known Vaughan Williams, John Ireland, Herbert Howells and others. Not only that,
but also by he and his parents' interest in lesser-known parts of Britain, their country
exploration holidays instead of the holiday-camp-and-hotel type holidays I went on with my
parents. Nick's father was a railwayman and not a mean engineer, and he built an 'O'-guage
railway around their garden which we spent happy hours playing with. Additionally Nick
introduced me to the pastime he'd indulged in for years already, walking old railways. In my
teens, instead of doing school homework I listened to English music and pored over maps,
drawing a gigantic railway map which covered my entire bedroom wall; whenever I walked
along an old railway, I marked it off on the map. Maybe 1000 miles of old railway were covered
over the years. I once heard a radio programme about Jack Moeran where parts of his
symphony were likened to one of the fine Great Eastern steam locos pounding 'up Brentwood
Bank'....indeed one of my greatest walks was the Midland and Great Northern Railway, from
Yarmouth to Kings Lynn, in about six days, summer 1976....in my head as I lazed in poppy
fields or on old bridge abutments in silent mid-Norfolk reverie, the slow movement from the
Symphony in G minor, especially those glorious last few pages, gentle wind through East
Anglian reeds, such special poignancy, such an unmistakable composer.
One of the places Nick and his parents started visiting regularly from about 1970 was a holiday
cottage at Bullock's Mill near Kington in Herefordshire, at one time a crossing-keeper's cottage
on the railway from Leominster to New Radnor.
So influenced was I by their colour slides of these holidays, it became inevitable that I would
visit there too. The first time was a cold, wet New Year, 1974-5. My two friends and I were 18.
We had heard about 'the Fred Jones' - a small pub also known as the Tavern or even The
Railway Tavern in the years when the railway was open. On New Year's Eve we ended up there,
it's tiny bar crammed with red-faced locals, unaccompanied singing of wartime ballads,
folksongs.
It was a revelation, here was the
living past, a place untouched by the
juke-boxes and space-invaders
machines which were inescapable
from anywhere else at the time.
Copious scotch on the house, hunks
of bread, cheese and pickled onions,
a sense of reverence for the two
elderly ladies who owned the pub,
one of whom made a speech.
Someone drinks a toast. The big old
yellow-faced clock reaches midnight,
all of us in a confusion of crossed
hands, Alde Lang Syne going on and
on, laughter, kissing and hugging,
then the first footing....
Ever since, the borderland of Wales
has been my spiritual home, even if
The landscape around New Radnor
for long periods I was to live
elsewhere. Almost without exception, groups of friends from the RCM and school - and even one
I met,
surprisingly, at the SPNM in York, Peter Thompson, a composer who I discovered also to be a
Jack
Moeran fan - we all went to the Tavern every New Year, and on many other occasions too.
Several of these 'Fred Jones' evenings I caught on cassette tape for posterity. Though I've not
been back for some years now, I gather a similar atmosphere exists today. One of the elderly
ladies, Miss May E Jones (ALCM....'I wanted to take my LRAM but the first world war broke out')
gave me her piano when I moved to the area in 1982. She died about 10 years ago, aged 93 I
believe.
What we Moeran devotees didn't
realise until long after we had
started to go there was that this
very pub had been Jack's local! Here
we were, sharing this timeless
atmosphere, not knowing that he
himself had lived at Gravel Hill,
barely half a mile from where we
were drinking. We discovered this
just by chatting to locals one day,
one of whom even remembered
what he regularly drank.! Miss Jones
remembered him too. We were
amazed. We went excitedly round to
the house - but the current owners
seemed to know nothing of their
great predecessor, which seemed to
us to be fairly typical.
Suddenly there seemed to be an
eerie connection with that Eynsford
house party with Moeran and his
friends - maybe not the same level
of drunken debauchery, but an alcoholic connection certainly. On a New Year's Eve or other
social night at the Tavern, we friends would stagger the two miles back to the cottage at
Bullock's Mill, over the old railway bridge by the station where Jack loved to chat to the station
master. Sometimes we'd end up sprawled in a hedge or a ditch.....cue tune from the Cello
Concerto, last movement.
Gravel Hill, August 2000
Moeran's study is on the far left with pink shutters (in
shadow)
In 1977 I came to know the Violin Concerto and have adored it ever since. Its opening chords
transport me straight to Ireland, where that year I spent my first holiday, staying with friends
on their farm on the Sligo coast, inlaws of college friend, composer Adrian Vernon Fish. I took
the exquisite BBC performance by the late Ralph Holmes on cassette, and played it over and
over whilst there. It was truly one of the most special holidays. I went back again for the next
three years, one time with my old friend Nick, walking some disused railways in County Cork.
Unfortunately we never got to Kenmare. Always whilst in Ireland Moeran's music was never far
from my first thoughts.
Then later the same year it was
back to Kington again, autumn
holiday and New Year of course.
Many years later I discovered and
bought the Lionel Hill biography of
Moeran, and found therein wuzzy
(our word for nostalgic) photographs
of Jack, one in the hills above the
Radnor Valley. Probably (certainly)
he'd puffed his way there on the
so-called 'withered arm' branch line,
the extension to New Radnor from
Kington. How I wish I had known
that time, been born when my
father was born (1905), to have
trundled along that railway with
Jack, felt musical kinship, shared
ideas, talked of places and people.
And of course ended up at the
Tavern.
I sometimes wonder if some of us
are guided by the spirits of those
who have gone before, to foster
Kington High Street, August 2000
their memory and keep the old ways
alive in this world. The internet has The Oxford Arms, right, is where Lionel Hill stayed in 1945
hidden blessings. Hopefully Jack's music and memory will benefit from this great website.
Adrian Williams
August 2000
Adrian Williams - Composer - website
Moeran in Eynsford
"I lost faith in myself round 1926 and composed nothing for several years. I even nearly
became a garage proprietor in partnership with Cockerill the ex-air ace...I had an awfully lazy
period in Eynsford. If you knock off for a long time, it is frightfully hard to get going."
Letter to Peers Coetmore, 1948(?)
The village of Eynsford lies to the south east of London,
just outside the M25 orbital motorway, in the county of
Kent. No longer, perhaps, the sleepy idyll it might once
have been, with a fair amount of traffic passing through
its main road, the setting is peaceful enough, managing
to be engagingly rural without frightening off the
affluent commuters able to afford the relatively high
house prices there. It is a village that has seen a fair
amount of history, and there is a brief if mildly
interesting visit to be paid to the ruins of its small
castle.
One thing the local historians don't mention too often is
a notorious set of residents who lived there between
1925 and 1928. It was during these years that Jack
Moeran, Peter Warlock and Warlock's manservant, Hal
Collins, took up residence in a small house in the centre
of the village, next door to a chapel, a few yards across
the road from the pub. To say that these three lived
eccentrically would be an understatement.
Little has thus far been
written about this time the lack of musical output
puts it somewhat outside
Self's remit (though do see
the page on 'Maltworms'),
and Lionel Hill's book
begins almost twenty
years later. So I am glad
to report that, from a
pamphlet written by Gwen
McIntyre of the
Farningham and Eynsford
Local History Society a few
pieces of the Moeran
jigsaw may be
reassembled.
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[email protected]
©2001 Andrew Rose
Eynsford lies to the south east of
London
McIntyre's primary interest
is in Warlock, but she had
unique access to long local
memories as well as
The Five Bells pub
musical history books with
which to write her text, and there is plenty there too for the Moeran detective.
In addition to Moeran, Warlock and
Collins (a Maori also known as Te
Akua, of whom it is said that he
"consumed vast amount of stout and
would sometimes perform Maori war
dances with terrifying realism")
there was a fourth member of the
household, Warlock's girlfriend,
Barbara Peache. With frequent
visitors filling up the small house, it
was not unusual for Warlock and
Peache to share their bed with a
third girl. That this gossip should
have escaped the cottage is perhaps
an indication of the scandal brought
on the village by the household.
Other shocks for the locals included
public nudity - Warlock riding his
motorcycle around the village
In the garden of the Five Bells (L-R):
Once Jack Moeran came
home alone and drove his car
through a hawthorn hedge
and damaged his face...
naked, a visitor collecting fish and
Collins, Moeran, Constant Lambert, Warlock
chips in the buff, and a strange young man playing the piano with no clothes on. It seems even
when clothed, Warlock and Peache always walked around barefoot indoors, which in itself was
enough to cause shocked comment.
Their capacity for drink was legendary - "they would full up big urns at the Five Bells and take
them back...the kitchen [was] swimming in beer." At the time Moeran had a "big Renault car",
which they often took (if not riding a penny farthing bicycle) to The Peacock, a pub in a
neighbouring village. "Once Jack Moeran came home alone and drove his car through a
hawthorn hedge and damaged his face."
From a friend, Jack Lindsay, comes
this evidence: "We drank up all the
beer and hurried across to the Five
Bells where we sat at the back on
the garden seats by the rickety
table, with the leaves of the trees
brushing the sweat from our
brows...then we carried a
beer-supply home in a large
earthenware jug."
McIntyre relates: "Once a party of
them left the Five Bells and went
towards Shoreham in Moeran's car.
They ended up in a ditch but without
much damage to the car or
themselves, fortunately.
"...they were very generous to the
clientele of the Five Bells and
popular with them. During a
convivial session, they were joined
by a little old man who had made his
way to Eynsford from Dartford
where he was living in the
workhouse attached to Dartford
Hospital. Subsequently they had him
to stay in the cottage for a week or
two and his little figure, which they
wrapped in a blanket, was part of
the party crossing the road to the
pub. They also put him in Jack
Moeran's car, wrapped in his
blanket, and took him on jaunts
round the countryside - no doubt to
other pubs." The other main form of
transport appears to have been a
wheelbarrow, used to carry Warlock
home from the station (where the
local station master had instructions
to haul him out of the train...), and
to transport assorted guests and interlopers to and from the Five Bells and various local parties.
Geoffrey Self mentions the household's habit of singing uproarious sea
shanties on Sunday mornings to try and drown out the church services next
door, for which they received the God-fearing villagers' prayers. They also
managed to outrage the Sunday School superintendent once, when Warlock
walked over from the Five Bells to talk to some children standing by the
church railings, saying to them "I'll be your Jesus." But there must have
been a kind of resigned tolerance too, as Warlock played for the children in
the church's schoolroom, a musical performance "somewhat marred by his
pulling faces as he played...one girl was so taken with the giggles she had to
rush from the room." The local children nick-named him "Gentleman Jesus".
But in all of this,
while Moeran
Warlock
developed a
complexion which earned him the
affectionate moniker "Raspberry" or
"Old Raspberry" and did very little
work, Warlock was productive,
though plagued with bouts of
depression, as Moeran later recalled:
"When the black mood passed he
would write a song a day for a week,
fumbling about with chords and
whistling...All his work was done in
this way - quickly, at the piano and
often in an atmosphere that was far
from quiet."
There were many regular visitors to
the house - assorted artists and
musicians, including John Goss, Cecil
Gray, Bernard van Dieren, Lord
The cottage in Eynsford
Berners, Hubert Foss and Constant Lambert - plus Moeran's 'girlfriend' of the time, Nina
Hamnett. "She tells of the large, important lunch that was cooked on Sunday with everyone in
the house helping. Some serious beer-drinking was done in the garden of the pub opposite while
the food cooked...[Warlock] loved to have large bonfires [which used to] smoulder and smoke
at night."
During this time Moeran's previously prolific output petered out, and all we have is a handful of
songs and short piano pieces. The time probably also sowed the seeds of his alcohol problems.
And yet, coming out of the other side of this manic 'time out' Moeran was to reappraise his work
and develop his technique into the mature style which was to prove so fruitful in the 1930's and
1940's.
Surely though Kenmare
might offer up a little more,
surely Moeran's imprint
might still be found even 51
years after his death...
See also:
Photo Gallery - Kenmare
Page
A Potted Biography of E J
Moeran
On the trail of "Jacko" Moeran
Life Behind a Watery Death
Maps of Kenmare and area
on local website
Notes
Moeran was a regular
visitor to Kenmare and the
county of Kerry in the
1930's and 40's, and died
there in unusual
circumstances which have
been debated ever since.
He had been living 'quietly',
and apparently soberly, in
Kenmare for some six
months prior to his death,
very well aware of his
failing mental health - he'd
written to his mother two
weeks before his death
saying he was afraid of
being certified insane.
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©2001 Andrew Rose
At the beginning of October, 2001, I was able to make a short, flying visit to the town of
Kenmare, Co Kerry, looking for remaining evidence of Jack Moeran's long association with the
area. This is my account:
The main road that runs out of Cork towards Killarney is like too many major roads in Ireland slow, single carriageway, prone to unannounced sharp bends, deep pot-holes, and slow lorries
stuck behind tractors. Driving through alternating bright sunshine and heavy showers, there is
little opportunity to take in the lush green rolling countryside of County Cork, as I keep both
eyes firmly fixed on the perils of the road ahead. Having been a victim of a particularly vicious
pothole just outside Killarney before, which was taking out a car every three or four minutes
during a torrential downpour, I was eager not to repeat the experience.
And then, suddenly, you enter Kerry. The change is immediate - as you cross the county
boundary suddenly there you are, in the mountain country. Gone is verdant Cork, replaced by
the rugged rock faces, autumnal rusty browns and deep, dark greens of Kerry, stretching over
vast expanses of steep hillside. The great towering peaks seem to rise out of nowhere, and
within minutes the entire landscape has changed. It is this majestic beauty of the Kerry
mountains which brought Jack Moeran back here time and time again to write his music. This is
At around 4pm on 1st
December 1950 he was
seen to fall from the end of
the pier into the water, and
was quickly pulled out. The
inquest verdict states that
he "came by his death from
natural causes, namely
cerebral haemorrhage, and
fell into the water at
Kenmare Pier on December
1st." Since then it has often
been suggested that he
committed suicide.
his muse, his inspiration.
Finally we reach a long stretch of good, wide road, soaring upwards into the hills, where
lumbering lorries can be safely passed and left long behind, and there's a little extra feeling of
freedom and space. Soon though we turn off onto the Kenmare road itself, cutting a narrow
winding path through the valleys southwest towards the town, twenty miles of near empty
mountainscapes.
The old cemetery is one of the first
landmarks as you enter Kenmare
from this direction. An ancient
church, its roof and windows long
since abandoned to the elements,
stands guard at the entrance, and a
brown tourist trail sign points the
way to my first rendezvous. It states
simply: Ernest John Moeran,
Composer (1894-1950), and points
into the general vicinity of the
middle of the graveyard.
inside it is just about impossible to follow its direction
precisely, and I stumble over dilapidated tombstones and
overgrown graves in my efforts. I'd seen Moeran's final
resting place before, in the 1971 RTE film and in photos,
and with these images in mind it was not hard to find him.
He lies now under a thick lawn of long grass, with a small
vase sitting over his head, long dead flowers drooping
forlorn over the side.
Once
His view is superb, a panorama down to the water, and
across to the other side, more hills climbing up into the
clouds. It's hard to imagine a more suitable resting place
for a man who loved this area so much:
We'd reserved a room at the Lansdowne Arms, where Jack usually stayed on his visits to
Kenmare. The hotel bar has since been renamed Moeran's Pub, but apart from the name and a
large, hand-tinted photograph
hanging on the wall, there is little of
him here any more. The previous
hotel owner was reputed to have
some sort of Moeran archive, though
this was disputed in a conversation I
had later that day. Anyway, he's no
longer here, and nor is his
memorabilia. Moeran is mentioned
in the hotel brochure, but this is
short and misleading, referring to
his "great association with Kenmare
[which] occurred in the early thirties
when he came to stay at the
Lansdowne Arms Hotel". No mention
of his living there often during the
1940's, or about his demise in 1950.
After a pint and sandwich we decided to take a walk down to the pier where, on that fateful day,
he met his end. It was not initially the easiest place to find, somehow escaping the signs and
"You Are Here" tourist maps despite its proximity to the centre of what is a very small town.
The sun was shining brightly over the water,
but a strong wind and some ominous-looking
clouds suggested the weather might be prone
to change very quickly. As I walked to the end
of the pier, which creates a kind of harbour to
shelter boats inland, I could not help but
speculate - did he fall, or did he jump? Was he
already dead when he hit the water or was it a
deliberate act of suicide from a very deeply
depressed man? The strong wind was
whipping up choppy waves - it's an exposed
point which must get the worst of any winds
funneling up the valley across the water. They
call it a river, but it has the unmistakable
taste of the sea about it.
I took a few photos and then walked around to
the other side of the pier, looking for the
backdrop which would fix the location of a
photograph taken by an unknown local in the
late 1940's, trying to match up the distinctive
unchanging outlines of hilltops. I thought I'd
found it, but later I looked at the photo again, and was less sure.
We chewed it over as we strolled back into the town. It seemed too incredible that a man bent
on taking his own life would choose this particular spot and method, if only because of the
inherent unreliability of any attempt. Frankly, unless you were unable to swim (and Jack was a
strong swimmer) the worst you might expect would be a rather cold soaking. As you climbed
back up the steps onto the pier you might expect to feel rather foolish, damp, shivering with
cold and very miserable, but not dead.
As we came over the crest of the hill and the centre of
Kenmare came into view a fantastic rainbow appeared
overhead, seemingly curving down into the town centre.
In it I could clearly see the sheets of rain teeming down
and I realised we had seconds to spare. Dashing down
the road we just made it into the Post Office as the
heavy downpour began, and I was able to take the
opportunity to use one of their Internet PCs to fire off a
dispatch to the Moeran mailing list on my thoughts thus
far.
So was that it? We'd been to the hotel and pub, visited
the grave, looked over the end of the pier. Surely
though Kenmare might offer up a little more, surely
Moeran's imprint might still be found even 51 years
after his death.
The final leg of the trail proved a little more elusive. The
local tourist office had an exhibition of local history
which briefly mentioned Moeran, above notice of
Margaret Thatcher's claimed connections to the town(!),
but they had no literature or other material. Instead I was directed to the Kenmare Bookshop,
situated opposite Moeran's Pub. Here I could have purchased a copy of Lionel Hill's account of
his memories of Jack, Lonely Waters, and a photographic history of Kenmare which includes the
single photo of Moeran I referred to earlier, but beyond that there was nothing...
...Nothing but a small lead. "You might want to talk to Mrs O'Shea - she knew him. She's still
around in the town." I'd heard the name before, one of Barry Marsh's many sources for his
long-awaited biography. And where might I find her? The directions were a little unusual - a bar
behind an antique shop on Henry Street. She was sure to be there. "Just ask for Mrs O'Shea."
Entering O'Shea's B&B and Bar was
initially rather confusing, as I walked
into a corridor which led to an unlit
bar room, with stairs leading off to
one side and the appearance of
entering someone's house. It was
her daughter who found me
lingering there, wondering quite
what to do, and sure enough Mrs
O'Shea herself was found. She
asked me my business and how I'd
come by her.
We talked briefly as I offered my
credentials, and soon she offered to
meet me, after nine o'clock, in the
bar. Then, with a twinkle in her eye,
she left me with a parting comment,
the bait that would ensure my
return: "He should never have
married that Peers, you know. He
knew it, and he told me so." I knew I would be back.
I never fully worked out the layout of O'Shea's. The bar to which I returned has probably
changed little since the mid-fifties, when the place was purchased. A row of beer taps dispenses
Guinness and lager to the rear, underneath the rows of spirits. The bar top and stools are of a
certain vintage. A small transistor radio chatters away at the back, relaying the odd snippet of
information interesting enough to merit a momentary increase of volume. Somewhere beyond
this bar there appeared to be another, referred to as 'below', where a serious bridge tournament
was apparently taking place - serious enough anyway to banish smokers to a short break
between rubbers in our bar.
Maureen O'Shea (above) was standing behind the bar, serving and passing comment as I
arrived, and she insisted on standing my first pint. There were two others in the bar as the froth
settled on the black liquid, and as the evening wore on these were replaced by a handful of
others, the hard-core being four men well into their retirement years. One of these appeared to
be Mr O'Shea, referred to as Jim, there was a slightly younger man, Jack, a taciturn man of few
words whose name I missed, and a final entry who had probably stopped off elsewhere on his
way to O'Shea's and whose entry was barely noted. They all had known the man they called
"Jacko".
The evening was convivial, and our conversation drifted on and off the subject of Moeran. A
small nugget of information would arise, and then things would switch to current events politics, terrorists, Osama Bin Laden.
Some topics were difficult to broach
- clearly Jacko was held in
considerable affection, and awkward
questions of drink and death had to
be circled around somewhat before
they could be addressed head on.
Maureen told me how she had been
in the hairdressers when her mother
came running in, distraught, with
the bad news. There was no doubt
in the minds of the assembled
company that he died before he fell
into the water - the body had
floated, there was no water inside
him. We moved onto the funeral most small Irish towns even today
turn out well for a good funeral, but
this was different: Jack's brother,
Graham, a Protestant vicar, had
come over to take charge of
proceedings and insisted on a
Protestant burial well away from the
catholic cemetery. The threat of
eternal damnation for Catholics
attending a Protestant funeral would
have hung over the townspeople.
But "everyone knew him", and they
all chose to ignore the risks and
wrath of the local priest in order to
pay their last respects to Jacko.
But of course there were other,
happier memories, of long games of
billiards between Moeran and Bax,
who received news of his knighthood
whilst staying with Jack in Kenmare;
of singing along (to Moeran's
accompaniment) his arrangements of what Jim called his "Irish Airs" - I was unable to ascertain
whether or not this referred to his Songs from County Kerry. Again and again the pride felt in
the association between Moeran and Kenmare was voiced - the youngest of our group, also
called Jack, recalled how he, as a schoolboy, attended a concert of orchestral music shortly after
Moeran's death. In his introduction to one piece, the grand conductor stood up and announced
the work by Moeran, "who had a great connection with the town of Killarney."
Immediately a boy jumped up and retorted "No he didn't it was Kenmare. He never even went
to Killarney!" I don't think I'd choose to believe the latter point, but the lad would surely have
risked a swift clip round the ear from his schoolmaster for his insolence in claiming the
connection for Kenmare. However, the conductor graciously acknowledged his error and the
concert continued.
I was surprised to hear of the number of friends Moeran invited to join him in Kenmare. Not
only Bax, whose love of Ireland is well documented, but also memories of various members of
the Hallé Orchestra, including of course Pat Ryan, the clarinetist who appears in the 1971 RTE
film and who developed a great love for the area. Moeran was even able to entice Sir John
Barbirolli to join him in Kerry, and no doubt other names could be conjured up with a little more
meticulous research.
One guest who was less welcomed was Peers Coetmore. It soon became clear that she was held
in rather low esteem by the locals, and she was roundly condemned for removing his piano and
shipping it back to England, with the suggestion that this might have actually hastened Jack's
decline. At least when he had his music he spent a little less time in the pub, or so the argument
went.
I was interested to hear about his accommodation. Moeran's letters from Kenmare were always
headed The Lodge, rather than The Lansdowne Arms. The lodge belonged to the hotel, across
the road from the main building, and here the long term residents lived, coming over to take
their meals in the hotel restaurant. The lodge was later demolished, so one can only imagine
from Maureen O'Shea's description the room he used, his upright Bechstein in the corner, five
large windows allowing daylight to flood into a room "as big as this bar - very large it was." Here
he would work away at his music while the hotel fended off telephone calls demanding updates
on his Second Symphony. How Moeran struggled with that work in Kenmare - "I can't just turn
it on like a tap," he would say as another impatient call was deflected. How they searched his
room after his death for evidence of this elusive work, but to no avail.
And yet through all of this a fuller picture of Jack Moeran only fitfully emerges, more a piecing
together of fragments, echoes from the past. He was "a rogue", but "always a gentleman", no
matter what his state. He certainly liked a drink, but "it never changed him, though you knew
when he'd had one". (A question about alcoholism was neatly side-stepped and the conversation
moved on...) He got on well with the people of Kenmare - "everyone knew Jacko", but his walks
around the town, which would take him into any number of pubs, have a sad side to them. Far
from him being led into bad habits by others, he would often move from bar to bar sitting alone,
smoking his pipe and drinking his pint, a solitary figure lost in his own thoughts, someone who
stood somewhat apart from the townsfolk. As much as he loved them, and they him, he was not
one of them - they still do an amusing impersonation of his rather plummy accent, so different
from the thick, rolling brogue of the area.
And of those final six months in
Kenmare? Certainly he had changed,
not quite the Jacko of old, his mind
befuddled and confused; he was
clearly not a well man. And when he
finally did meet his end there was
real shock and grief. Nobody
thought he had taken his own life,
indeed nobody thought it unusual for
him to be out walking at that time of
day in that weather - "sure, it was a
bit windy" sounds less like a major
storm and more like the kind of
weather Kenmare gets on a regular
basis at that time of year, though
the pier would have been one of the
more windswept points.
These people, who were the
teenagers and young men of the
town in the 1940's, still carry with
them a strong collective memory of Jacko Moeran. My stay was too short, I was not equipped
with notepad or tape recorder, and as the evening wore on the focus became more hazy, the
conversation more easy-going and informal. A great way to do research, as long as you don't
need to remember any precise details the following morning! Clearly there is a treasure of
memories to be mined, and to find a group together, firing off each others' recollections,
bringing out small, apparently unimportant nuggets which might otherwise have gone unsaid,
things perhaps thought unimportant in a more formal setting, is fantastically rewarding.
The following morning I walked back to the pier. The weather was much calmer, yet out at that
exposed point the wind was still brisk. I looked again over the spot where Moeran died, and
recalled the conversation of the previous evening, noting the nearby houses from where
someone had been looking out when he went in. The only conclusion I could reach was to agree
again with the inquest verdict: this is not a suicide spot, no Beachy Head. Surely he was out on
an afternoon walk to try and clear his head - if he was on the cusp of death he would have been
feeling pretty unwell, and if it was a brain haemorrhage he might well have had a splitting
headache, the sort of thing a good blow of fresh air might help. The end of the pier is an
obvious point to end up at if you're heading that way, to look out and get the freshest air,
somewhere I'd probably head myself in similar circumstances.
I turned back into the town, located a florist, and bought Jacko some flowers to lie under. As I
laid them on his grave I could only reflect on the aptness of the inscription on his headstone "HE RESTS IN THE MOUNTAIN COUNTRY HE LOVED SO WELL" - and believe that here he truly
rests, in peace.
©Andrew Rose
October 2001
Moeran's Unpublished Works
Juvenilia
String Quartet [key unknown] MSS destroyed
Sonata for Cello and piano : duration: 60 minutes. MSS destroyed
Dates of composition: probably 1911-12
First performances : Uppingham School, by Moeran’s own Quartet. School Summer concerts.
* Note: Moeran would most likely have been the pianist in the Sonata which received its first
performance in July 1912, his final term.
Unpublished works
Dance for piano
Date of composition: May 1913 (ms. inscribed ‘Bacton’)
Whereabouts of ms : Victorian College of Arts, Melbourne, Australia. VCA 9
First performance : 13 October 1994, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, YOUNG-CHOON PARK
(piano)
Fields at Harvest for piano
Date of composition: December 23rd 1913 (ms.in pencil)
Whereabouts of ms : Victorian College of Arts,
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Melbourne, Australia. VCA 11
First performance : 13 October 1994, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, YOUNG-CHOON PARK
(piano)
4 Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’ (Housman) for baritone and piano
(a) ‘Westward, On The High-Hilled Plains’
(b) ‘When I Came Last To Ludlow’
(c) ‘This Time Of Year, A Twelve Month Past’
(d) ‘Far In A Western Brookland’
Date of composition: ‘Midsummer 1916’
Whereabouts of ms : Victorian College of Arts, Melbourne, Australia. VCA 12
Unperformed. [(d)reworked and published separately by Winthrop Rogers in 1926]
Overture for full orchestra
Date of composition : unknown, but probably around 1924.
12 pages in pencil short score/single line in places, but with indications for orchestration.
(middle section contains material later used in the Symphony in G minor)
Whereabouts of ms : The Victorian College of Arts, Melbourne, Australia VCA 16
First performance : orchestrated by Rodney Newton 1994 as ‘Overture To A Festival’. The
Norfolk and Norwich Festival 1994/The Orchestra of St.John’s, Smith Square, London conducted
by John Lubbock.
‘Maltworms’ (with Peter Warlock) Baritone solo, male voice chorus and brass band. words by
Bishop Still.
List of Works
Juvenalia
Dance
Fields at Harvest
4 Songs from ‘A Shropshire
Lad’
Overture
Maltworms
Rores Montium
Farrago Suite
Intermezzo
Rigadoon
Fanfare for Red Army Day If
There Be Any Gods
Symphony No 2
Projected works
Date of composition : Eynsford, February 1926
Dedication : A.H. McDarrell
Whereabouts of ms : British Library, London ADD MS 52911
Full Score.
First performance : unknown, possibly Shoreham, Kent.
‘Rores Montium’ (‘Whisky, Drink Divine’)
Baritone solo, male voices and piano.
Words by Joseph O’Leary (1798-1845)
Date of composition : unknown. mss 3 pages in ink.
Dedication : Arnold Dowbiggin
Unperformed.
Farrago suite for orchestra
Date of composition : 1932. mss full score 37 pages.
Dedication : D.B.Wyndham Lewis
*Note: VCA also has a second score in Moeran’s hand, 31 pages complete, catalogued as VCA
35
VCA 108 has a complete set of orchestral parts for the above; all parts in ms.
[BBC has set of orchestral parts from 1994 broadcast]
First performance : 21 April 1933 on the BBC National
Programme, the BBC Orchestra (Section C) conductor:Julian Clifford
Intermezzo for orchestra VCA 39
Date of composition : 1932. mss full score 11 pages
* Note: This movement called ‘Prelude’ in FARRAGO and ‘Intermezzo’ in the 1948 SERENADE in
G. Deleted from the latter before publication.[restored 1995]
Rigadoon for orchestra VCA 18
Date of composition : 1932. mss full score 7 pages
* Note: This movement is part of FARRAGO and was used in SERENADE in G. Farrago suite for
piano (4 hands) VCA 10
Date of composition : Summer, 1932 mss 25 pages.
Whereabouts of ms : The Victorian College of Arts, Melbourne, Australia.
Unperformed.
* Note: This was probably the first version of FARRAGO, as Moeran mentions to a friend that ‘it
started life as a 4 hands piano suite’.A programme note for the first Promenade Concert
performance on September 6th 1934 states: ‘The Minuet was originally not intended to be
anything more than a piano duet; it was composed in the first place for a friend and neighbour
with whom Moeran plays four-handed music on the pianoforte.’
Fanfare for Red Army Day
Date of composition : 1944
Whereabouts of ms : unknown
First performance : The Royal Albert Hall, February 3rd 1944 conducted by Malcolm Sargent.
‘If There Be Any Gods’ for voice and piano.
poem by Seamus O’Sullivan
Date of composition : 1943 or 1944
Whereabouts of ms : In private possession ms. has 3 pages in pencil
UNPERFORMED.
SYMPHONY NO.2 in E flat major for full orchestra VCA 25
Date of composition : ms of first page has ‘11.2.48’ other sketches may be from 1949,1950
17 pages of mss.in short score, pencil, 527 bars with some indications for orchestration.
Incomplete: pages 1-6 are in an organized sequence,7-14 are more sketchy within what seems
to be a ‘first draft’, 14-17 return to a more complete layout.The music breaks off abruptly
hereafter.
Additionally: 8 sides of sketches for different scoring,fragments of a second subject, parts of the
middle section pp.7-14, and a ‘motto’ theme which seems to have been intended as a unifying
idea for the symphony.
Whereabouts of ms : The Victorian College of Arts, Melbourne, Australia.
Projected Works
Movement for string orchestra
‘Denny Island’ - scherzo for orchestra
‘The Oyle of Barley’
‘Symphonic Scena’ poem by Niall O’Leary Curtis
music to be based on final section of piano piece ‘The White Mountain’
©Barry Marsh
Dedications of music by E. J. Moeran
Copyright Date / Title / Dedication
1921 R4c: ‘At the Horse Fair’ ARCHY ROSENTHAL
1923 R11: String Quartet in A minor DESIRE DEFAUW
1924 R13: Toccata ARCHY ROSENTHAL
1924 R24a: ‘Impromptu in March’ PHILIP WILSON
1925 R40: ‘A Dream of Death’ JOHN GOSS
1925 R45: ‘The Little Milkmaid’ HUBERT FOSS
1925 R42: ‘Troll the Bowl’ JOHN GOSS
1925 R46: ‘O Sweet fa’s the Eve’ JOHN GOSS and the Cathedral Male Voice Quartet.
1925 R32: ‘Under the Broom’ JOHN GOSS
1925 R6: Piano Trio in D ANDRE MANGEOT
1925 R16: Rhapsody No. 1 JOHN IRELAND
1926 R47: Irish Love Song PETER WARLOCK
1926 R48: ‘Maltworms’ A.H. McDARELL
1927 R102: Dorset Sheepshearing Song ARNOLD DOWBIGGIN
A. Eaglefield-Hull:
Entry from A Dictionary of
Modern Music and Musicians
(1924)
Philip Heseltine (Warlock):
Article from 'The Music
Bulletin' (1924)
Hubert Foss:
"Moeran and the English
Tradition" (1942)
Gerald Cockshott:
"E J Moeran's Recollections of
Peter Warlock" (extract,
1955)
Michael Kennedy:
"Life Behind a Watery Death"
(1986)
Barry Marsh:
"E J Moeran in Norfolk"
(1994)
Adrian Williams:
"Guided by Jack" (2000)
Andrew Rose:
"Moeran in Eynsford" (2000)
1928 R34: ‘Christmas Day in the Morning’ ROBERT STERNDALE BENNETT
1928 R37: Summer Valley FREDERICK DELIUS
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1928 R36: Bank Holiday GORDON BRYAN
1931 R61: ‘The Sweet o’ the Year’ JOHN ARMSTRONG
1932 R60a: ‘Nutting Time’ ROGER QUILTER
1932 R62: ‘Loveliest of Trees’ GEORGE PARKER
1932 R60: Six Suffolk Folksongs ROGER QUILTER
1932 R64: ‘Farrago’ Suite D.B. WYNDHAM LEWIS
1933 R66: ‘Ivy and Holly’ ARNOLD DOWBIGGIN
1933 R65: Alsatian Cradle Song ARNOLD DOWBIGGIN
1933 R54: Songs of Springtime ROBERT and NORAH NICHOLS
1934 R69: Four English Lyrics PARRY JONES
1934 R103: ‘The Lover and his Lass’ THE WYMONDHAM CHOIR
1935 R70: Nocturne ‘to the memory of FREDERICK DELIUS'
1935 R67a: Prelude FREDA SWAIN
1935 R27: ‘Lonely Waters’ R.VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
1935 R49: ‘Wythorne’s Shadow’ ANTHONY BERNARD
1936 R59: Trio in G THE PASQUIER TRIO
(MSS has pencilled in an initial intended dedication to Rebecca Clarke - it is not known why this
was changed)
1939 R72: ‘Diaphenia’ HEDDLE NASH
1939 R73: ‘Rosaline’ PARRY JONES
1939 R75: ‘Phyllida and Corydon’ CONSTANT LAMBERT
Unpublished works
List of Dedications
Obituary - The Times
Obituary - The Telegraph
Obituary - Sterndale Bennett
Reading references
Don't forget to visit the
Writing page, which features
Moeran in his own words
1942 R71: Symphony in G minor HAMILTON HARTY
1942 R78: Violin Concerto ARTHUR CATTERALL
1943 R70: Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra HARRIET COHEN
1944 R80: Prelude for Cello and Piano PEERS COETMORE
1946 R85: Six poems by Seamus O’Sullivan VIOLET BURNE
1946 R84: ‘Invitation in Autumn’ PARRY JONES
1947 R89: Cello Concerto PEERS COETMORE
1947 R83: Sinfonietta ARTHUR BLISS
1947 R93: ‘Rahoon’ KATHLEEN FERRIER
1947 R90: Fantasy Quartet LEON GOOSSENS
1948 R92: Sonata for Cello and Piano PEERS COETMORE
1949 R82: Overture for a Masque WALTER LEGGE
1949 R30a: ‘The Sailor and Young Nancy’ (SATB) T.E.LAWRENCE and the Fleet Street Choir
1949 R35a: ‘The Jolly Carter’(SATB) T.E.LAWRENCE and the Fleet Street Choir
1950 R96: ‘Candlemas Eve’ The Cheltenham Male Voice Choir
1952 R95: Serenade in G GUSTAVE DE MAUNY
Dedications compiled by Barry Marsh
See also Complete Catalogue of Works
Obituary - The Times - December 4th 1950
MR. E. J. MOERAN
A MODERNIST WITH HIS ROOTS IN THE PAST
Mr. E. J. Moeran, whose body was found in the River Kenmare, County Kerry, on Saturday, was
a composer who, if a nationalist school had arisen in England after our musical emancipation
from the Continent, would have been one of its prominent members, since his style is basically
founded, like that of Vaughan Williams, on English folk song.
There is, however, an Irish element in his work derived partly from heredity - his father came
from Cork - and partly from consequent gravitation of taste to Ireland, which took him here for
visits, got him an Irish wife in Miss Peers Coetmore, the 'cellist, and sometimes flavoured his
music with the idiom of Irish folk song. Other influences had a fertilizing effect on his
development, the English Elizabethans and Delius. His individuality was sufficiently sturdy to
absorb them all and to allow him, when he so wished, as in the choral suites "Songs of
Springtime" and "Phillis [sic] and Corydon,"* to use his predecessors consciously as starting
points for his own work without fear of compromising his originality. He was thus a traditionalist
without being academic and a modernist, freely using twentieth-century harmony, with his roots
securely grounded in the past.
Ernest John Moeran was born on December 31st,1894, at Osterley, near London, the son of a
clergyman who held a living in Norfolk, and was educated at Uppingham and the Royal College
of Music. He served in the 1914-18 war and afterwards discarded most of what he had
previously composed and went to John Ireland for some teaching. He began to collect folk-songs
in East Anglia in 1920: subsequently he lived in London, in Herefordshire, and more recently,
since his marriage in 1945, in Ireland. Here, too, he collected folk-songs and only last week a
selection from a larger collection garnered intermittently from County Kerry between 1934 and
1948 was published.
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When he settled down to composition he began modestly with small forms for orchestra (two
rhapsodies and the small pieces "Whythorne's Shadow" and "Lonely Waters") and chamber
music (a string quartet, a sonata for two violins, and an engaging string trio, which has been
recorded). He also wrote a number of piano pieces and songs (notably two cycles to words of
Housman and James Joyce). But in the thirties he turned to the larger forms of instrumental
composition, producing his G minor symphony in 1937 and following it with concertos for violin,
cello and piano (this last strictly a rhapsody in one movement) during the next 10 years. The
Sinfonietta, perhaps his most approachable work, though there is nothing forbidding in any of it,
belongs to the same decade, as does an Overture for a Masque commissioned by Ensa.
A sonata for cello and piano, like the cello concerto, was a product of his marriage in 1945 and
serves to summarize his place in the English renaissance: he was a composer who nourished
himself on the various vocal traditions and was able to transform his natural vocal idiom into
instrumental terms to the great profit of his orchestral and chamber music: he wrote congenially
for piano: he was a miniaturist who could, and did, handle the larger forms successfully.
(4/12/50)
*The work is actually entitled "Phyllida and Corydon"
"He was a traditionalist
without being academic and
a modernist, freely using
twentieth-century harmony,
with his roots securely
grounded in the past"
"Moeran was among the
most gifted of the young
composers who 30 years ago
found inspiration in folk-song
and the poetry of country
life"
Reports and Obituary - The Telegraph
E. J. MOERAN
The death of Mr E. J. Moeran, composer, was disclosed early today. His body was found in River
Kenmare. He was in the habit of going for long walks with notebook while working at his music.
Inquest may be opened at Kenmare to-day.
(2/12/50)
Obituary
E. J. MOERAN
Ernest John Moeran, the composer, died yesterday at Kenmare, Co. Kerry. He was 55. He was
almost self-taught in music, but joined the Royal College of Music in 1913 for a few months
before serving in the Army throughout the first world war.
The Hallé Orchestra gave a performance of his first Rhaposdy in 1924. Recent works are:
Concerto, 1945, Sinfonietta for Orchestra, 1945, Oboe Quartet, 1946, and Cello Sonata, 1947.
Our Music Critic writes: Moeran was among the most gifted of the young composers who 30
years ago found inspiration in folk-song and the poetry of country life.
While he came from Irish stock, Norfolk was his home, and his music, full of frank lyricism and
pastoral suggestions, all breathes a bracing atmosphere. His G Minor Symphony of 1938 is his
most impressive work.
Brig. Sir Edward Tandy, At Oxford.
(2/12/50)
E. J. MOERAN VERDICT
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E. J. Moeran, 55, the composer, whose body was recovered from the River Kenmare, Co. Kerry,
on Friday, died from a heart attack before falling in. This was stated at the inquest at Kenmare
on Saturday when a verdict of death from natural causes was recorded.
(4/12/50)
Obituary
ERNEST JOHN MOERAN, O.U.
(1894-1950)
It is not too much to say that any account of contemporary British music would be incomplete
which did not make honourable mention of the work of E. J. Moeran. The sudden loss of this
brilliant composer is deeply deplored both in this country and the musical world at large.
One writer has observed that as Moeran's life was wholly devoted to the writing of music, any
biographical account of him should be based on a discussion of his works. That we cannot
embark upon here, but I would refer the interested reader to a chapter on him in "British Music
of Our Time" (Penguin); to the Musical Times of January, 1951, and to two pamphlets issued
(gratis) by Messrs. Novello and Chester, respectively.
Moeran was always full of enthusiasm for his old school, and for what we were able to do by
way of starting him on his musical career. I doubt if any boy has grasped with more
discernment and avidity or made better use of the opportunity which school music has to offer.
In his school days (Sept. '08 - July '12) that opportunity, though firmly based on a unique
tradition, was more confined in scope than it is now. For example, it was not until two years
after Moeran left that we had an organ in chapel worthy of the name; music lessons (until Jan.
1911) were given at all hours of the day in a dimly gas-lit cottage; gramophone and wireless
were non-existent; music competitions and societies were yet to come.
But for all that we had some means of development which cannot (of necessity) maintain to-day
- the chief being that, living at a slower tempo, our opportunities were less crowded and there
was more time and freedom for musing over and assimilating those that did come our way.
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Before Moeran came to Uppingham he had little or no opportunity of hearing what he called
'real' music; his practical experience being limited to Prep-school lessons on the violin and what
he could pick up himself on the piano with the aid of hymns A & M. Before he left Uppingham he
was at the top of the tree as a school pianist, had played in a dozen symphonies, eight
overtures, and in the accompaniment of many large choral works (mostly as the leading boy
second violin), he had quite a sound knowledge of theory and score reading, and he had
listened to many chamber works on Thursday afternoons in the Schoolroom. In his last year he
formed a school string quartet, and wrote a 'cello and piano sonata which took nearly an hour to
perform. In an article in The Listener (July 1942) relating to Moeran's string writing the following
sentence appears: "This management of stringed instruments dates from Moeran's schooldays
at Uppingham."
In 1924 and article on school music appeared in The Morning Post. On finding no mention of
Uppingham, Moeran sat down and wrote half-a-column which concluded: "It is thus seen that
every boy who has ears to hear, when he leaves Uppingham does so with a very fair grounding
in the great classics." Jack Moeran certainly had this, but at least as much through his own
enterprise and enthusiasm as that of his teachers.
If I may say so, a place might well be found for him on the Honours Lists:
E J Moeran. The first Composer to be honoured by having a Symphony perpetuated on
gramophone records under the auspices of the British Council.
R Sterndale Bennett
Uppingham School Magazine
March 1951
...I doubt if any boy has
grasped with more
discernment and avidity or
made better use of the
opportunity which school
music has to offer...
Further Reading
Articles
Articles published during Moeran's lifetime
There is not a huge body of
work to go on. These are the
references collected by Barry
Marsh over many years of
research.
1. Newcomers: E.J.Moeran (The Chesterian No.36 Jan 1924) p.124.
Lifetime articles
2. E.J.Moeran (by Peter Warlock: Music Bulletin June 1924)
Obituaries
3. E.J.Moeran - Edwin Evans (Monthly Musical Review Jan.1st 1930)
Posthumous articles
Here is a collection of further reading and references. When any of these are made available at
Moeran.com I will of course create the relevant links.
4. "E.J.Moeran - A Critical Appreciation" : Hubert Foss (Musical Times Jan 1st 1930)
5. "Moeran and the English Tradition" : Hubert Foss (The Listener July 2nd 1942.)
There are also two books
currently available:
6. Extracts from "Is She A Lady?" : Nina Hamnett.
7. Extract from Augustus John Vol.2 ‘The Years of Experience’ : Michael Holroyd.
Geoffrey Self - "The Music of
E J Moeran"
8. E.J.Moeran (by Patrick Hadley: BBC Home Service Broadcast Talk, May 5th, 1943.
9. Hinrischen’s Year Book 1944: ‘Music of Our Time’ ed. Hill/Hinrischen.
10. E.J.Moeran - J.A.Westrup ‘British Music of Our Time’ 1946 ed.Bacharach
11. ‘Music Lovers’ Calendar’ : Patrick Hadley (BBC Home Service broadcast Sunday, April 15th
1945, 11.00-11.20 am)
12. ‘Cavalcade’: ‘Notes on our Contributors - E.J.Moeran’ : August 1947.
13. Extract from ‘Why so Grum?’ : Gerald Cockshott (Musical Times July 1947.
Moeran's Obituaries etc.
1. Arthur Duff: E.J. Moeran (tribute on Irish Radio 2/12/50)
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2. Various newspapers: 1/12/50 and 2/12/50 and 4/12/50 (reports) (link to Telegraph)
3. The Times 4/12/50 : " A Modernist with his roots in the past".
4. The Times 8/12/50 : article - "Music Nationalism - The End of A Chapter"
E-Mail me:
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5. ‘Strad’ and ‘Canon’ obituaries December 1950.
6. Harold Rutland : RCM Magazine January 1951 issue.
7. Sir Arnold Bax: E.J.Moeran 1894-1950 Music and Letters Vol.32 1951
8. Hubert Foss : Ernest John Moeran (1894-1950) Musical Times January 1951.
9. William Mann: ‘Music Survey’ Vol.3, No.3 March 1951.
10. R.Sterndale Bennett: Ernest John Moeran, O.U. Uppingham School Magazine, March 1951
11. ‘Moeran Memorial Concert’ : review in Musical Times Jan.1952.
12. Douglas Kennedy: English Dance and Song Vol.15 No.5 March 1951.
Articles published after Moeran's death
1. Contemporary Portraits: No.11 ‘E.J.MOERAN’ : Alan Frank 1952
2. Musical Times (March 1955): ‘E.J.Moeran’s Recollections of Peter Warlock’ : Gerald Cockshott
3. ‘Composer’ (Autumn 1969): Warlock and Moeran Gerald Cockshott
4. ‘Plaque-ating The Muse’ (1969) : Kenneth Wright
5. ‘Music Magazine’ BBC Third Programme (29/12/70) : ‘E.J.Moeran’ Arthur Hutchings
6. R.T.E. Guide February 12th 1971: Moeran by Bill Skinner
7. The Irish Times: An Irishman’s Diary (Sat.February 12th 1971) ‘QUIDNUNC’
8. The Irish Times: An Irishman’s Diary (Tues.February 20th 1971) ‘QUIIDNUNC’
9. Introduction to ‘E.J.Moeran’/Stephen Wild (1973) by Peers Coetmore
10. Country Life (25/12/1975): ‘Impressions From Nature’ E.J.Moeran (1894-1950) Christopher
Palmer
11. Norfolk Fair Magazine (May 1978): ‘In Loving Memory of a Norfolk Composer’ J.J.Malling
12. Radnorshire Society Papers (1970s): E.J.Moeran Wyndham S.Evans
13. Musical Opinion (February 1981): E.J.Moeran:Some Influences on his music Stephen Lloyd
14. Delius Journal (1983): ‘Sammons, Delius and Moeran’ Lionel Hill
15. Extracts from ‘Balfour Gardiner’ (1984) Stephen Lloyd
16. Norfolk & Norwich Triennial Festival Book (1985): ‘Bax, Moeran, Vaughan Williams and the
Triennial’ Kevin Appleby
17. Classical Music (January 11th 1986): ‘Composer’s Advocate - letters to the British conductor
Leslie Heward’ Lyndon Jenkin
18. The Melbourne Journal (undated) : The Music of E.J.Moeran Peers Coetmore.
19. Daily Telegraph (1986): MUSIC : ‘Life behind a watery death’ Michael Kennedy
20. Centenary article for 3 Choirs Festival brochure Hereford 1994: Barry Marsh
21. 1994 Norwich Festival book: ‘E.J.Moeran in Norfolk’ Barry Marsh
Chronology
I'm very grateful to Barry Marsh for offering his chronology of the life of Moeran to this website.
This detailed piece of scholarship is probably the most comprehensive record of the composer's
life ever assembled. Barry has used all the records he can find in order to try and reconstruct at
times a day by day account of Moeran's life and work.
Major Orchestral Works
Symphony
Violin Concerto
Sinfonietta
Cello Concerto
Serenade in G
Naturally this becomes more and more detailed as Moeran's life progresses
and more detailed records become available, particularly the period
Rhapsodies
1943-1950, covered in great depth by Lionel Hill's excellent book "Lonely
Waters, A Diary of a Friendship with E. J Moeran".
First Rhapsody
Second Rhapsody
If Barry's biography of Moeran, due to be completed later this year, is as
Second Rhapsody (revision)
comprehensive as this chronology, we really do have a treat in store!
Accessing the Chronology
Other Works
To the right hand side of this page you can link to the relevent point in the In The Mountain Country
chronology by composition. Due to the quantity of songs, I've omitted this Lonely Waters
category!
Wythorne's Shadow
Note also that there is no date or record of composition of the Second String Quartet - opinions Farrago Suite
vary as to whether this was an early or late work, but nobody seems to think it was a mid-life
Nocturne
composition.
You can also use the links below for access to the chronology by period:
1894-1917 - The Early Years
1918-1924 - First compositions
1925-1934 - With and after Warlock
1935-1942 - Symphony & Violin Concerto
1943-1946 - Sinfonietta & Cello Concerto
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1947-1950 - His final years
Piano Music
Three Pieces
On a May Morning
Toccata
Stalham River
Three Fancies
Two Legends
Summer Holiday
Bank Holiday
Irish Love Song
The White Mountain
Two Pieces
Piano Trio
Sonatas
Violin Sonata
Cello Sonata
Oboe Music
Fantasy Quartet
Chamber Music
String Quartet No 1
String Quartet No 2
String Trio
Piano Trio
Fantasy Quartet
Cello Prelude
Chronology
1894
December 31 born Spring Grove Vicarage, Heston, Middlesex.
Symphony
Violin Concerto
Sinfonietta
Cello Concerto
Serenade in G
1898
Family moves to Peckham.
Rhapsodies
1901
Family moves to Southsea.
1905
Family moves to Salhouse Vicarage, Norfolk. M. attends Suffield Park Prep.
School, Cromer. Begins violin lessons, teaches himself piano chords based
on hymns heard in church
First Rhapsody
Second Rhapsody
1908
July Leaves Suffield Park.
September Enters Lorne House, Uppingham School.
Other Works
1909
January joins school orchestra, playing 2nd Violin.
June wins Speech Day prize for Violin and Piano. Plays for house Under 16
Cricket Team
1910
Summer member of House Under 16 Cricket Team again.
1911
April becomes leader of 2nd Violins in school orchestra.
June wins Speech Day prize for Piano.
17
1912
forms own string quartet. First attempts at composition - 3 string quartets;
sonata for cello and piano in 4 movements.
April 17 Attends Balfour Gardiner Concert in Queen’s Hall, London. Hears
Vaughan Williams’s 2nd & 3rd Norfolk Rhapsodies.
July Final school concert. Plays in a piano trio, and as piano soloist.
Sept 26 Enters Royal College of Music, London. Studies Piano and
Composition with Stanford; viola as a minor study.
18
1913
March 8 Attends second Balfour Gardiner Concert - hears Delius’s Piano
Concerto, and Bax’s ‘In The Faery Hills’. Begins to collect first folk songs in
Norfolk, after hearing ‘The Dark- eyed Sailor’ sung at Bacton.
May First extant composition Dance written at Bacton.
Nov 3 Attends first London performance of Elgar’s ‘Falstaff’.
December Writes second piano piece, Fields at Harvest at Bacton.
1914
Sept 30 Interrupts studies at RCM for enlistment at Brittania Barracks,
Norwich, as a dispatch rider in the 6th (Cyclist) Battalion, Royal Norfolk
Regiment.
November Promoted to Lance-corporal.
1915
June Commissioned as an officer with rank of 2nd Lieutenant.
July Collects folk songs at Winterton. Father builds Cliff House at Bacton.
1916
On active service in France.
mid-Summer composes 4 Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’.
1917
Attached to West Yorkshire Regiment. Posted to Western Front.
May 3 Badly wounded by shrapnel at Bullecourt, France. Mentioned in
dispatches.
July Promoted to Lieutenant.
Moeran Chronology Part 1: 1894 - 1917:
The Early Years
AGE
4
13
YEAR
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Orchestral Works
21
Lonely Waters
Wythorne's Shadow
Farrago Suite
Nocturne
Piano Music
Three Pieces
On a May Morning
Toccata
Stalham River
Three Fancies
Two Legends
Summer Holiday
Bank Holiday
Irish Love Song
The White Mountain
Two Pieces
Piano Trio
Sonatas
Violin Sonata
Cello Sonata
Oboe Music
Fantasy Quartet
Chamber Music
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String Quartet No 1
String Quartet No 2
String Trio
Piano Trio
Fantasy Quartet
Cello Prelude
Chronology
First Compositions
AGE
YEAR
23
1918
1919
25
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February 21 Rejoins RCM; studies composition with John Ireland.
Composes Theme and Variations for Piano, Piano Trio and song cycle
Ludlow Town. Finishes work on In The Mountain Country.
Tours France and Spain with the author Robert Gibbings.
1921
Composes String Quartet in A minor, ‘On A May Morning’ and Toccata.
April 2 Leaves RCM without completing the course - receives a III / I in
Piano and a IV / III in composition.
Easter Wins the Gold Medal for competition in the London-Lands End motor
cycle race.
September Composes piano piece Stalham River at Bacton.
October Active in Norfolk and Suffolk collecting folk songs at Sutton,
Hickling, Potter Heigham and East Stoneham.
November 24 Conducts first performance of In The Mountain Country at
RCM Patron’s Fund Concert.
1922
January Collects folk songs from Harry Cox at Potter Heigham.
Begins work on Violin Sonata, and Fancies for piano.
June 22 Conducts First Rhapsody at RCM Patron’s Fund Concert.
1923
January 15 promotes first series of chamber music concerts at Wigmore
Hall. First performance of Three Piano Pieces by Harriet Cohen, also Violin
Sonata and String Quartet in A minor. Meets Philip Heseltine (Peter
Warlock) for the first time.
April 19th Conducts First Rhapsody at the Bournemouth Festival. First
production of Delius’s opera ‘Hassan’. Meets Jelka Delius.
October 1 Heseltine accompanies M. on folk song collecting trip to Sutton
(Norfolk).
Winter Revises score of In The Mountain Country.
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January Released from Army service. Returns to teach at Uppingham as
Assistant Music Master. Rejoins school orchestra to play with 2nd Violins.
Completes Three Piano Pieces.
Summer Meets Arnold Bax in London for the first time.
1920
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Attached to Transport Section, R.I.C. Bedfordshire Regt., at Boyle,
Co.Roscommon, Ireland. First acquaintance with Ireland; visits Co.Mayo
and Western Connaught.
Composes At The Horse Fair for piano; begins sketches for prelude In The
Mountain Country.
Attends School of Aeronautics.
1924
April 10 Returns to Bournemouth to conduct First Rhapsody at the 2nd
Festival organised by Dan Godfrey.
Summer Further folk song collecting in Norfolk, Suffolk at Catfield, Hickling,
Potter Heigham and Sutton. Augustus John with M. on at least one
expedition to Winterton, also Heseltine.
Completion and publication of Six Norfolk Folk Songs.
Norwich Festival commissions Second Rhapsody.
September 9 Conducts First Rhapsody at the Proms.
November 1 First performance of Second Rhapsody in St. Andrews Hall,
Norwich. King George V attends; M. shares the conducting with Vaughan
Williams.
November 27 Hamilton Harty conducts the first Halle performance of In The
Mountain Country.
Orchestral Works
Symphony
Violin Concerto
Sinfonietta
Cello Concerto
Serenade in G
Rhapsodies
First Rhapsody
Second Rhapsody
Other Works
Lonely Waters
Wythorne's Shadow
Farrago Suite
Nocturne
Piano Music
Three Pieces
On a May Morning
Toccata
Stalham River
Three Fancies
Two Legends
Summer Holiday
Bank Holiday
Irish Love Song
The White Mountain
Two Pieces
Piano Trio
Sonatas
Violin Sonata
Cello Sonata
Oboe Music
Fantasy Quartet
Chamber Music
String Quartet No 1
String Quartet No 2
String Trio
Piano Trio
Fantasy Quartet
Cello Prelude
Orchestral Works
Chronology
With and after Warlock (AKA Philip Heseltine)
AGE
YEAR
30
1925
1926
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35
Writes Irish Love Song for piano, based on traditional Irish folksong
February Collaborates with Heseltine on Maltworms. Joins Shoreham (Kent)
Amateur Dramatic Society.
June Writes Miniature Essay on Warlock (Heseltine). Warlock reciprocates
with one on M. Collects further folk songs at The Pleasure Boat Inn,
Hickling.
November 25 Harty conducts In The Mountain Country in Manchester.
Heseltine transcribes partsongs by Whythorne. M. makes first sketches for
Whythorne’s Shadow.
M’s father moves to Laverton, near Bath. More folk song collecting at
Sutton.
Writes The White Mountain for piano, based on traditional Irish folksong
September 20 The lease on the Eynsford cottage expires. M. returns to
London.
1928
March Julian Harrison conducts In The Mountain Country in Leeds.
October Goes to stay with Heseltine at Cefyn Bryntalch in Wales, then with
Bruce Blunt in Hampshire.
1929
Mid-Jan. Goes with Heseltine to visit Delius in Grez. Gets drunk in Brussels.
(‘Old Raspberry’ episode). Loses score of Whythorne’s Shadow. Fails to
meet Delius.
Composes Seven Poems of James Joyce.
2nd Delius Festival in London, organised by Heseltine, Fenby and Beecham.
September 13 First London performance of Second Rhapsody by Henry
Wood.
September Motoring accident. Confined to bed at 11 Constitution Hill in
Ipswich. Heseltine helps to nurse him.
©2001 Andrew Rose
Rhapsodies
Mid-January Heseltine moves to Eynsford, Kent. M. joins him.
March 20 Promotes second series of chamber music concerts at the
Wigmore Hall. Accompanies John Goss in the first performance of Ludlow
Town, and Winifred Small in the revised version of the Violin Sonata at
Aeolian Hall.
June 13th First performance of revised version of Piano Trio at the Wigmore
Hall. M. takes part as pianist.
July 20th Accompanies Heseltine to Grez to visit Delius.
Composes Bank Holiday and Summer Valley.
Asked by Harty to compose a symphony; begins work but soon abandons it.
Shows Heseltine first sketches for Lonely Waters.
1927
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1930
Symphony
Violin Concerto
Sinfonietta
Cello Concerto
Serenade in G
February Writes Canticles (Te Deum etc) at Ipswich.
May 12 Broadcasts on BBC Children’s Hour. First performance of specially
written song, An April Evening.
Oct/Nov Works on String Trio, Sonata for 2 Violins.
November Seven Poems of James Joyce published. Party at Augustus John’s
in London - first meets Peers Coetmore.
December 17 Death of Heseltine in London.
1931
February Ipswich - writes article on John Ireland.
Begins to arrange Suffolk folk songs, and collects further at Coddenham.
First sketches for Songs of Springtime.
First performance of re-written score of Whythorne’s Shadow.
April Visits Lingwood, near Acle, where father is now vicar.
October 20 First performance of String Trio.
1932
Six Suffolk Folk Songs published. Composes Farrago Suite at Lingwood.
1933
Composes Berceuse for piano (Published in Two Pieces), and Four English
Lyrics.
April 21 First performance and broadcast of Farrago.
Summer In Vienna. Hears Scherchen conduct the Adagio from Mahler’s
unfinished 10th Symphony.
December 1 First broadcast performance of Songs of Springtime.
First Rhapsody
Second Rhapsody
Other Works
Lonely Waters
Wythorne's Shadow
Farrago Suite
Nocturne
Piano Music
Three Pieces
On a May Morning
Toccata
Stalham River
Three Fancies
Two Legends
Summer Holiday
Bank Holiday
Irish Love Song
The White Mountain
Two Pieces
Piano Trio
Sonatas
Violin Sonata
Cello Sonata
Oboe Music
Fantasy Quartet
Chamber Music
String Quartet No 1
String Quartet No 2
String Trio
Piano Trio
Fantasy Quartet
Cello Prelude
1934
February Attends Hastings Festival for second performance of Farrago.
March 13 First public performance of Songs of Springtime at Aeolian Hall,
London.
Spring In Co.Kerry, Eire, collecting folk songs. First new sketches for
Symphony in G minor.
May Attends the first Irish performance of Farrago in Cork.
Returns to England. Finishes Four English Lyrics at Lingwood.
September 6 Prom performance of Farrago.
Commissioned by the Norwich Philharmonic Society to write a new work.
First sketches for Nocturne made at Robert Nichols’s house in Winchelsea.
October 23 First performances of Sonata for 2 Violins, and Four English
Lyrics, Westminster, London.
Orchestral Works
Symphony
Violin Concerto
Sinfonietta
Cello Concerto
Serenade in G
Chronology
Symphony and Violin Concerto
AGE
YEAR
40
1935
1936
January 30 Attends first London performance of Nocturne.
March 24 Whythorne’s Shadow and Lonely Waters first performed together
as ‘Two pieces for small orchestra’ at the Bournemouth Festival.
Sept 23 Attends the second Norwich performance of Nocturne.
Returns to Eire. Rest of year in Kerry, working on the Symphony in G
minor.
1937
January 24 Work on the Symphony in G minor completed, Valentia Island.
M’s parents move to retirement home, Gravel Hill, Kington.
Sept 17 In Norwich. Continues work on score and parts for Symphony in G
minor.
Sept 30 Returns to Kerry.
1938
January 13 First performance of the Symphony in G minor.
February 7 Accompanies May Harrison in the Violin Sonata at the Wigmore
Hall.
Attends Hastings performance of Wythorne’s Shadow.
March 23 Richard Austin conducts the Symphony in G minor at the
Bournemouth Festival
Spring To Ireland and Kenmare.
April 12 Attends the first Irish performance of the Second Rhapsody in
Cork.
Summer Continues work on the Violin Concerto. Re-visits Valencia Island.
August 11 At Gravel Hill, Kington. Symphony in G minor performed at the
Proms.
Nov 22 In Glasgow for performances of Two Pieces for small orchestra
(Whythorne's Shadow and Lonely Waters)
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1939
©2001 Andrew Rose
45
January 21 Motoring offence in Oxford. Goes into nursing home, then takes
lodgings at 9 Adams Road in Cambridge. Works on scoring of the first
movement of the Symphony in G minor.
April 4 First performance of Nocturne in Norwich.
Sept-Oct In lodgings at 2, Brookside, Cambridge.
February 16 First Halle performance of the Symphony in G minor conducted
by Malcolm Sargent.
Spring In Kenmare. Joined by Arnold Bax and Balfour Gardiner.
Makes first sketches for 2nd Symphony, Piano Rhapsody.
Works on Phyllida and Corydon.
Oct 24-30 In London for the first performances of Phyllida and Corydon.
Nov 30 Heathcote Statham conducts the Nocturne in Norwich
1940
January Statham conducts the Symphony in G minor at The Queen’s Hall in
London.
Spring In Eire. Works on Four Shakespeare Songs.
May 27 Phyllida and Corydon performed at the Wigmore Hall.
Summer Back in Eire. Resumes work on the Violin Concerto.
Nov 21 Violin Sonata performed at The Royal Academy of Music
1941
Summer Extended stay at Gravel Hill, Kington. Revises Second Rhapsody.
Autumn Returns to Kerry. Works on 2nd and 3rd movements of the Violin
Concerto.
October 5 Leslie Heward conducts the Symphony in G minor at a Royal
Philharmonic Society concert.
Rhapsodies
First Rhapsody
Second Rhapsody
Other Works
Lonely Waters
Wythorne's Shadow
Farrago Suite
Nocturne
Piano Music
Three Pieces
On a May Morning
Toccata
Stalham River
Three Fancies
Two Legends
Summer Holiday
Bank Holiday
Irish Love Song
The White Mountain
Two Pieces
Piano Trio
Sonatas
Violin Sonata
Cello Sonata
Oboe Music
Fantasy Quartet
Chamber Music
String Quartet No 1
String Quartet No 2
String Trio
Piano Trio
Fantasy Quartet
Cello Prelude
1942
Spring In Kerry completing the Violin Concerto.
March 12 First performance of the Second Rhapsody (revised version) at
Mansion House, Dublin.
April 25 Completes the full score of the Violin Concerto.
May/June Prepares Violin Concerto with Arthur Catterall.
July 8 First performance of the Violin Concerto at the Proms. Based at
Gravel Hill, Kington, until the end of the year.
Autumn Resumes work on the Piano Rhapsody.
October Arranges Greek Folk Song for Calvocoressi. Oversees reprinting of
Stalham River.
November Present at recording sessions by the British Council of the
Symphony in G minor, conducted by Leslie Heward with the Halle
Orchestra.
December 5 Henry Wood conducts the Violin Concerto at a Philharmonic
Concert.
December Further extensive work on the Piano Rhapsody.
Orchestral Works
Chronology
Sinfonietta and Cello Concerto
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AGE
YEAR
48
1943
1944
Jan-Feb At Gravel Hill working on Piano Rhapsody.
1st wk.Feb Completes Piano Rhapsody short score.
March-April Falls ill. First contact with Lionel Hill.
end March Full score of Piano Rhapsody completed at Kington.
May Further revisions to Piano Rhapsody.
May 26 Goes to Scotland - Glasgow, then Arran Islands.
June 10 Returns.
July 13 First rehearsal of Piano Rhapsody with Harriet Cohen and Boult at
Bedford Corn Exchange.
July 19-21 Ill at Leominster.
late July goes into Radnor mountains. First sketches for the Sinfonietta.
August 15 In London.
August 19 First performance of the Piano Rhapsody at the Proms.
Returns to Seer Green as guest of the Hills until 21st.
August 21-30 In London.
September At Gravel Hill, Kington. First sketches for Seumas O’Sullivan
songs.
October 9 Crosses to Dublin. Stays at the Shelbourne Hotel.
October 15 Makes first sketches for the Cello Concerto.
October 17 Leaves Dublin for Kenmare. Spends 2 nights on Valencia Island.
Moves on to Caherciveen.
1st week Nov Returns to Kington. Works on Cello Prelude for Peers.
Nov 7-12 Stays with Hills at Seer Green.
Nov 18 Introduces Lionel Hill to Peers at lunch in London. Peers leaves for
ENSA tour of Middle East.
Nov 28-30 In London. Visits Arthur Catterall.
December Back in Kington.
December 19 M’s father dies at Gravel Hill.
December 30 Finishes The Herdsman (Seumas O’Sullivan song)
January Works on Overture To A Masque.
January 26 First sketches made for the Cello Sonata.
February 1 In Glasgow.
Returns to Kington.
February 8 Works on Fanfare for Red Army Day.
February 12 Further work on the Cello Sonata.
February 17 Completes full score of Overture To A Masque.
February 22 Goes to stay with Hills for 4 days.
February 23 Fanfare for Red Army Day performed at the Royal Albert Hall,
London.
February 24 First performance of Overture To A Masque at an ENSA
Concert.
1st wk March Travels to Eire. In Dublin.
March 1 First Irish performance of the Violin Concerto at the Capitol
Theatre, Dublin.
Travels on to Kenmare.
March/April Abandons work on the Cello Sonata. Re-commences work on
the Cello Concerto.
Suffers from heart trouble.
April 30 At Oileam Ruash, Rockstown, Co.Cork
May 2-3 Examines for the Feis in Cork.
May 8 Visits Dublin.
1st wk June Stays at Mount Melleray Abbey, Co.Waterford.
June 5 Returns to Kenmare.
Works on 3rd movement of the Sinfonietta.
Works on Seumas O’Sullivan songs.
1st wk July Returns to Kington with 5 O’Sullivan Songs complete.
September Peers returns to England. Sinfonietta completed.
September 7 Piano Rhapsody performed in Manchester by Iris Loveridge.
1st wk October In Manchester, then Glasgow.
October 13-16 Stays with Hills at Seer Green. Plays through 7 Songs of
Seumas O’Sullivan.
1st wk Nov. 4 day holiday in Norfolk.
Late Nov. Attends rehearsals of Overture To A Masque.
Conducts Songs of Springtime at Huddersfield Town Hall.
Visits Liverpool - hears Bax’s 3rd Symphony.
November 29 In Manchester for Halle concert.
November 30 Stays at The Old Bridge Hotel in Huntingdon.
Symphony
Violin Concerto
Sinfonietta
Cello Concerto
Serenade in G
Rhapsodies
First Rhapsody
Second Rhapsody
Other Works
Lonely Waters
Wythorne's Shadow
Farrago Suite
Nocturne
Piano Music
Three Pieces
On a May Morning
Toccata
Stalham River
Three Fancies
Two Legends
Summer Holiday
Bank Holiday
Irish Love Song
The White Mountain
Two Pieces
Piano Trio
Sonatas
Violin Sonata
Cello Sonata
Oboe Music
Fantasy Quartet
Chamber Music
String Quartet No 1
String Quartet No 2
String Trio
Piano Trio
Fantasy Quartet
Cello Prelude
1st wk Dec. In London
December 15 Back in Kington, working on the Cello Concerto.
Revised version of Second Rhapsody sent to Gibson of Chesters.
50
1945
1st wk Jan. At Kington. Further work on the Cello Concerto and re-scoring
the end of the Sinfonietta.
January 5-8 In London.
January 10 In Liverpool for rehearsals of the Violin Concerto with the RLPO,
Max Rostal and Sargent.
January 16 Returns to Kington.
January 26 Returns to Liverpool for rehearsals of the Symphony in G minor
with the RLPO and Sargent.
January 27-28 Hears performances, also Sammons play Elgar’s Violin
Concerto.
Works with Albert Sammons on the Violin Concerto.
February 5 At Leominster. Taken ill.
February 7-8 Back in Kington. Works on the Cello Concerto.
Peers on tour in N.W. Wales.
February 18 Joins Peers in Harlech.
March 7 First performance and broadcast of the Sinfonietta at the Corn
Exchange, Bedford.
Further work with Sammons on the Violin Concerto.
March 20 In Manchester for Iris Loveridge’s performance of the Piano
Rhapsody.
March 22 Returns to Kington.
April/May? In Kington (?). Work done on the Cello Concerto.
June 18 Betty and Lionel Hill visit Kington, staying at the Oxford Arms.
June 19 Croquet game at Gravel Hill.
June 20 Outing to New Radnor to meet Dick Jobson.
June 21 Plays Cello Concerto to Lionel Hill in Gravel Hill studio.
June 23 Expedition with Lionel Hill to Bradnor and Hergest Ridge.
June 26 Hills leave Kington.
July 25 Spends the night with Dick Jobson.
July 26 Marries Peers Coetmore at Kington Church. Honeymoon at Bala,
North Wales.
August Settles in London at 55 Belsize Lane NW3.
August 23 Visits the Hills at Seer Green with Peers.
August 28 Albert Sammons performs the Violin Concerto at the Royal Albert
Hall.
Sept-Oct. Further work on the Cello Concerto at Ledbury, and with Peers at
Belsize Lane.
1st wk Nov In Southsea with Peers.
November 19 Leaves for Dublin with Peers.
November 25 First performance of the Cello Concerto, Peers as soloist, at
the Capitol Theatre in London.
1st/2nd wk Dec Tours Eire with Peers.
December 15 In Kenmare on own.
1946
January 1-17 In Kenmare, working on the Second Symphony.
January 18 Arrives in Liverpool.
January 19 First English performance of the Cello Concerto conducted by
Sargent in Liverpool.
February 9 At Graham’s house in Ledbury.
February 10 Peers arrives in Ledbury.
February 11 Peers begins two week CEMA tour of Wales.
February 14 M. in London.
February 18 Back in Ledbury.
March 11-12 Laurance Turner plays the Violin Concerto under John
Barbirolli at Albert Hall, Manchester: Sammons ill with ‘flu.
First sketches for the Fantasy Quartet.
April 4 Goes to see Vaughan Williams’s ‘Sir John in Love’ at Sadler’s Wells
with Lionel Hill.
April 10 Cello Concerto broadcast from The People’s Palace.
April 28 Albert Sammons gives his second performance of the Violin
Concerto from Norwich, Boult conducting. Lionel Hill has a private recording
made of the event.
May 1 At Swiss Cottage.
May 3 Goes to stay at The New Inn, Rockland St.Mary, near Norwich. Works
on the Fantasy Quartet, returning to London at weekends.
June 1 Attends the Hirsch Quartet recital at Wigmore Hall, also the
Philharmonic Quartet’s rehearsal of the String Quartet in A minor.
June 2 Back at Rockland working on the Fantasy Quartet.
June 6 Peers joins M. at Rockland.
June 14 At Broadcasting House to hear Bax’s Oboe Quartet.
June 15 Returns to Rockland.
July 1 Returns to Ledbury. Begins making fair copy of the Fantasy Quartet.
Prepares the Sinfonietta prior to conducting it at Cheltenham.
July 5 In Cheltenham conducting the LPO in the Sinfonietta at the Town
Hall.
July 6 Returns to Belsize Lane, London. More work on the Fantasy Quartet.
Visits Lionel Hill at Seer Green with Peers. Albert Sammons present. Hears
Norwich performance of the Violin Concerto.
July 8 Finishes fair copy of the Fantasy Quartet.
July 9 In Manchester for a performance of the Symphony in G minor by the
BBC S.O. conducted by Groves/Sargent (?) at Albert Hall.
July 24 To Norwich, then Mrs.Chamberlain’s farm at Rockland. Prepares
Folk Songs article for ‘Country Magazine’.
August 25 Back in London, at Belsize Lane.
August 26 Crosses to Eire.
September 1 Albert Sammons plays the Violin Concerto with the Halle
Orchestra conducted by John Barbirolli at the Theatre Royal, Dublin.
September 2 Returns to England and Belsize Lane.
Autumn issue of ‘Countrygoer’ containing M’s article on Folk Songs and
Traditional Singers in East Anglia is published.
September 10 In Hereford for the Three Choirs Festival.
September 11 Hears the Sinfonietta at the Kemble Theatre. Declines to
conduct it at the last moment, although billed to do so.
October 30-31 To Manchester at Albert Hall, for first Halle performance of
the Cello Concerto, with Peers as soloist.
November 1 Back in London.
November 4 Attends second concert of Delius Festival at the Royal Albert
Hall.
November 18 Attends fifth concert of Delius Festival at the Central Hall,
Westminster.
Mid-Nov. Makes a brief visit to Stalham, Norfolk.
Final proof reading of the Fantasy Quartet.
December 1 At Ledbury.
December 6 Returns to London.
December 8,9 First performances of the Fantasy Quartet by Leon Goossens
and the Carter Trio at the Cambridge Theatre, and Cowdray Hall.
Dec. 25-Jan. 1 Spends Christmas with Peers at Rockland St.Mary.
Orchestral Works
Chronology
Moeran Chronology Part 6 - 1947 - 1950:
His Final Years
AGE
YEAR
52
1947
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©2001 Andrew Rose
1948
January 6 Lunches with Lionel Hill at Swiss Cottage.
February 9 Broadcasts ‘Music Lover’s Diary’ for the BBC.
Works on the Cello Sonata.
March In The Mountain Country performed in Birmingham by George
Weldon.
April In London working on the Cello Sonata.
April 17 Completes the Cello Sonata.
Soon afterwards, journeys to Eire.
May 9 First performance of the Cello Sonata, Dublin.
May 10-11 Stays with Julius Harrison in Malvern.
May 20 In Kenmare at the Lansdowne Hotel.
Long period of separation from Peers begins.
May 30 Further work on the Second Symphony.
Visits Denny Island and plans a Scherzo for orchestra, also a ‘movement for
strings’.
June In Eire, working on the Second Symphony.
Mid-July attends Cheltenham Festival with Peers to hear Barbirolli and the
Halle Orchestra perform the Violin Concerto with Laurance Turner as soloist.
Stays at Ledbury, ‘on holiday’ with Peers.
August 3 Accompanies Dick Jobson and Peers on a trip to the Malverns.
August 13-15 At Seer Green with the Hills. Attends a Prom performance of
the Piano Rhapsody at the Royal Albert Hall. Late evening - journeys to
Piltdown in Sussex with Peers.
August 22 Back at Seer Green with the Hills. Stays until
August 25 Overture To A Masque played at the Proms.
September 4 At 13 Harben Road Studio, Swiss Cottage. Lionel Hill visits. M.
plays the Second Symphony to him on the piano.
September 7 Stays with Peers at Seer Green whilst the Hills are away.
Works on, and completes short score of the Serenade in G.
October 19 Visits Seer Green with Peers.
October 22 Lionel Hill visits Swiss Cottage.
October 24+ In East Anglia with Maurice Brown recording folk songs for the
BBC.
December 1 Lunches with Lionel Hill in Regent Street, London.
December 8 At the Wigmore Hall for a recital by Frederick Thurston. Supper
with Humphrey Searle.
December 10 At the Royal College of Music.
Mid-December Visits the Hills at Seer Green. Hears Patrick Hadley’s ‘The
Hills’.
December 23 At Ledbury with Peers.
December 31 Leaves for Eire.
Jan-mid June Lengthy stay in Kenmare.
Works extensively on the Second Symphony, and proofs of the Serenade in
G.
Radio Eireann Orchestra broadcasts Lonely Waters and Whythorne’s
Shadow.
June 28 In London for lunch with Lionel Hill.
July 1 Barbirolli and the Halle play Whythorne’s Shadow at Cheltenham
Town Hall.
July 25 At Seer Green for the day.
Jul 31-Aug 2 Returns to stay at Seer Green. Goes out to Radnage in the
Chilterns with Lionel Hill a propos buying a cottage.
August 2 Radnage cottage idea abandoned. Returns to London.
August 4 On holiday to Ledbury, then Central Wales with Peers.
August 12 Returns to Belsize Lane, London.
August 23 Peers away on Arts Council tour in Yorkshire.
August 24 At Chinnor in the Chilterns to look at another house. Abortive
attempt at purchase. Evening: attends Prom to hear Rawsthorne’s concerto,
also Elgar’s ‘Falstaff’.
Sept 1-2 attends rehearsals for the first performance of Serenade in G with
LSO/Basil Cameron at a Prom in the Royal Albert Hall.
September 8 Gives talk ‘Musical Curiosities’ on BBC Third Programme.
1st wk Oct. Returns to Eire. Drinks heavily - suffers from intense
depression, which leads to total breakdown of health.
December Brought to Cheltenham and treated by Dr.Hazlett. Finds lodgings
at Park House West. Peers begins extended tour of South Africa, Australia
and New Zealand.
Symphony
Violin Concerto
Sinfonietta
Cello Concerto
Serenade in G
Rhapsodies
First Rhapsody
Second Rhapsody
Other Works
Lonely Waters
Wythorne's Shadow
Farrago Suite
Nocturne
Piano Music
Three Pieces
On a May Morning
Toccata
Stalham River
Three Fancies
Two Legends
Summer Holiday
Bank Holiday
Irish Love Song
The White Mountain
Two Pieces
Piano Trio
Sonatas
Violin Sonata
Cello Sonata
Oboe Music
Fantasy Quartet
Chamber Music
String Quartet No 1
String Quartet No 2
String Trio
Piano Trio
Fantasy Quartet
Cello Prelude
1949
February 7 Works on arrangement of The Jolly Carter for chorus, also
collection of Songs from County Kerry.
February 8 stays at Seer Green with Lionel Hill.
February 9 In London at Royal Albert Hall for BBC SO rehearsal and concert
of Symphony in G minor conducted by Boult.
February 10- In Cheltenham at Park Place.
March 18-19 Returns to stay at Seer Green.
April In Cheltenham. Works on Second Symphony.
May 10 Very unhappy with progress of Second Symphony. Goes to stay
with brother Graham at Ledbury for few days.
Mid-May Returns to Cheltenham. Composes madrigal Candlemas Eve.
May 25 Stops work on the Second Symphony.
June 4 In London for a meeting with Jascha Heifitz about the Violin
Concerto.
June 5 Returns to Cheltenham. Very hot weather; tries to work on the
Second Symphony; records slow progress.
June 21 Following a letter from Peers in New Zealand, considers leaving
England to live and work there.
July 26 At Ledbury. Work on the Second Symphony resumed.
August 16 Meets brother Graham at a cricket match in Cheltenham.
September 5 Disappears from Park Place. Goes to live with ‘Gordon’.
September 16 The Hills sell their house at Seer Green.
Mid Sept- end Nov. Disappears to Eire. Period of heavy drinking.
early Dec Turns up in London. Lionel Hill sends money to help him. Suffers
from neuritis.
December 15 arrives back at Ledbury in a bad way.
December 16 Examined by Doctor Groves.
December 22 Suffering from severe depression. Remains at Ledbury.
1950
January 25 Stays with Hills at their new house - 4 Dawlish Road
Brondesbury NW2. Attends concert at the Royal Albert Hall where Beecham
conducts the Sinfonietta.
M. re-considers the structure of the Second Symphony.
1st wk Feb Leaves Ledbury for Dublin.
February 11 Contacts Larry Morrow at his Delgany cottage.
February 17 Visits Delgany again to make arrangements for living there.
Researches into origins of Kerry folksongs.
February 22 Returns from Dublin to Ledbury.
March 5 At Cambridge for day with Patrick Hadley Spends night with the
Hills in Cricklewood.
March 6 Goes with Hills to hear the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra play at
the Royal Albert Hall.
March 7 Leaves England for the last time.
March 9 In Dublin staying at 125 Baggot Street.
March 11 Meets Seumas O’Sullivan.
March 12 Goes to live at Coolagad, Delgany, Co.Antrim.
Plans ‘The Oyle of Barley’ and sketches it out.
Mar 16-20 Works on the Second Symphony; walks in the mountains.
March 20 Writes to Peers for the last time.
Last wk Mar visits eye specialist in Dublin. Brain disorder diagnosed. Begins
to drink heavily again. Leaves Coolagad suddenly; claims he has been
robbed.
April 3 Contacts own family by wire from Dublin.
May 1 Contacts mother by wire.
June 16 Turns up in Kenmare, with a cripple from Dublin. Finds lodgings at
The Lodge, Kenmare. Drinking ceases.
Late Summer Pat Ryan visits Kenmare. M. discusses Second Symphony
with him.
Sept-Dec Remains quietly in Kenmare, listening to radio, giving some music
lessons.
November 29 Spends the afternoon with the Moores.
November 30 With the O’Donnells for the evening. Retires to bed by 9.30.
December 1 Stormy weather in Kenmare. Stays in bed until early afternoon
4.00 pm: out walking on Kenmare Pier. Seen to fall into the water. Boat put
out but M. is already dead when brought ashore..
December 2 Graham Moeran leaves for Kenmare. Inquest on M. opened.
December 3 Graham arrives in Kenmare. M. is buried in the Old
Churchyard, Kenmare.
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Chamber Music
The bulk of Moeran's chamber music dates from the earliest part of his compositional
output - whilst still at school he busied himself with three string quartets and a sonata for
cello and piano which is said to have lasted nearly an hour! None of this music survived its
composer's desire to suppress his juvenilia.
Piano Trio (1920-5) R6
String Trio (1931) R59
In the categorisation of his music, there is an obvious overlap between chamber music and solo
music in the shape of the sonatas, and I have decided against reanalysing work from different
perspectives for the time being, so some of what you read here you'll also find in the solo music
section.
Trios
String Quartet No 1
(1921) R11
Moeran wrote two Trios just over a decade apart. The first, his
Piano Trio, dates from his student days in 1920, though he carried
String Quartet No 2 (?)
on working at it for a further five years after the premiere, during
which time it was largely rewritten. Perhaps a little rough around R98
the edges, it remains one of my favourite works. The String Trio
Fantasy Quartet for Oboe
of 1931 has been described as 'the first masterpiece of his mature and Strings (1946) R90
style' - a pivotal work which was to lead directly to the resumption
and eventual triumph of the Symphony in G minor.
Quartets
Moeran wrote two String Quartets,
the "first" in 1921, No 1 in A minor is delightful if perhaps
reminiscent of Ravel's quartet. The 'second', No 2 in E flat, turned
up in Moeran's papers following his death and was published in
1956. A publisher's note on the score suggested it was probably
an early work, which has perhaps been too readily accepted as
the evidence for this is at best slim. By contrast, a powerful
argument can be made for at least part of the work being quite
late, even as late as 1949. It was my first introduction to Moeran's
music and remains a work I like to come back to over and over
again.
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©2001 Andrew Rose
A definite late work is the Fantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings.
This interesting combination was suggested by the virtuoso oboist
Leon Goossens in the spring of 1946, which within a few months had become a fourteen minute
one movement success - a letter in August 1946 stated with pride "Leon only wanted to alter
one phrasing mark in the whole quartet".
Sonatas
Moeran's three sonatas often seem to explore areas untouched by
his other works. The better known of the three, those for Violin
and Piano and for Cello and Piano both offer a starkness of voice
not often apparent in Moeran's other work. Of great interest to
historians and true Moeran nuts is the Sonata for Two Violins.
Written largely from his hospital bed, this work comes from a vital
time as he attempted to turn from the Delius-influenced
harmonies of the 1920s and find a new voice. Despite receiving
good reviews on its debut, the work has, more than any other,
been the subject of neglect. In an attempt to rectify this, I have
been able to track down a copy of the score and commission a
world première recording of this fifteen minute piece, now
available on the site.
Finally we come to the Cello Prelude - a short piece for Cello and Piano Moeran wrote for Peers
Coetmore in late 1943 as a first work specifically for the instrument. To quote Geoffrey Self, "It
is a retrogressive piece, doomed to a humble place in grade examination lists." Well it's not as
bad as all that, really!
Violin Sonata (1923) R15
(1930) R53
Cello Sonata (1947) R92
Prelude for Cello and
Piano (1943) R80
= Full Page Available
Piano Trio (1920-25)
R6
Published
OUP, 1925
Recordings
Joachim Piano Trio
)
(1998, CD
Reviews
Gramophone Magazine
Review
Further Writing
Audio
At Moeran.com
Allegro
Lento Molto
Allegro Vivace
Allegro
"Youth celebrates its new
found strength with
unrestrained joy"
Notes by Barry Marsh
It is on the strength of his larger scale works, the
Symphony, the two concertos and the Sinfonietta, that the
reputation of E J Moeran will be assured. However, much of
the chamber music is also of high quality. It was a medium
in which he always felt at ease, having gained 'inside
knowledge' as a 16 year old violin player in his own quartet
at school.
By the time he came to enter the Royal College of Music
two years later Moeran could claim intimate knowledge of
all the Haydn quartets, as well as having composed no less
than three of his own. Study with Stanford was to be
interrupted by military service in the 1914-18 war, so it was not until February 1920 that
Moeran was able to return to serious composition.
First sketches for the Piano Trio date from this time, followed by a first performance at
the Wigmore Hall in November 1921. By the time of its second performance there on 13th
June 1925 it had been largely rewritten. If the style in reminiscent of his teacher John
Ireland, Moeran's Trio is full of an exuberance firmly set in its intention to announce the
arrival of a new voice on the English musical scene.
Youth celebrates its new found strength with unrestrained joy; Moeran gives us but one
chance to share his optimism which, by 1930, would have become more restrained, and
from bitter experience, more introverted and reflective.
String Trio (1931)
R59
Allegretto giovale
Adagio
Molto vivace - Lento sostenuto
Andante grazioso - Presto
Published
Augener, 1936
"I have started a String Trio and if I can keep it up I hope the purgative effect of this kind
of writing may prove permanently salutory...It is an excellent discipline in trying to break
away from the mush of Delius-like chords...Perhaps some good has come of being abed
and unable to keep running to the keyboard for every bar"
Recordings
Maggini Quartet
(1997, CD
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
"a work of consummate
technical mastery...the
first masterpiece of his
mature style"
)
Moeran, Letter to Peter Warlock, 1930
After the three riotous years house-sharing with Warlock in
Eynsford between 1925 and 1928, during which time
Moeran's musical output almost completely dried up (by
1926 he was considering giving up music completely),
Moeran started to pick up the pieces of his compositional
career. His early prolific work rate was never to be quite
matched again, but with such a long time away from
writing, he began to reconsider his style and aspirations.
When in September 1929 a motoring accident left him with
a long convalescence in bed in Ipswich, Moeran first began
to write music straight from the head, rather than at the
keyboard. With time on his hands, a rash of new material
started to appear - The Seven Poems of James Joyce, Six
Suffolk Folksongs and the Magnificat and Nunc Dimitis among them.
Far more important, though, was the Sonata for Two Violins of 1930, a fifteen-minute
three-movement work which is the immediate precursor to the String Trio, itself described
by Geoffrey Self as "a work of consummate technical mastery...the first masterpiece of
his mature style". The Sonata explores a new, leaner style of polyphonic writing, in an
apparent bid to be rid of the Delian "mush". If, as Self suggests, the Sonata is
"interesting", the Trio is "a masterpiece revelling in the freedom bestowed by newly
acquired technical skills."
The opening movement is largely a lively, lyrical one, making brilliant use of the 7/8
meter Moeran holds to throughout. Yet inside this there is a dark heart, a section of
bitter, disturbed writing over a cello ostinato, which, though it passes quickly, suggests
more to come.
The second movement is a bleak Adagio of unrelenting sorrow. Whether this was in any
way a response to the terribly-felt loss of Warlock in December 1930 is hard to
determine, but surely if it was an emotional response to any one event the suspicion must
fall there.
The third movement, a grim fugal scherzo, has a relentless energy running throughout it,
a brutal, at times almost mechanistic drive only occasionally leavened by moments of
light, before slowing and transforming into a bridge section leading directly to the final
movement.
The opening of the final movement, a gently reflective Andante, recalls immediately the
lyricism of the first movement - indeed Self finds elements of very free variation linking
the two. There still seems to be a shadow of regret falling over the harmonies, until finally
the music bursts into a wild, Presto jig, which whirls itself into a concluding flourish.
It seems almost too easy to cast this piece as something of an elegy to Warlock, and
perhaps it is, though the opening quote proves Moeran was already working on it before
Warlock's death. Yet as the first work to be completed post-Warlock, and coming so soon
after the two great friends had spent more than five years in close and regular contact, it
would not be surprising for Moeran to respond to finding the life of such a great talent,
and such a close friend, being snuffed out apparently by his own hand. Moeran wrote later
about Warlock's bouts of bleak depression - is the dark mood of the central movements
here an attempt to explore musically what his friend had been through mentally? If so,
does this leave the finale as a kind of drunken danse macabre, a celebration of
Warlockian black humour?
String Quartet No 1
in A Minor (1921)
R11
Published
Allegro
Andante con moto
Rondo
Chester, 1923
Recordings
Maggini Quartet
(1997, CD
)
Vanbrugh Quartet
)
(1998, CD
Reviews
Musical Times, Feb 1923
Further Writing
Audio
1 - from Amazon
2 - from Amazon
At Moeran.com
...lyrical, modal folk-like
melodies weaving
effortlessly through the
instrumental writing...
Moeran's first String Quartet in A minor, completed while he
was still studying under John Ireland at the RCM, was an
early indication that here was a composer of great promise.
In fact, Moeran had already composed several string
quartets whilst at Uppingham School - these were all
destroyed by the composer - and had some experience of
playing within a quartet, so it is not entirely surprising to
see him making quite a success of this piece.
Geoffrey Self tells us that, in the RCM of the early twenties,
the dominant traditionalist school of thought at the RCM
held up the Brahmsian model of String Quartet writing,
while only a minority explored more recent developments.
Of these two positions, however, the young Moeran took
the latter route and looked for his inspiration primarily to Ravel. In fact there are several
moments within Moeran's quartet where one is quite strikingly reminded of Ravel's own
Quartet in F, particularly in the corss-rhythms and pizzicato writing of the final
movement, and it does seem brave, if not naive, for Moeran to have progammed the two
works together in his Wigmore Hall concerts of 1923.
Much of Moeran's output of the 1920s shows the strong influence of Ireland and Delius,
but these two are less obvious in the Quartet, with its pared-down textures and
harmonies. A casual comparison of the underlying melodies used in this and the undated
Second String Quartet do suggest quite a marked difference in origin, with the latter
having a far more Irish feel. The First String Quartet does share a folk-like feeling, but
this work seems far more rooted in the English folk music which Moeran was collecting at
the time. The occasional drifting towards elements of dance-like rhythmic textures in the
final movement seem to lack the characteristic lightness of his most 'Irish' writing. This
fleetness of foot was to emerge later - indeed one recording of recent years apparently
implied that the musicians had not even considered the possibility of dance rhythms in
this work, so leaden was their interpretation. Perhaps they chose a (somewhat lumbering)
steam train as their rhythmical inspiration - that is certainly a possible alternative image
generated by this movement, and also crops up earlier in the work.
The First String Quartet is a delighful listen, its lyrical, modal folk-like melodies weaving
effortlessly through the instrumental writing, and in the two available recent recordings,
possesses a lightness of spirit in its rhythm. It is fun to pit the first against the second
quartets and try to deduce which actually came first, but I would personally hesitate to
suggest one work is intrinsically better than the other.
String Quartet No. 2 in E Flat
(date?)
R98
Published
Allegro moderato
Lento
Novello, 1956
There is considerable dispute about whether or not this
delightful piece is Moeran's 2nd String Quartet, or actually
predates the first. Geoffrey Self devotes an appendix in his
book to arguing the later date, while Barry Marsh here
offers a similar conclusion.
Recordings
However, Rhoderick McNeill (below) offers a powerful
argument for the original conclusion, that it is in fact an
early work. Of the two recordings, Naxos avoid the
numbering issue, while ASV call it number 2, while their
sleevenotes plump for the 'early date' theory.
Vanbrugh Quartet
)
(1998, CD
Maggini Quartet
(1997, CD
)
First.
With this in mind I intend to stick with calling this the
Second String Quartet, even though it may predate the
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
At Moeran.com
At Amazon.co.uk
The manuscript of this quartet was found among Moeran's papers in 1950. It is undated,
but by the nature of its style, in Geoffrey Self's observation, "simple, innocent and
childlike", dismissed by some commentators as an early work. Yet the two movements
share similarity of form with the 1946 Fantasy Quartet.
It is now thought that this work came to be written in order to offset certain tensions that
were beginning to arise in the composer's life from 1947 onwards. The desire to make
great music together with his wife Peers Coetmore had produced the stark individuality of
the Cello Sonata, but it had also turned composing into an obligation. The Second Quartet
is, by contrast, Moeran in relaxed mood and telling us how to enjoy ourselves inconsistently at times, perhaps, but never worth our neglect. here is accessible music,
honest, direct, and written by a man who, as a sting player himself, was often happiest in
this medium, and at peace in his beloved Ireland.
A Celtic atmosphere pervades the second movement in particular, where echoes of Kerry
songs, both serene and lively, call to mind similar passages from the Second Symphony also in E flat - on which Moeran was working at the time of his death.
Dating The Work - An Alternative View
By Rhoderick McNeill,
University of Southern Queensland, Australia
In my thesis entitled "A Critical Study of the Life and Works of E.J.Moeran" (University of
Melbourne 1982), I argued for an early date for this quartet - in fact I placed it roughly in
the period 1918-20. As I was living and working in Indonesia for 10 years between
1985-95 I did not get hold of Geoffrey Self's book until the early 90s. Personally, I cannot
agree with Self's conclusion about the date of the E flat quartet.
Here are some reasons:
1. An early article introducing Moeran's music ('Newcomers - E.J. Moeran', The
Chesterian, No.36, 1923, p.124) mentions three string quartets predating the published
String Quartet in A Minor, and two Violin Sonatas predating the Sonata of 1922, as well
as hinting at other chamber works. In the same article Moeran is said to consider them
worthless and to have withheld them from public performance. Another reference to these
chamber works was made in the program notes for the 1924 Norwich Triennial Festival, at
which the premiere of Moeran's Rhapsody No.2 was given. This is a clear indication that
Moeran had given significant time to the medium. It makes sense that, as a young
composer, Moeran would publish the one he considered the strongest, namely the A
minor. As a composer whose style was rapidly developing between 1920-24, it is not
surprising that he would hold back a work in a simpler style, given the limited chances
one has as an emerging composer for publication.
2. The harmonic idiom of the work is essentially triadic - the use of ninths, elevenths and
thirteenths which one finds in Moeran's work from the First Rhapsody and Violin Sonata
onwards is largely absent. However, it is also not as complex harmonically as either In
the Mountain Country (which bears an Irish sub-title on the MS score in the Victorian
College of the Arts collection, incidentally cf. Point 4 below) or the A minor quartet of
1921, which are not as dissonant, in turn as the works of 1922 and 23. Generally, I see a
link harmonically with the idiom of the three early piano pieces (ie. At a Horse Fair).
Although Moeran often included diatonic sections in his later works (ie second subject
group of the G minor symphony first movement, first episode
"Moeran in relaxed mood
and telling us how to enjoy
ourselves"
in the Rondo of Violin Concerto and slow movement of the Cello Concerto), these were
almost never sustained for long periods, let alone a whole work. The E flat quartet shows
little of Moeran's tendency towards more linear counterpoint which we find post 1929
(Sonata for Two Violins, String Trio) or the bitonal episodes which occur in his later
works. Nor yet do we hear strong echoes of Delius. Rather, I hear connections with
Vaughan Williams's pre-1914 style. Take for instance the opening three part writing of 'Is
my team ploughing' from On Wenlock Edge and compare with that ghostly Andante
section (figure 29) in the E flat quartet, second movement.
3. The Fantasy form of the second movement, incorporating elements of slow movement,
scherzo and coda, was especially popular during the second decade of the 20th century ie works of Bridge, Ireland, Vaughan Williams and Howells. Sure, there are later works
using this form - by Britten, and, of course, Moeran. However, in the Moeran case, the
1946 style seems quite different to the E flat quartet.
4. Moeran had already spent time in Ireland towards the end of his military service. One
of his sketch books in the Victorian College of the Arts collection includes a folk tune
collected in Western Ireland in 1919, replete with the repeated three note figure which
ends the beautiful main melody of the slow section in the E flat quartet, 2nd movement.
As well, Moeran found a number of variants of Irish tunes in Norfolk (E.J. Moeran: 'Some
Folksinging of Today', English Folk Dance and Song Society Journal, Vol.5, No.3, 1948.
This could explain the Irish feel to the second movement.
Fantasy Quartet
for Oboe and Strings (1946)
R90
Published
Chester, 1946
Recordings
Leon Goosens,
Carter Trio
(1947 broadcast, CD
)
Nicholas Daniel,
Vanbrugh Qt
(1998, CD
)
Sarah Francis/English
String Qt
)
(1984, CD
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
Goosens at Amazon
By 1946 Moeran had achieved a considerable reputation.
With three major works behind him - a symphony and two
concertos - he now resumed work on a second symphony
for John Barbirolli. There were other projects in gestation;
first sketches for "Leon's oboe piece" - a request from Leon
Goossens - were made in March, but just as soon laid aside.
A visit to old haunts in Norfolk in early May seems to have
have rekindled Moeran's interest. "I have now decided that
the work will be a Quartet... I think I am getting the shape
of it. Anyhow, I want the weekend to let the general
atmosphere soak in" he wrote to his wife. To Dick Jobson at
Radnor he wrote: "I board and lodge in this little pub overlooking Rockland Broad... in the
evening I go out rowing on these 'Lonely Waters'... this reedy neighbourhood seems to
suggest oboe music". Norfolk had been Moeran's childhood home; the opening idea
immediately recalls the style of the A minor String Quartet composed there in 1921.
The whole work is cast in the form of a fantasy, a single movement evolving from one
melodic shape, although there are two clearly defined sections coloured by snatches of
Norfolk folksong. "Sunshine over rural England" was how The Times critic applauded it at
the first performance by Leon Goossens and the Carter String Trio on December 8th
1946.
"I board and lodge in this
little pub overlooking
Rockland Broad... in the
evening I go out rowing on
these 'Lonely Waters'...
this reedy neighbourhood
seems to suggest oboe
music"
R15
Allegro non troppo
Lento
Vivace e molto ritmico
Published
Chester 1923
Recordings
Scotts/Talbot
(1984, CD
)
Moeran's Sonata for Violin and Piano premiered at the same
concert at London's Wigmore Hall as the First String
Quartet, written in 1921, and of the two seemed to get the
better reception, the reviewer in the Musical Times
commenting~ "the Allegro of the Sonata shows a great
advance, for its impetuosity is not hampered by technical
obligations, although these are met as consciously as we
have a right to expect in a modern sonata"
Further Writing
Geoffrey Self describes the work as having "a thrusting
passion", and goes on to suggest that, were it not for the
influence of Peter Warlock, this work may well point the
direction in which Moeran's music would have headed. The
music certainly is thrusting and passionate, and displays a
level of dissonance greater than much of his output. At first hearing one might find it hard
to recognise as a work by Moeran, until a few chinks of typical lyricism find their way out,
moments of vaguely folk-like music. But easy-listening it ain't.
Audio
There's an intense brooding surrounding the first movement, in its relentless minor key
augmented by broad Ireland-esque chromatic piano accompaniment. This is leavened by
the second subject somewhat - providing those chinks of daylight - before finally ending
in a whirling frenzy up towards a quite unexpected major chord.
Reviews
Musical Times, Feb 1923
At Moeran.com
The brooding is intensified in the slow second movement, though again Moeran uses a
contrasting second subject, this time with a pronounced Aeolian mode accent to bring
relief from the dissonant chromaticism that runs through most of the material. A
characteristic of much of Moeran's music throughout his life is a section of wonderfully
bright, lyrical music, radiant with warm sunlight, suddenly having a shadow cast over it
and turning dark, even bitter. This seems to be operating in reverse in this piece. The
moments of light are brief, and bring the dark, rugged edges of the majority of the music
into a kind of relief.
The final movement, a "complex and energetic rondo" (Self) launches itself with great
vigour. Elsewhere in Moeran's work a theme in 9/8 time might be expected to rapidly
evolve into some kind of jig; the tone here is jagged. Self suggests an inspiration in
Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and in the pounding rhythms of the final movement this
comparison seems more than justified. The harmonies too are among the harshest
Moeran ever wrote, leading a reviewer in 1924 to plead: "must we really have ninths and
ninths all the way...?".
At around eighteen minutes the Violin Sonata is not a long work, and is perhaps unfairly
neglected. Self cites it as Moeran's first real masterpiece, the culmination of his student
days, a piece apart from his other early work. As both a violinist and pianist, perhaps it's
to be expected that Moeran would be able to write well for the combination, and it's a real
pity he was apparently never inspired to try his hand at a second such work.
It seems hard to come by recordings of it, though the 1982 Chandos recording by Donald
Scotts and John Talbot (CHAN 8465) is worth tracking down. Be warned, however - if
you've heard the two more recent recordings of the First String Quartet that accompany
the Sonata on this disc you may well be disappointed with the somewhat lumpen
rendition given here by the Melbourne Quartet.
The moments of light are
brief, and bring the dark,
rugged edges of the
majority of the music into
a kind of relief...
Sonata for Two Violins (1930)
R53
Published
Boosey & Hawkes, 1937
hear the first extract from
an historical world
premiere recording
Allegro non troppo
Presto
Passacaglia
Moeran's Sonata for Two Violins, written in 1930,
is probably the most elusive of his officially
published works, yet for the Moeran scholar or
historian, it potentially holds the key to his
mature compositional style and success. The work
has somehow escaped the interest of the record
companies, and until very recently potential
performers faced great difficulty in finding a score
from which to play.
Recordings
Reviews
Further Writing
While it is difficult to date precisely a number of
works Moeran wrote at the end of the 1920's and
start of the 1930's, which does seem clear is that
the two chamber works he produced at this time
marked the beginning of a new direction for
Moeran, and a deliberate attempt to put behind
him his Delian roots. In November 1930 he wrote
to Peter Warlock:
Audio
At Moeran.com
The elusive score
"...It is an excellent discipline in trying to break
away from the much of Delius-like chords, which I
have been obsessed with on every occasion I
have attempted to compose during the last two
years. Perhaps some good has come of being
abed and unable to keep running to the keyboard
for every bar."
This is doubly telling: Moeran not only wanted to change his
style, but a bad injury kept him in his bed for quite some
time, and he was for the first time composing straight from
his head to the page. The results in the Sonata for Two
Violins and the String Trio are perhaps two of the starkest
pieces Moeran ever wrote. I have written elsewhere that I
view the String Trio in its final form as an elegy to Warlock.
The Sonata for Two Violins predates Warlock's death, and
seems to lack some of the despair evident in the Trio.
MP3 Audio
Anonymous premiere
recording of the Sonata for
Two Violins in high quality
digital stereo. Note that the
final movement is incomplete
in this recording:
Allegro non troppo
Presto
This apparent of lack emotional weight, exacerbated by the Passacaglia
fact that Moeran writes no slow movement, is perhaps also
reinforced by the constraints of the instrumentation. It is a
highly unusual pairing for this style of music - Geoffrey Self
comments "It is the choice of passacaglia for the last
movement which perhaps tells us most about Moeran's
intention, for this is an 'academic' form, and a searching
See also full page item
test of compositional skill."
I would go one stage further - trying to write in a recognisably Moeran-like style with the
exceptionally limited tonal resources of two violins is in itself a 'searching test of
compositional skill'. It is a test which Moeran passes admirably, though not without
creating quite a tricky work for the players. There is no room for error and no easy ride
for either performer, for each part is treated as equal and each note is vital to holding the
piece together - and there quite literally aren't enough notes available to create an 'mush
of Delius-like chords".
The first movement opens with a jaunty and highly memorable major key folk-like tune,
tossed between the two players and developed with a very recognisable Moeran voice.
There is much use of echoing between the two players, and they pass through a variety of
keys with the material. The movement is written in Sonata form, though the second
subject is far harder to discern, as everything appears to grow organically out of the
opening. There are typically Moeran moments where the clouds appear to form over the
sunny feel, and the mood changes quickly and dramatically more than once.
The second movement is a tricky Presto which Self describes as a Scherzo. Well, perhaps,
but it lacks the true Scherzo lightness he was to employ in his Symphony. This movement
is, if anything, the dark heart of the work, with the two instruments frequently working
harmonically against each other, taking a mournful folk-like melody and skewering it on a
series of vicious stabbing pizzicato chords, their atonality only resolving with a surprising
major chord ending.
The Passacaglia is superficially quite
attractive, its difficulty in playing and
timing masked by the apparent ease
with which the two parts hold together
after the brittleness of the preceding
movement. But, as Geoffrey Self writes,
"In the last movement of the
Sonata...the part-writing seems to be
without pattern - even aimless on
occasion." With the benefit of a
recording, of sorts, one can perhaps try
and unravel where Moeran is coming
from in this movement. He does
manage to create a flatness of texture
for much of the first half of the
movement, the two melodies weaving
apparently unstoppably around each
other. Yet again we begin with a very
folk-like modal minor melody, but one
from which the life seems to have been
stripped.
As the melody develops and wraps
around itself the effect starts to get
quite claustrophobic, and the harmony
starts to mutate, until suddenly strange
pizzicato chords break the cycle. The
mood turns increasingly dark until... my
recording breaks down and stops! And
for the rest of the piece? Well the score
suggest more dramatics and more
changes, but I hesitate to provide
further comment before having the
chance to hear a full recording of the
movement - watch this space!
Sonata for Cello and Piano (1947)
R92
Published
Tempo Moderato
Adagio
Allegro
Novello, 1948
"If nothing else of Moeran
had survived, we would
know from this Sonata that
he was among the finest
composers of his time"
Recordings
Raphael Wallfisch
& John Yorke
(1994, CD
Peers Coetmore
& Eric Parkin
Lyrita SRCS 42
(1972, LP
)
Moeran, in a letter to Peers,
Kenmare 1948
)
Reviews
Musical Times (1949)
Further Writing
Audio
At Moeran.com:
Excerpt
At Amazon:
1st movt
2nd movt
"I have just spent all day yesterday on cello sonata proofs.
You know I don't usually boast, but coming back to it, going
through it note by note, and looking at it impartially, I
honestly think it is a masterpiece. I can't think how I ever
managed to write it."
If one is to go along with the prevailing view that the
Moeran's Serenade in G of 1948 is the first indication of his
final decline, an opinion which is weakened when the work
is considered in its original full form rather than the abbreviated published score, then
without a doubt the Cello Sonata of 1947 is Moeran's final masterpiece. As the quote
above shows, even the ever-modest composer felt rightfully proud of his work, though
naturally his self-deprecation comes through.
This Sonata follows the Cello Concerto and, before that, the Prelude, in the trilogy of
works Moeran wrote for his new wife, the cellist Peers Coetmore. There may have been
any number of reasons why the marriage itself was not a success, but as a trigger for the
Concerto and Sonata, lovers of Moeran's music can only be glad that, having 'given my
word as a gentleman', Jack went through with the marriage and then put all his creative
efforts into creating music for his new wife.
Moeran had written to Peers in 1943: "There are wonderful things we could do together in
creating music, not only concertos and orchestral work, but chamber music." It is difficult
to precisely track the development of the Sonata and Concerto. With a number of
commissions to complete, Moeran had knocked out a short and somewhat undistinguished
Prelude for Cello and Piano in 1943, as a 'keepsake' while she toured abroad. It seemed
initially that his next work for Peers, following the completion of the Sinfonietta would be
the Cello Sonata, and work apparently started on this in February 1944, but then he
turned to the Concerto, which was finished by the following year.
Geoffrey Self's analysis in his book "The Music of E J Moeran" suggests similarities in the
musical ideas in the first movements of both major cello works indicate some sort of joint
conception. Indeed, he identifies a melodic 'cell' idea common not only to these two
works, but also used in both the Symphony and the Violin Concerto. Self goes on to say:
"It is now possible to see that this melodic cell is one which Moeran had been toying with
for most of his creative life." Self goes into great detail, and certainly his close analysis is
highly recommended to students of this work and of Moeran generally - I shall not
attempt to paraphrase him here!
What is worth lifting word for word from Self's book, however, is his conclusion:
The Sonata for Piano and Cello is the ultimate prize at the end of Moeran's long journey
and apprenticeship, absorbing and rejecting and eventually crystallising a language and
technique fit to express the deeply personal thought of what he knew to be his
masterpiece. The concentration of thought is such that it would be difficult to find a
redundant sound; whatever criticisms may be sustained of other works, whether of
technique or of derivation, they fall to the ground here. If nothing else of Moeran had
survived, we would know from this Sonata that he was among the finest composers of his
time.
This fulsome praise echoes the reception the Sonata received on its completion - in the
Musical Times of December 1949, A.H. wrote: "Every piece of this work is genuinely
impassioned, and one cannot find a point at which the interest flags or the material
belongs to a miniature conception...since Delius's Cello Sonata, there seems to have been
no better work in the romantic and rhapsodic style that so well suits the cello."
Prelude
for Cello and Piano (1943)
R80
Published
Recordings
The Prelude for Cello and Piano suffers an unfairly bad
reputation. I have myself helped to malign it in my original
commentary, below. Alas this was written on the back of
hearing the only commercially released recording of this
piece, as played by Peers Coetmore in 1972, at the very
end of her career.
Peers Coetmore
& Eric Parkin,
Lyrita SRCS 42
(1972, LP
So when I heard another, more recent rendition of the
piece, played as an encore on a BBC Radio 3 live broadcast
a few months ago, I realised I ought to at least review my
thoughts.
Novello, 1944
)
Clearly the Prelude stands outside the normal path of
Moeran's musical development. In no way is this a piece
which points the way for the Concerto or Sonata which were
to follow it. There is little in it, harmonically or melodically,
which might not have been written 100 years earlier.
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
At Moeran.com
So with this in mind, one should perhaps concentrate on the
music outside of an historical context. Perhaps I'm a sucker
for a soaring melody and a tender moment, but the more
I've heard this played the more I've come to like it as a romantic miniature.
Moeran and Peers in the
mid-1940s
It is most easy to criticise the piano's rather straightforward chords, but given that one is
concentrating on the cello this is not too bad. There are a few Moeran fingerprints on it,
but again it's a piece that really stands to one side of his repertoire. When it's badly
played it's not worth listening to (see below). When it's well played it's charming!
Original commentary
I've finally heard a rather creaky recording of the Prelude for Cello and Piano made by its
dedicatee, Peers Coetmore, towards the end of her life, and featured in the fourth
programme of Radio Three's Composer of the Week series for broadcast in December,
2000. I'm afraid to say I have to agree with other commentators who have dismissed it
as a piece "of little distinction".
Moeran had first met the young cellist Peers Coetmore back in 1930, while visiting his
friend, the painter Augustus John. It was not until 1943, when she gave a concert
attended by Moeran in Leominster, that he became enchanted by the woman he would
later marry. The union, though not in itself successful, was to lead to two undeniable
masterpieces in the Sonata and Concerto for Cello, but with Peers constantly touring and
heavily involved in war entertainments work, Moeran dashed off the short Prelude as a
kind of keepsake for her.
Peers premiered the work in Alexandria, but since then it has seen little public
performance, though it does serve a useful purpose as an examination list piece. While
the Cello melody is reasonably promising, and might have been worked into something
more satisfying over time, the plodding chords of the piano accompaniment stretched
over nearly five minutes of music are eminently dull. Whether this is indicative of other
Moeran first drafts is impossible to say - after all he was a composer who worked over
and over at a piece before he was completely satisfied with it. Yet there seems little
magic to be conjured out of this music for greater ends.
If only the music had been inspiring enough to those young cello students to invite them
to explore Moeran's later writing for the instrument...
...he became enchanted by
the woman he would later
marry...
Orchestral music
Moeran's output for full orchestra spans his entire output, and yet the sum total is not a
huge amount of music. However, if it is lacking in quantity, it is certainly made up for in
quality. Moeran had a wonderful gift for orchestration, and in listening one detects an
easy, almost instinctive feel in the handling of the music. As such it may come as something of
a surprise that he worked often so slowly on his orchestral music, and rewrote, reviewed and
discarded ruthlessly anything he felt less than perfect.
Farrago Suite (1932) R64
Symphony (1924-37) R71
R78
Sinfonietta (1944) R83
Early works
During the 1920's Moeran produced several works for orchestra:
his first two Rhapsodies, the second of which was reworked nearly
twenty years later; The "Symphonic Impression", In The Mountain
Country, and "Two Pieces for Small Orchestra", Lonely Waters and
Wythorne's Shadow. Of these last two there is some doubt as to
the precise dates of composition, as they were published together
in 1935, although there is evidence to suggest Lonely Waters
perhaps dating originally from 1924.
Symphony in G Minor
Begun in 1924 but put to one side and not finally completed until
1937, the Symphony is regarded by many as the high point of
Moeran's output. It is often a dark, brooding work stretching over four
movements, yet contains a delightful Scherzo in the third movement in Moeran's own words: the sunlight is let in, and there is a spring-like
contrast to the wintry proceedings of the slow [second] movement.
Concertos
Moeran's Violin Concerto is, for me, one of the great works of this
genre. If there is one piece which justifies Moeran receiving
greater recognition it is surely this - a work which can swing you
from delight to tears in minutes. The Cello Concerto was one of
Moeran's last major works, written for his wife - the cellist Peers
Coetmore - in 1945, and stands as a robust and sweeping
confirmation of his compositional brilliance.
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©2001 Andrew Rose
Sinfonietta
Moeran referred to the Sinfonietta, written in 1944, as something of an experiment: writing
about the composition of the Cello Sonata perhaps two years later: I shall have to find a new
idiom, as I did temporarily when I wrote the Sinfonietta. It is a three movement work in
perhaps a neo-classical style, exuberant and brisk, with a degree of harmonic experimentation
which adds interest without detracting from the beauty of the work.
Cello Concerto (1945) R89
Serenade in G (1948) R95
Symphony No 2 (lost) R99
(1921)* R10
First Rhapsody (1922)
R16
Second Rhapsody
(1924/41) R26/R77
Rhapsody for Piano and
Orchestra (1942-3) R79
(*included here as a
suggested "Rhapsody No. 0")
Lonely Waters (1924?)
R27
Wythorne's Shadow
(1931) R49
Overture for a Masque
(1944) R82
Nocturne (1934) R70
= Full page available
Other late works
The Overture for a Masque was written in 1944 for Walter Legge, who was at the time
commissioning works for wartime performances at concerts for troops. Despite Moeran's initial
dismissal of the work in progress as "Legge's Overture", he slowly came round to enjoying the
piece: I think it turns out to be quite a good little work - what you might call athletic in style...it
takes the devil of a time to write out. The Overture followed the Rhapsody for Piano and
Orchestra of 1942-3, where a pianist joins forces with the full orchestra for a single movement
requiring great virtuosity of the soloist. Again Moeran's opinion of this work grew, from it
contains more than its fair share of tripe to I find I was wrong, and I really think that after all it
is a very good effort on my part. Others seem to agree, as this is now one of Moeran's most
played works on the radio. The Serenade in G of 1947-8 was Moeran's last complete orchestral
piece, with sections partly reworked from an earlier work which he withdrew. Based around
Tudor and Baroque dance rhythms, it contains 6 or 8 short movements, depending on which
version you listen to!
"Lost" Works
Other orchestral works have existed or been worked on by Moeran. Into this fall the Farrago
Suite, part of which was to become integrated into the Serenade, a Fanfare for Red Army Day
for a Royal Albert Hall concert in 1944 which has since disappeared, and the Second Symphony,
fragments of which exist in various forms, but which he was unable to complete before his
death.
Farrago Suite (1932, withdrawn)
R64
Published
Withdrawn
1. Prelude
2. Minuet
the composer insisted: "it
doesn't exist..."
3. Rondino
4. Rigadoon
Moeran wrote his suite Farrago in 1932, probably in
response to Warlock's success with his Capriol Suite.
However, Farrago was soon withdrawn, despite several
performances at the time, including a BBC broadcast and a
1934 Proms outing. It sees Moeran writing in a pastiche
English Renaissance and Baroque style (Warlock's suite was
based on dance-tunes from 16th century composer Thoinot
Arbeau). However, Farrago did not disappear completely,
despite its composer later saying 'it doesn't exist' - two
movements make a reappearance in the Serenade in G of
1948.
Recordings
BBC Radio Broadcast,
1994
Reviews
July 1934
October 1934
Further Writing
Programme notes etc.
Serenade in G
Audio
Prologue Opening (MP3)
Actually, to be more precise, the whole work was
incorporated into the Serenade in its original
eight-movement form, but when Moeran's publisher insisted
he cut two movements out, Moeran decided to excise two of his Farrago movements,
rather than lose any of his new work. The irony is that this then leaves the Serenade as
perhaps a rather unsatisfying piece, somewhat more disjointed than Moeran originally
intended.
Fortunately for the Moeran listener, in 1990 Chandos decided to release a recording of the
original full version of the Serenade, on CHAN 8808, and when in 1994 the original scores
of Farrago were dusted off for an anniversary performance, it finally became possible to
make a direct listening comparison between the two works. This is something which has
eluded scholars for many years - no recording was ever made of the Farrago Suite, and
Moeran may have gambled on few people with memories long and astute enough to spot
his use of it in the new work. Whether there is any sleight of hand in the fact that the two
excised movements from the Serenade had been given new names is impossible to say,
though perhaps it is more than coincidence.
In his book "The Music of E J Moeran", Geoffrey Self not only skips rather lightly over the
Farrago, and also misses the fuller links between the two works. This is not surprising, as
he noted at the time with regard to the two 'missing' Serenade movements: "These two
movements are to be found...in the copy of the score deposited with the Grainger
Museum in Melbourne, Australia." Thus Self had access to neither the missing Serenade
movements nor to Farrago.
Superficially the four corresponding movements seem identical. It is only in the finer
detail and orchestration that one finds Moeran's revision, and a close score analysis would
be required to pin down the changes precisely. This is not something I intend to do here.
Instead, I offer you the chance to program your CD player to (almost) recreate the
Farrago Suite from the Chandos Serenade recording, by matching up the movements as
follows:
Farrago Suite
Serenade in G
1 - Prologue
1 - Prelude
2 - Intermezzo*
3 - Air
4 - Galop
2 - Minuet
5 - Minuet
3 - Rondino
6 - Forlana*
4 - Rigadoon
7 - Rigadoon
8 - Epilogue
*Note - the two movements which Moeran withdrew,
the Intermezzo and Forlana, both taken from the Farrago Suite.
These programme notes from the 1934 Proms performance serve to throw further light
onto Farrago:
This Suite owes its title to the fact that when it was written, close on two years ago, - it
was actually completed at the end of 1932 -, it was not originally the result of setting out
to compose a homogeneous work. The last movement was composed specially for an
amateur orchestra in Norwich who had asked Mr. Moeran for a piece of their own, and it
was laid out with a view to the orchestra's rather modest attainments. The Minuet was
not intended to be anything more than a pianoforte duet; it was composed in the first
place for a friend and neighbour with whom Moeran plays four-handed music on the
pianoforte. Although the Suite was written at odd times and with different purposes in
view, eventually the four movements were put together for the Hastings Municipal
Orchestra. It is scored exactly for their numbers, which accounts for there being only one
oboe and two of the other wood-winds. It did not have its first performance at Hastings,
however; an illness of Julius Harrison's had to postpone that. The first performance was
actually at the B.B.C. studio concert under Julian Clifford, last year, and it was repeated
there some three months ago. It was performed in Hastings, under Julius Harrison, in
February of this year. Laid out for the moderate-sized orchestra of Beethoven's day, with
only two horns and two trumpets and neither tuba nor harp, as the Suite is, the Minuet
dispenses with trumpets, trombones and percussion, calling only on strings, wood-wind,
and horns. Timpani are not used until the third movement, although in the Prelude there
are tambourine, cymbals, side drum and xylophone.
Symphony in G minor (1924-37)
R71
Allegro
Lento
Vivace
Lento - Allegro molto
Published
Novello, 1942
Recordings
Ulster Orch., Handley
)
(1987, CD
New Philharmonia of
London,
Sir Adrian Boult,
Lyrita SRCS 70
)
(1975, LP
English Sinfonia,
Neville Dilkes
(1973, LP
)
Hallé Orch,
Leslie Heward,
(1942, 78s, reissued on
Dutton CDAX 8001
)
Reviews
Gramophone magazine
reviews
Further Writing
Moeran's own
sleevenotes
W H Mellers' attack
Moeran and
Stenhammer - two
Symphonies too alike?
Audio
At Moeran.com:
1st movt. opening
Available from Amazon
"contains some of
Moeran's darkest and most
brooding moments"
Moeran's only symphony was started in 1924, but abandoned
and only taken up again ten years later, being finally completed
in 1937. It contains some of Moeran's darkest and most
brooding moments, and despite the levity of his brilliant (and it
has been said, unique to British music) Scherzo, the final
conclusion is one of bitterness.
A variety of interpretation have been put on the symphony,
including many references to a perceived similarity to Sibelius,
and yet further examination by Geoffrey Self suggests Moeran is
also passing comment on works by composers as diverse as
Mozart, Brahms and Tchaikovsky. Ultimately, however, it is the
firm fingerprint of Moeran himself which defines his longest piece of work.
Unlike the Violin Concerto which followed it, and perhaps
Real Audio
offers answers to the questions posed in it, the evocations From the 1973 recording by
Neville
Dilkes
and the English
of landscape and mood are often so bleak as to suggest that
in this work Moeran is for the first time confronting some of Sinfonietta, the opening of
the first movement:
his own darkest ghosts, those he has apparently avoided
comment on in his music up to this point: his experiences of
Allegro (1'01")
the First World War. Without doubt Moeran had a
particularly bad time during the war, and was left with a
head injury which never allowed him to forget his trauma,
and which probably contributed to his untimely death in
1950. However, during his time in military service he was
also stationed in Ireland, and this gave him his first taste of the country he came to love
so much.
Thus the third movement, which itself is a brief interlude at less than half the length of
any of the other movements, may in some way be representative of Moeran's place of
escape during the war. Other pointers to this hypothesis can be heard in the end of the
first movement, where after a long, brooding section carried by the horns an almost
mechanistic rhythm breaks out, and the movement ends on a series of percussive strikes
which might surely be representative of gunfire.
During the second movement we hear an episode which, it has been suggested, is
reminiscent of rippling water, seemingly offering a moment of calm in this dark and
troubled music. Yet, if one is to push further the war idea, a re-examination of this
section can also suggest the freedom of air flight: the twisting this beautiful and light
section into something dark and sinister then becomes a commentary on humanity's
ability to take a wonderful new invention and turn it to destructive use. Moeran had a love
of all things mechanical, indeed, Lionel Hill described how Moeran could identify a steam
locomotive by its sound alone, and one can only wonder at his feelings when such
marvels of the age were put to wartime use.
This idea of flight returns in the final movement, where a bitter wind seems to blow
through the flutes, one which serves to heighten the tension slowly mounting in the
tympani before finally breaking into the six percussive cracks of the end of the work.
Geoffrey Self's analysis of the work in his book, The Music of E. J. Moeran comes to a
similar conclusion, albeit through a different and more thorough musical analysis. He
shows the use of a folksong, The Shooting of His Dear, to hold some of the melodic keys
to the symphony, and in particular homes in on the line "for young Jimmy was a fowler".
Self writes: "Could there not be a loose allegory here of a young soldier - Jack [Moeran}
rather than Jim - called by duty to the war, his illusions of military chivalry and nobility to
be shattered by the awesome reality of the sordid carnage and its bleak aftermath." In
addition he believes the Symphony to be "some kind of Requiem or In Memoriam".
Certainly its bleak outlook remains unresolved in this work, and perhaps one does need to
look to Moeran's next major work, his Violin Concerto, begun almost immediately after
the completion of the Symphony, to find Moeran's personal answers to the problems
raised here.
Click here for a print formatted version of this text
R78
Published
Novello, 1950
Allegro moderato
Rondo: Vivace - Alla valse burlesca
Lento
The Violin Concerto is without doubt one of Moeran's finest
musical achievements, a work which truly deserves a place
amongst the great works of history. And yet, its story is one
of sorry neglect, with the only known recording prior to
1979 a privately cut set of 78's owned by Moeran's friend,
Lionel Hill, recently made available on a CD transfer. One
can only speculate at the different course history might
have taken had a commercial recording been made during
Moeran's lifetime, with the composer around to promote it surely it would now sit beside Elgar's Concerto in the
repertoire.
Recordings
Albert Sammons,
BBC SO, Boult,
(1946 broadcast, CD
)
Lydia Mordkovitch,
)
(1989, CD
John Georgiadis,
LSO, Vernon Handley,
Lyrita SRCS 105
)
(1979, LP
Reviews
Gramophone Magazine
reviews
Further Writing
Hubert Foss's thoughts
prior to the premiere
Musical Times, 1942
(descriptive article,
August 1942)
Musical Times, 1943
(analytical descriptive
article, August 1943)
Audio
Albert Sammons full
At Amazon.co.uk:
1st movt
2nd movt
3rd movt
Moeran began work on his
Violin Concerto almost as
soon as the ink was dry on his Symphony, and it has been
suggested that the work is in some way an answer to the
questions raised in that work. It is certainly much lighter in
spirit, a deliberate evocation of Moeran's beloved west of
Ireland. Many commentators have drawn comparison with
Elgar's Violin Concerto, suggesting this as a reference piece
for the Moeran, and while there are parallels which one
might draw in detailed analysis, they remain two quite
different works.
The Moeran Concerto has a joy to it, particularly in the
evocation of Puck Fair in the second movement, a delightful
frolic through the sights and sounds of that most famous of
traditional Irish fairs. This is surrounded by two beautiful
evocations of the landscape around Kenmare, County Kerry,
with the first movement addressing Kenmare Bay, the last
an autumnal scene along Kenmare River. In all three
movements the clouds which gathered over the Symphony
are lifted, and we find Moeran's personal answer to his demons. The tensions he builds up
here do find resolution, in beauty, scenic grandeur (although not in the Elgarian sense at
all) and thrilling excitement.
MP3 Audio
First Movement
Lionel Hill's restored
recording of Albert Sammons With its soaring solo lines, the violin enters almost
and the BBC Symphony
immediately, and completely commands the movement. The
Orchestra under Boult in
tone is one of exploration, of powerful scenery, of quiet
1946, the full piece:
pools, rushing waterfalls, high peaks and gentle valleys.
Moeran's musical language is very much his own, with only
Allegro moderato
a brief incursion of a folk-like melody, and yet the evocation
of that area is near perfect.
Rondo - Vivace
Lento
Second Movement
From the opening fanfare we're immediately transported to
a different place, and the soloist introduces us on a merry
jig through the thrills and spills of the fair, with some
fabulous technical fireworks thrown in, and an unmistakable
Irish flavour to the melodies and rhythms. Moeran's mastery
of orchestral textures and possibilities is brilliant, as he effortlessly leads us from one
scene to another, and one pictures the freewheeling joy and chaos, the people, old and
young, the merry revellers, and the quiet corners, the beautiful people he loved so much.
Listen out for what Geoffrey Self described as the rather tipsy waltz which makes a brief
appearance towards the end of the movement!
Third Movement
The feeling here is often more of serenity, and although clouds appear to be gathering at
the start of the movement, small rays of sunlight break through from time to time,
sufficient to light the way, to pick out a path, holding our spirits up for a resolution of
almost heart-rending beauty and ultimately autumnal tranquility. Here is Moeran's answer
to life's problems, found in the country landscape he visited again and again, and where
he found the inspiration for so much of his work.
" a delightful frolic through
the sights and sounds of
that most famous of
traditional Irish fairs"
Sinfonietta (1944)
R83
Published
Novello, 1947
Allegro con brio
Tema con variazioni
Allegro risoluto
Recordings
"The first performance of the Sinfonietta is fixed for the B.B.C. Symphony Concert on
March 7th, with Barbirolli as guest conductor. Thank God we have escaped Boult for it!"
LPS., Beecham
(1946 broadcast,
Digital restoration to
)
download
Moeran,
Letter to Lionel Hill, 16th Dec 1944
The Sinfonietta, or "small Symphony" as Moeran
occasionally referred to it, was a product of his rush of
creativity in 1944 - his "bumper year" had also seen the
completion of the Overture for a Masque and the cycle Six
Poems by Seamus O'Sullivan.
Northern Sinfonia,
Hickox
EMI CDM 7 64721 2
)
(1989, CD
Bournemouth Sinf..
Norman Del Mar
Chandos CHAN 8456
)
(1986, CD
London Philharmonic,
Sir Adrian Boult
Lyrita SRCS 37
)
(1968, LP
Philharmonia Orch.,
Sir Adrian Boult
Carlton Classics
(1996, from a 1963 BBC
recording,
)
CD
Reviews
Gramophone Magazine
reviews
Further Writing
The Sinfonietta stands almost alone in Moeran's orchestral
repertoire, a piece in which he quite deliberately attempts
to forge new forms and develop new ideas - here more than
anywhere is Moeran as innovator. Geoffrey Self describes
clearly how at this stage in his life Moeran was somewhat
isolated amongst his contemporaries style-wise, as one of
the last of the 'true romantics', and suggests the Sinfonietta
is Moeran's push 'to get up to date'.
The Sinfonietta is scored for a small orchestra more akin to
Real Audio
From the Chandos recording
that of late Haydn than the full romantic battery, and
Moeran uses this comparitive leanness to achieve a sense of by Norman Del Mar and the
clarity and space. Where other composers, and Moeran
Bournemouth Sinfonia, the
himself elsewhere, might be tempted to fill out or even pad opening to the final
out their orchestration, Moeran frequently demands a
movement:
sparsity that illustrates true mastery of sonic space. Fifteen
years later Miles Davis's jazz recordings turned to the same
Allegro risoluto (30")
philosophy - here what is left out can be as telling and
important as what is played.
The Sinfonietta is quite a concise work. Moeran is frequently
notable for the economy of his developments and ability to
say what needs to be said in a relatively compact manner. Thus his 'small symphony' lives
up to this description not only in orchestration but also in duration, lasting a little over 20
minutes.
Musical Times - 1950
MP3 Audio
Lionel Hill's restored
recording of Beecham and
the London Philharmonic in
1947, the full piece:
Audio
Allegro con brio
Tema Con Variazioni
Allegro Risoluto
Robin Hull - 1948
Full recording
Extract
Composed largely in Kington, close to the Welsh borders,
the Sinfonietta also differs from Moeran's preceding major
works in its general lack of 'Irishness' - indeed, Lionel Hill
describes the first two movements as 'boistrously English in
feeling', though there is perhaps something Irish in the
liveliness of the third movement, which was mainly written
in County Kerry.
Lionel Hill recounts: "He took us out beyond Radnor by
train, and thence by bus to a spot fromwhich we climbed up
and up, seemingly aboove the world, until the ground
flattened out to give us superb views for miles around in all
directions. I remember Jack pointing and saying, 'Over
there is Elgar country, and there, Housman country... The
inspirations for my Sinfonietta came to me up here,
especially the middle movement, which should be played at
a brisk walking pace - as we are doing now."
Barry Marsh has suggested that further to this there is evidence in the final movement of
the type of encounter Lionel Hill went on to describe - to paraphrase, he and Moeran were
approached and wild mountain ponies, "prancing, frothing beasts", as he describes them,
with no place to escape to. Fortunately they were left alone - Moeran was unconcerned,
despite knowing of the deaths of previous walkers caused by these ponies, but Hill was
pretty shaken. Could there be evocation of these wild ponies in the last movement? Barry
elaborates and strengthens this thesis by bringing into play the bell-ringing figure heard
in the same movement as a nod to A E Housman's poem, 'Bredon Hill' from 'A Shropshire
Lad':
In summertime on Bredon
The bells they sound so clear;
Round both the shires they ring them
In steeples far and near,
A happy noise to hear. [etc.]
"The inspirations for my
Sinfonietta came to me up
here, especially the middle
movement, which should
be played at a brisk
walking pace"
Pete Lopeman wrote eloquently about
the Sinfonietta on the Moeran mailing
list:
"The Sinfonietta's compact nature (in
both form and orchestra size) makes it
for me almost perfect (in a kind of
Mozart/Haydn way). The opening
movement's strong melody and rhythm
carries me along all the way. It is
landscape in music, it is colour in sound
- loads of green and orange. The second
movement is a brisk walk and even a
jog (didn't EJM mention that it should
be taken at a walking rhythm?) with the
The landscape around New Radnor
sights, sounds and open skies of
Herefordshire. The third movement is like coming down from a long hill walk - trotting
and tripping over one's feet when you can see the pub down below in the valley. EJM's
masterly use of timpani (to me his signature) gives it urgency and strength. The final few
bars which end the Sinfonietta have a comical sense which reminds me of Mozart's 'A
Musical Joke' K.522..
I'm not sure about it being EJM's masterpiece (although that tag is attached to it, I know)
but it's surely a beautiful piece which to me shows a mature and confident composer at
ease with himself and the world."
R89
Published
Novello, 1947
Moderato
Adagio
Allegretto deciso, alla marcia
In 1986, Lionel Hill wrote: "It is a complete mystery why
this splendid Concerto has not been gratefully seized upon
by today's cellists, whose repertoire is not extensive
anyway. The work is in conventional sonata form and is one
continuous paean for the cello, which is allowed to sing
through the expert orchestration from start to finish, and is
the final expression of all that Moeran had strived to say
throughout his life."
Recordings
Raphael Wallfisch,
Bournemount
Sinfonietta, Norman Del
Mar
)
(1986, CD
Peers Coetmore,
Sir Adrian Boult
Lyrita SRCS 43
)
(1970, LP
Reviews
Premiere, Dublin (1945)
Hallé Orchestra (1946)
Gramophone Magazine
review
Further Writing
Moeran's Cello Concerto is without doubt one of his
crowning achievements, and yet it can be a difficult work to
get to love. It is one of those pieces which takes time to be
assimilated, time to be loved. Perhaps the opening theme is
less than welcoming? Or is it rather a work yet to be done
full justice on disc? For it is truly a work of great beauty, and one worth perservering with
if it does not initially appeal, for ultimately the rewards are fabulous.
Moeran opens the Cello Concerto with a grim, jagged
Real Audio
melody which, if it lacks lyrical beauty, does suggest an
elemental harshness - one can imagine wild walks over
by Raphael Wallfisch and the
wintry Kerry Mountains in a torment of passions as he
Bournemouth Sinfonietta, the
contemplates and questions his marriage to Peers
soaring second movement
Coetmore, for whom the concerto was written. This is
theme:
indeed stormy stuff, and Moeran's exquisite control of his
orchestral forces allows the mournful cello to really sing out
Adagio (30")
its pain. And yet there is sunlight here, glinting occasionally
through his clouds, bringing brief, hopeful moments before
the clouds gather again, switching from the major back to
the minor and the tempestuous forces of the full orchestra.
From then on in Moeran's soloist is wracked with torment
and questions, sometimes introspective, sometimes thrashing out, always with the near
bitterness that cuts through this entire movement. The movement ends with a brush of
cold air...
Audio
At Moeran.com:
Excerpt
arranged.
This feeling is immediately picked up on the
brooding, threatening opening to the second
movement, which initally promises more misery,
but just as one buttons down and prepares for the
worst, Moeran's ability to bring light out of shadow
is called to play in a theme of heart-breaking
beauty. Geoffrey Self demonstrates in his book how
the melody here has its origins in the first
movement, yet the two could not sound or feel
more different- someone in Hollywood should be
using this to illustrate their great moments of
loving passion! Here is the tender reward for the
wild tempest of the first movement, music to melt
the coldest heart, and again brilliantly scored and
[Click on the picture above to enlarge the opening bars of the second movement, in
Moeran's handwritten short score]
The second movement ends with an extended section for
Interview
Read and listen to the
solo cello which, in true Moeran style, sounds just like an
interview
by
top British cellist
age-old Irish folk tune, but is probably original. This links
Paul Watkins on his own
seamlessly into the final movement, where the orchestra
picks up on the tune and lifts it into a rumbustuous theme recording of the Cello
Concerto commissioned by
for a constantly varied rondo finale. This Moeran
intersperses with a variety of ideas - he wrote to Peers on the BBC for their Composer
4th May 1945: "the very nature of the main subject seems of the Week programmes to call for an insistence on the Rondo scheme. One is, I feel, the first time Paul had
fully justified in interpolating all sorts of tunes provided the encountered the work:
movement in bound together by the main idea which in the
Paul Watkins
case leads itself admirably to the purpose." Thus he is able
to bring in all sorts of different meditations and episodes, and again the sun is shining - in
a later letter he states: "I am longing to see what other ideas crop up as I forge ahead. I
think working in bright daylight has more to do with it than anything, together with the
pleasant outlook from the window facing me to the green lawn."
Lionel Hill is correct when suggesting this is a wrongly neglected work. Geoffrey Self says
much the same thing: "Arguably it is a work of such quality as to place it with the
concertos of Dvorak and Elgar as the finest written for the instrument. Regrettably, it is
hardly known."
"Arguably it is a work of
such quality as to place it
with the concertos of
Dvorak and Elgar as the
finest written for the
instrument. Regrettably, it
is hardly known"
Perhaps the first movement is too unwelcoming at times? And yet who could fail to be
moved by the second? Here is a work which, perhaps more than any other (with the
relative paucity of great repertoire works for cello and orchestra), deserves its place on
the international stage and the radio playlists. And of course in your CD collection and
heart...
Paul Watkins: Interview
Cellist Paul Watkins joined me for an interview following his quite brilliant new recording of the
Cello Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra to discuss the piece and his feelings about
it, and about Moeran more generally.
Listen to the entire Interview as Real Audio
Listen to the entire Interview as MP3
Paul Watkins' full biography - click here
download player
AR: what did you make of the Cello Concerto
yourself?
PW: Well, I had a very strange experience
with it in fact, beacuse it was not a piece that
was nkown to me before I was asked to do it
by the BBC Philharmonic, but when I got the
music, just through looking at it (and I can
hear things fairly well in my head when I look
at scores, but the complete picture doesn't
arrive until you get the first chance to play it
through with the piano), I was amazingly
struck by how similar it looked to great cello
concertos of the past, particularly the Elgar,
and in the last movment of it, the structure
reminded me a lot of the Dvorak - the various
figurations and things in there, just visually,
on the page. In fact, when I started to work
on it and play it through, it really turned into
its own piece, and it is in fact a very original
work indeed - not in any way the rip off that I
thought it might turn out to be before getting
to know it in depth.
So your opinion of it changed the more you
got to know it?
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©2001 Andrew Rose
Absolutely! Just thinking back on what I've
just said, I had actually played through at the
piano with a student of mine the slow movement, because she'd heard it in Raphael Wallfisch's
recording, and was absolutely taken with it. But we hadn't had time to work up the outer two
movements of it which are technically the more demanding ones, but I remember we just
simply played through that - that wonderful B flat major section - and that's stuck in my head
as being quintissentially English music. Of course he was English living in Ireland, wasn't he?
So, little Celtic perfumes in there as well!
You mention that particular recording, I went back to the Gramophone review of that recording,
which describes it as "a dark, sombre work...a prevailing feeling of sadness and regret...an
elusive piece". None of these are descriptions which seem to match your recording of it. How
would you characterise it yourself?
That's interesting actually - I didn't know about that review. I would say that on the whole it's
more sort of melancholic-sentimental. Being Welsh myself I've got a slight appreciation for that
kind of Celtic sentimentality, which is not necessarily bleak, in the way that say Russian
sentimentality might be, but is more nostalgic and regretful. Actually the piece, as far as I'm
concerned, ends quite positively. The first movement is dark, certainly, but it's serious as well it's serious in its working out, it's musically serious. I don't think of it as being a dismal piece.
But you do seem to have managed to find a warmth even in the darker sections, which has
perhaps been missed by other players...
Well thank you! I think that as well as being indicative of what's in the piece, that fact that it's
such a good piece that it can take very different interpretations, I think it's also, a little bit, an
indication of the sort of player that I am. The more I make recordings and listen to what I do,
the more I realise that certain aspects of my playing always tend to look on the more positive
and perhaps loving side of the music, rather than complete blackness.
Why do you think the concerto has been so neglected over the years? Your recording suggests it
ought to be quite well up in the cello repertoire.
I hope it will become so, eventually. I don't really know. People ask that question of various
pieces that I've played - why they're neglected. Earlier this year I did the Arthur Sullivan Cello
Concerto at the Proms, which again is a wonderful piece. I can see why that's neglected because
it has some fairly tough technical difficulties in the last movement, and is not something that I
think soloists would take on lightly. The Moeran Concerto is more approachable, technically. It's
by no means easy, but it's a piece that can be worked up without too much difficulty, so I can't
understand it. I hope that maybe once this radio recording gets played around a little bit it will
become more popular, because it's a great piece.
Cellists are known to complain that there is a shortage of great concertos for them. Does this
"maybe once this radio
recording gets played around
a little bit it will become
more popular, because it's a
great piece"
stand anywhere within the top rank of cello concertos?
That's a difficult one - you're putting me on the spot now on the E J Moeran website! But I
would say that it probably doesn't plumb the depths quite in the way the Elgar does, but then I
guess it was written at a different stage in the composer's life. But, as a well crafted,
communicable piece of music, I think it's absolutely up in the first rank, yes.
Those who have heard it already are suggesting that your recording of the Cello Concerto is set
to become the definitive interpretation. Is it a work you'd like to play more often, perhaps in the
concert hall as well ast the studio?
Well surely. If that's what people are saying then I'm very pleased about that, actually. Yes I'm certainly going to make every effort to progamme it more and more.
Looking at your approach - some critics have rounded on the final movement as one which in its
use of a folk music style is something of an easy, and perhaps a weak option for Moeran, but in
your recording you took this section significantly more slowly than other performers have done.
Was this a deliberate effort to avoid this so-called "Irish-jiggery"?
(Laughs) - Yes, well, we experimented with that a little bit during the rehearsals, and I
remember glancing around at a few of the front desk players of the BBC Phil, and a couple of
eyebrows and wry smiles were raised... Of course it's got that rumbustiousness about it, but I
think there are ways of taking that seriously so it doesn't sound completely flip, and to try to get
the sort of Riverdance out of it as much as possible!
I'm told that an American cellist has taken up Moeran's Cello Sonata, which is another much
neglected masterpiece, if I may call it such, and is due to play it at Tanglewood next May. Is this
a piece you've ever come across?
No it isn't. That's certainly something I'd be interested to look at.
Do you have much knowledge of Moeran's other works - the Symphony or chamber music,
perhaps?
I certainly listened to the Violin Concerto several times before recording the Cello Concerto, and
I enjoyed that very much. It's a very, very different piece, actually, a very different mood all the
way through. In fact that's much more rhapsodic, isn't it? - atmospheric - it hasn't quite got the
same symphonic argument in it that I think the Cello Concerto has - I think that's one of the
things that really makes it a cut above. I have actually played with the Nash Ensemble, which
I'm a member of, a couple of years ago now, I think it was an Oboe Quartet, which I enjoyed
thoroughly, I thought it was a great piece. That's the extent of my Moeran knowledge at the
moment, but I definitely want to get into it more.
Finally, do you think, therefore, that he's unfairly neglected?
Yes - I think so. I think he deserves a wider audience, especially the Cello Concerto because
that's fairly close to me. Now I know the piece I'm going to do what I can to get the Moeran
name out there more and more!
Paul Watkins - Cello
Paul Watkins recent recording of the
Cello Concerto with the BBC
Philharmonic under Rumon Gamba
must rate as one of the highlights for
Moeran lovers of recent years. The
recording was specially made for the
Composer of the Week programmes.
Read more about the series here, and
read and listen to an exclusive
interview with Paul Watkins here.
Paul Watkins is one of Britain's foremost
cellists. Born in 1970, he studied cello with
William Pleeth, Melissa Phelps and Johannes
Goritzki and first came to public attention as
winner of the string section of the BBC Young
Musician of the Year in 1988.
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[email protected]
©2001 Andrew Rose
At the exceptionally young age of 20, Paul was
appointed principal cellist of the BBC
Symphony Orchestra, a position which he held
for seven years. During this time he worked as
Guest Principal Cellist with many of the UK's
leading orchestras such as the London
Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal
Philharmonic and English Chamber Orchestras.
He has made many television programmes
and radio broadcasts for the BBC. In July 1999
he was featured in Masterworks, a major
documentary series for BBC 2, performing the
Elgar Cello Concerto in a programme devoted
to the composer.
Paul's concerto performances with the BBC
Symphony Orchestra include the Elgar
Concerto at the Proms conducted by Sir
Andrew Davis, Strauss Don Quixote at the
Royal Festival Hall conducted by Alexander
Lazarev, Lutoslawski Cello Concerto at the
Proms conducted by Tadaaki Otaka and at the
Barbican conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. He has given numerous performances with the BBC
National Orchestra of Wales under, amongst others, Tadaaki Otaka, Mark Elder, Richard Hickox
and Vernon Handley, and has also appeared as a soloist with the Philharmonia, Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra and the Sonderjyfands
Symfoniorkester, conducted by Iona Brown.
His BBC recordings include the Haydn C Major Concerto with Mark Wigglesworth, Tchaikovsky
Rococo Variations with Sir Andrew Davis, the Sullivan Concerto conducted by Sir Charles
Mackerras and the Schumann Concerto with both Paul Mann and Nicholas Braithwaite. In a
review of his world premiere CD of Takemitsu Orion and Pleiades, Gramophone stated, "this
performance, with Paul Watkins an ultra-refined soloist, makes the best possible case for the
Takemitsu style".
Alongside his concerto appearances, Paul is a dedicated chamber musician. He has also
performed in two American concert tours with the Musicians from Marlboro, prompting the
Philadelphia Inquirer to write: "No one could miss the extraordinary eloquence and projection of
British cellist Paul Watkins... his playing had such personality and urgency". He gave highly
acclaimed debut recitals in New York and Boston with pianist Ruth Laredo in 1995, and returned
to the USA in 1997 for another New York recital, playing both cello and piano in an all Brahms
programme.
As a conductor he has worked with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Nieuw Sinfonietta
"I am now going to do
whatever is necessary to get
the thing recorded
commercially and performed
in public more!"
Paul Watkins on Moeran's
Cello Concerto
Amsterdam, and most recently the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway and the Umea
Symphony Orchestra in Sweden. He has also conducted the Festival Orchestra of Le Domaine
Forget in Quebec for four seasons, including a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto
conducting from the piano.
Engagements last season included a return to the Proms to perform the Sullivan Cello Concerto
with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, performances with the
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Dvorak), Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Tchaikovsky),
BBC National Orchestra of Wales (Dvorak and Poul Ruders) as well as recitals at the South Bank
Centre, Harrogate, Selwyn College Cambridge and several appearances at the Wigmore Hall.
This season begins with a tour of the Far East with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
performing Dvorak and Elgar, performances of Saint-Saens No 1 with the Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra and Shostakovich No 1 with the Sonderjyllands Symfoniorkester in
Denmark. He will give further recitals at the Wigmore Hall with pianist Ian Brown, at the South
Bank Centre and chamber music concerts at the Y in New York.
Paul is a Professor at the Royal Academy and the Royal College of Music. He plays on a cello
made by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume in Paris in 1846.
Artist's official biography, 2000/1
Rumon Gamba: Interview
Rumon Gamba is currently assistant conductor of the BBC
Philharmonic Orchestra, who, under his baton, have produced two
remarkable new recordings of Moeran's Sinfonietta and Cello
Concerto (with Paul Watkins, cellist). In an exclusive interview for
The Worldwide Moeran Database, Rumon told me about his
reaction to music that was somewhat new to both him and the
orchestra.
Rumon Gamba's BBC Biography
Listen to the entire Interview as Real Audio
Listen to the entire Interview as MP3
download player
I started by asking Rumon for a general opinion of Moeran's music
- how much of it he knew and what he made of it:
RG "I don't know much of Moeran's music. I've always known his Sinfonietta - it's probably the
most popular piece - and I was delighted to discover the Cello Concerto, which I didn't know. As
a former cellist I was absolutely delighted by it! It's always very, very beautiful music - people
compare him to Walton and what-have-you, but it's such a distinctive voice, and very playable."
AR: I'm not the only one who went through school and university music courses without hearing
a note of Moeran's music. Was this the same for you?
RG: "It was, yes - utterley - unfortunately."
Why do you think he's been so neglected?
I don't know. There's a lot of these wonderful English composers who have been overlooked. I'm
hoping they're going to start coming back into fashion, now that we've seen everything of
Vaughan Williams and everything of Walton. Basically it's time to start exploring these other,
wonderful composers.
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©2001 Andrew Rose
Judging by the response to the web site, I do seem to have uncovered quite a large number of
people around the world who are very keen on Moeran, some of whom were clearly labouring
under the impression that they were listening alone. Do you think some of the attitudes of the
musical establishment might be softening towards the likes of Moeran?
I hope so - I still think there's a lot of work to do to get him onto concert programmes. I
suppose organisations like the BBC are able to programme his music, but less so elsewhere. I
think it's going to happen, slowly, with this taste for discovering new things, particularly from
our own countrymen.
Moves are afoot to establish a Moeran Society to promote his music - what advice would you as
a conductor give to such a body?
All the other societies seem to be thriving at the moment - just not to be too precious about the
music. Make sure it's performed everywhere. It doesn't matter who performs it, whether it's a
tiny amateur group or a big professional symphony orchestra. There's a couple of societies who
are probably a bit snotty about things like that! It's really about getting the music played
wherever possible.
On to the two pieces you’ve recently recorded - how well did you know them before you came to
them?
I'd only known the Sinfonietta through CDs. I'd never seen it live, I'd never heard of anyone
doing it. I just took the scores when I got them and enjoyed learning them.
Was it your own choice to do that particular work or were you given that to do?
I was given that to do, basically.
You attack the final movement with particular vigour and speed, holding the orchestra together
magnificently. Did this pose any difficulties?
No, actually - it was very playable. The orchestra got to grips with it straight away. There's a
couple of tricky spots for the cellos in the last movement, that's just slightly difficult writing, but
otherwise everything seems to fall very naturally. Actually, compared to the CDs I had heard of
the Sinfonietta, I felt my speeds were a bit different, but looking on the page the tempi seemed
dictated by the writing so very easily, and it's a very performable work.
This is something that also seemed to crop up in the Cello Concerto - the final movement in
your recording with Paul Watkins, you take that at a markedly slower pace than other
recordings, almost removing from it the Irish jig feel. Is that more the way it is on the page?
"I've grown to love the
Sinfonietta and the Cello
Concerto, and if I get the
opportunity to programme
either of them then I shall
do!"
I think so, yes. You get a feeling for these things just by looking at them. It felt right doing it
like that and not to make it too dancey - I don't know whether the great man himself would
agree, but it all seemed to naturally happen that way!
The few people who've heard them so far seem to regard them as newly definitive recordings.
What impression did you get of the players reaction to the music?
Well they thought the Cello Concerto was absolutely wonderful, particularly the second
movement, I suppose. That hit the orchestra the most - with Paul playing it, it was fantastic!
And I think they enjoyed the Sinfonietta as well, actually. None of them had ever heard of it,
never heard either of the pieces, and they were pleasantly surprised, I think.
That's encouraging! The conductor Vernon Handley has been a champion of Moeran for many
years - describing his music as proving "richly rewarding for those prepared to explore". Do you
think Moeran is a composer you might wish to explore further in the future?
Definitely! Without any hesitation at all - definitely!
Would that be in the concert hall as well as in the recording studio?
Whatever - I've grown to love the Sinfonietta and the Cello Concerto, and if I get the
opportunity to programme either of them then I shall do!
Composer of the Week: Moeran
by Leslie Pratt, programme producer
BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week is one of the longest running and most popular strands to
be heard on the network. For the past fourteen months, the sole presenter of the programme
has been Donald Macleod, who interweaves the music with a narrative about the featured
composer. Given that 2000 is the 50th anniversary of his death, I felt that it would be the ideal
opportunity to give some air-time to the music of E.J. Moeran (who has been featured only twice
before, as joint Composer of the Week with Peter Warlock, and similarly with Edmund Rubbra).
Fortunately, the idea was taken on board, and the Moeran wheels were set in motion. This was
a task which I relished greatly, as it gave me the chance to delve wholeheartedly into Moeran’s
life and music for the first time, and to uncover a handful of works which are rarely heard, and
some which had never been recorded.
Donald Macleod and the production team spent a very enjoyable and productive day on the
Norfolk coast, where we recorded some of the programmes in situ. As you will know, Moeran
grew up in this area, predominantly in the village of Bacton-on-Sea, where his grandfather was
vicar of the imposing 13th Century parish church for over fifteen years, and now lies buried in
the churchyard.
The BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week: Moeran series takes the form of a chronological survey
of Moeran’s life and compositions, and will be broadcast from Monday December 11th to Friday
December 15th at 9 o’clock every morning.
Monday 11th December: This first programme concentrates on Moeran’s childhood and
upbringing, his studies under John Ireland at the Royal College of Music and the treatment he
received for the head wound sustained on the western front during the Great War. The music
includes some of his earliest compositions: The Lake Island as performed by pianist Eric Parkin,
the Piano Trio, the A.E. Housman song-cycle Ludlow Town and his first orchestral work In the
Mountain Country.
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Tuesday 12th December: Tuesday’s programme centres on Moeran’s love of the countryside, its
inhabitants and its music. Moeran and his friend Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock) made a number
of folksong-collecting expeditions together, travelling around East Anglia, encouraging the locals
to perform for them and noting down tunes, many of which eventually found their way into the
works of both composers. Our journey around the north Norfolk coast provided the perfect
location for this programme, which we recorded amongst the sussurating reed beds of the
Broads, complete with booming bitterns and chirping moorhens in the distance! For this edition
the BBC Singers, conducted by Stephen Cleobury have provided us with two previously
unrecorded partsongs: The Sailor & Young Nancy and The Jolly Carter, and the BBC
Philharmonic, conducted by Rumon Gamba have made a brand new recording of the Sinfonietta.
There’s also a chance to hear Vernon Handley’s recordings of the Rhapsody No.2 and Lonely
Waters. Whilst compiling this programme, I began to wonder whether those double bass
pizzicati and the end of Lonely Waters are meant to represent the rather vociferous bitterns I
mentioned earlier; personally, I find a striking resemblance. Answers on a postcard, please…
Wednesday 13th December: The third programme focuses on the friendship between Moeran
and Warlock, and their three-year sojourn in Eynsford, Kent. They both shared an interest in the
music of Delius, but it was Warlock who first introduced Moeran to the Elizabethan composers,
of which he was especially fond. We had fully intended to record this programme in the garden
of the Five Bells in Eynsford, but our ambitious journey round Norfolk took rather longer than
we had bargained for, so we had to curtail our plans somewhat. However, as a tribute to the
aforementioned establishment, we begin with Neil Mackey’s rumbustuous recording with
Jennifer Partiridge and male chorus of the Warlock/Moeran collaboration Maltworms. The
programme also includes the Ulster Orchestra’s recording of Whythorne’s Shadow and the
Delius homage, Nocturne. We conclude with another new recording from the BBC Singers of the
Elizabethan-inspired Phyllida & Corydon.
On Thursday December 14th, the programme concentrates on Moeran’s relationship with the
cellist Peers Coetmore, who was the inspiration for much of his later output, and indeed his wife
from July 1945. Coetmore herself begins the programme by playing the Prelude for cello and
piano with Eric Parkin, but the second work is another specially recorded performance by the
BBC Philharmonic, this time of the Concerto for cello and orchestra; the soloist is Paul Watkins.
After their marriage began to falter and Moeran began to spend more time in County Kerry, he
began work on a piece for oboist Eugene Goossens. It is this work, the Fantasy Quartet with
which we end this programme.
Friday 15th December: The final programme, which we recorded on the beach at
Bacton-on-Sea, is a study of Moeran’s final years, which he spent in Kenmare on the west coast
of Ireland. Moeran’s alcoholism, which had become progressively worse over the last ten years
of his life, was eventually to end his marriage to Peers Coetmore. He composed virtually nothing
after this period, and died, presumably of a brain haemorrhage in December 1950. This
programme includes another brand new recording from Stephen Cleobury and the BBC Singers
of the seasonal partsong Ivy & Holly, and one of the 7 Songs from County Kerry, as performed
Composer of the Week: the
Moeran series takes the form
of a chronological survey of
Moeran’s life and
compositions...
by Ann Murray and Graham Johnson. The whole series concludes with Moeran’s magnum opus,
the Symphony in G minor, which has been recorded for us once again by the Ulster Orchestra,
conducted by Vernon Handley.
Serenade in G (1948)
R95
Published
Novello, 1953
1. Prologue
2. Intermezzo*
"...the Serenade reminds
me of a set of variations
but with the theme
omitted..."
3. Air
4. Galop
Recordings
**Ulster Orch., Handley
)
(1990, CD
*Northern Sinfonia,
Hickox
)
(1989, CD
*Guildford Phil. Orch.,
Vernon Handley,
Concert Artist LPA 2002
)
(1966?, LP
**LSO, Basil Cameron
(1948 broadcast, CD
)
*Six movement version
(as published)
**Eight movement
version (as written)
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
5. Minuet
6. Forlana*
7. Rigadoon
8. Epilogue
(*Withdrawn from published version)
Completed in 1948, the Serenade in G was the last piece of
orchestral music Moeran was to complete, and some cite it
as evidence of his gradual decline. Certainly the piece
shows little apparent effort to follow the innovations
explored in preceding works like the Cello Concerto and the
Sinfonietta - indeed four of the eight movements were
plundered from an earlier piece, Farrago, written in 1932
and later withdrawn.
It is important to point out here that the published version
of the Serenade was in six movements, rather than
Moeran's original eight - though not at the composer's
instigation.
After two initial
Piano Arrangement
performances of the full eight work (one of which was The composer and Oxford music
academic Francis Pott has
recorded by Lionel Hill and now appears on the
Symposium CD alongside the Sammons Violin Concerto transcribed and arranged the Air
from the Serenade for solo piano,
and the Goossens Fantasy Quartet), Moeran's
publishers insisted he removed two movements prior to and has kindly offered it to the
site for download as an Adobe
their accepting the work. Their feeling was that in its
Acrobat (pdf) file. If you don't
original form the work was simply too long (to quote
have acrobat reader, it's free
from another era - too many notes!).
download from www.adobe.com.
In my view this culling of the second and sixth
Here's the piano score:
movements, Air and Forlana, was detrimental to the
work as a whole, and we can be grateful for the efforts
Air (118 kb)
of Vernon Handley and Chandos Records for restoring
the Serenade to its full glory for their 1990 CD release. Lewis Foreman mentions in the
sleevenotes: "Unfortunately the deleted movements underline the work's personality, and
without them it is a much less characteristic score" - sentiments I'd wholeheartedly
endorse.
With four movements, the Intermezzo,
Minuet, Forlana and Rigadoon (II, V, VI
and VII), salvaged from the 1932 work
and the other four written around them
it's too easy to look for stylistic
inconsistencies and argue the work's
relative inconsequence. But perhaps in
doing so one misses the beauty of the
piece, especially in its full version. As
much as one might like, for historical
reasons, for Moeran to go out on a
stylistic high, the truth is that the
Serenade is not full of innovations. With
a backward glance to the Tudor
composers Moeran and Warlock had
been fascinated by twenty years earlier,
it is a work of lyrical beauty which
instead clearly demonstrates that, even
at this late stage in his life, and with the
relative difficulties of the two major
Cello works behind him, Moeran had not
lost his ear for a good tune. One might
even speculate that he wrote the
Serenade as a respite from the mental
struggles of the previous works.
Moeran in November 1947
Perhaps in the age of the CD, rather
than the 78 rpm disc, we are more
forgiving of length. If we take Handley's
Chandos interpretation as a guide, the
full eight movements last a little under
24 minutes, yet Moeran's publisher's
cuts remove seven and a quarter of this, almost a third of the whole. No wonder it has
been so regularly written off since publication!
The eight movements run through some quite different styles, sometimes clearly evoking
Elizabethan dances, sometimes pure Moeranite lyricism. Perhaps this is therefore the
greatest charge one can lay against the Serenade maybe it fails it is in the bringing
together as a whole such disparate styles. Yet in experimenting with bringing together in
one piece the Tudor-esque and the late Romantic, Moeran may have been trying to say
something quite different. Whether anyone was listening is another matter.
The full piece pans out as follows:
I Prologue Allegro (Tudor, stately style)
II Intermezzo Allegretto (total Moeran - bright, lyrical, into bittersweet, then jolly)
III Air Lento (contemplative, pastoral, nostalgic)
IV Galop Presto (galloping!, lively, vibrant)
V Minuet Tempo di Minuetto (Tudor-esque lyrical theme worked into romantic hue)
VI Forlana Andante con moto (gentle, pastoral, quite Moeranite)
VII Rigadoon Con brio, ma tempo moderato (almost military/nautical)
VIII Epilogue Allegro un poco maestoso (reprise of prologue)
Listening to this piece over and over again the thought that strikes me is that, with its
stylistic leaps and jumps, the Serenade reminds me of a set of variations but with the
theme omitted. Confused? Well if you imagine the wild changes that run through Elgar's
Enigma Variations, held together by that common melodical theme, you'll get a feeling for
the changes than run through this work. Now take away the melodic theme, replace it
with a themed opening and finish and 6 central movements that take a much more loose
stylistic influence rather than any specific melody or harmony, and there's your Serenade.
Each movement is short and sharp, each one fits within the boundaries of the piece, yet
each is quite different to the others.
I call it a kind of Theme and Variations, only one where the theme is merely the notion of
a style base, rather than a full musical idea in the traditional sense. It is written in a
popular idiom designed to go down well in the concert hall (as it initially did) - perhaps in
this way it was even a pitch for his own Enigma Variations, a work to finally launch him
into the mainstream as enigma had done 50 years earlier for Elgar, and surely coming
close to delivering.
So Moeran is perhaps playing with us with this piece to a degree. Certainly he has not
been served well by the loss of two of his 'variations' for over forty years. As a final
orchestral work to bow out with (unexpectedly, don't forget) the Serenade in G leaves us
with its own enigmas about Moeran's true intentions for the piece. and what might have
become of the major work he was working on concurrently, the elusive Second
Symphony...
How the Serenade and Farrago match up:
Farrago Suite
Serenade in G
1 - Prelude
2 - Intermezzo
1 - Prologue
3 - Air
4 - Galop
2 - Minuet
5 - Minuet
3 - Rondino
6 - Forlana
4 - Rigadoon
7 - Rigadoon
8 - Epilogue
Symphony No 2 in E Flat (unfinished)
R99
Published
n/a
"The Symphony is the devil of a job: I shall get it done it time, but the question of form
and construction is causing me some trouble, as I am arriving at a single-movement
work, or rather a continuous piece having all the ingredients of the usual movements..."
Recordings
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
Moeran
Letter to Lionel Hill
18th March 1948
Moeran went to his grave without completing the symphony
he'd been working on intermittently from 1945. After his
death there is come confusion as to quite what happened to
his remaining manuscripts, and it is quite possible that
many were lost or mislaid; there was certainly a period of
time where very little care seemed to have been taken over
preserving Moeran's work.
What does remain is largely held in an archive at the
Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia, including
some sketches for the Second Symphony. Trying to piece
together information about the work is difficult, and what I
write here is largely assembled from the two currently
available books on Moeran rather than from any 'inside'
information.
It seems the work started as a three movement piece Moeran wrote to Peers Coetmore on 7th January 1946: "The
E flat Symphony progresses, but I am a bit stuck over the
slow movement also about the finish of the first. However, I
have all the material for it and it will only be a matter of
time working it out." By mid-1947, he was still stuck, as
L:ionel Hill recounted: "Jack and I were out for a
walk...when he said 'I'd like your advice. I'm having a lot of trouble with my new
Symphony, and its nearly driving me bats... It's the form of the work that worries me; the
three movements don't cohere, so to speak - there's a lack of unity between them which
is, to miy mind, artistically unsatisfying.' I thought for a minute and then said, 'Couldn't
you make a one-movement work of it, Jack, like the Sibelius 7th?' We walked on in
silence. I gave him a sidelong glance and saw he was deep in thought."
At around this time Moeran commented briefly on his new symphony in a radio interview listen here.
By September 4th, 1947, Moeran had a short score sufficiently advanced that he played
the opening to Lionel Hill on the piano. Hill noted that it was in E flat, "'As in Elgar's
Second,' said Jack, quietly. It began vigorously with high-flying trumpets, followed by a
syncopated strings divisi - the instrumentation was visible on the score. Even on the
piano it was breath-taking in its sweep, and I thought 'This will out-do the First
Symphony if it continues like this.' I cannot recall how much of the work had been
written, but I do remember what fine music it was."
A letter quoted by Geoffrey Self sent
from Moeran (working in Kenmare) to
Peers on 8th March 1948 suggests that
good progress was being made:
"I can't write much because I am at the
moment in a state amounting to stupour
[sic] at the point I have reached in the
symphony. It may be imperfect in its
present form but I think that in the last
pages which complete the first section, I
have reached my high water mark. It is
rather luscious and spring-like - or so I
hope it will sound on the orchestra. And,
incidentally, apart from the lovely
Southern spring here, your gorgeous
cello playing, on the instrument you are
now using which I listened in to last
week put me into such extasy [sic] that
the next morning I really got going with
a tune for cellos mostly in thirds and
sixths. I've tried it out on one or two
locals...they say it reminds them of all
the Kerry tunes put together. The
symphony is taking a peculiar form..."
A few days later he was noting to Lionel
Hill "P.S. New E Flat Symphony going
strong", but this appears to have been
"It began vigorously with
high-flying trumpets,
followed by a syncopated
strings divisi - the
instrumentation was visible
on the score. Even on the
piano it was breath-taking
in its sweep"
the last Hill heard from Moeran about it.
Hill recalled that by 1950 "I was now
becoming more worried about his
memory. He seemed to forget quite
recent event." In fact Moeran's physical
and mental health appears to have been
in decline for quite some time, probably
exacerbated by his drinking. A "state of
total breakdown" (Self) had been
reached by October 1948, and Peers
persuaded him to place himself under
the care of a Dr Hazlett in Cheltenham.
A proposed premiere of the Symphony
by the Hallé Orchestra in the spring of
1949 was postponed. A letter to Peers
from Cheltenham on 14th June 1949
suggests not only great compositional
difficulties, but also some sort of
commitment to continue medical care
until he was 'cured' of his alcoholism:
"...This symphony which I started
perpetrating in Eire, and which I have
been working on here, simply will not
stand...I am not inclined to let go what I
believe to be second rate. I shall have to
scrap this symphony as it is now, nearly
finished, and start again on something
different... the 'venue' is wrong. If I
were in Southern Ireland, I could work it
Jack and Peers Coetmore
out and finish is, but it is absolutely and
irreconcilably impossible to do it here. It started by being Irish, and if I try and put it right
here, it only ends up being pastiche Irish... There are only three alternatives, one is to
tear it up and abandon the E flat symphony and the other is to go to Ireland and complete
it, and the third is to write something else."
By late 1949 Moeran seemed to be suffering from another breakdown and by December
was receiving treatment from a Dr Groves. Work did continue fitfully on the symphony,
and in 1950 he did finally make it to Ireland. But by now, as Moeran's health continued to
deteriorate, it was too late, as Geoffrey Self sadly concludes: "He had achieved the
conditions he thought necessary for the work needed to complete the Symphony - but it
was too late, for he was now incapable of the sustained effort needed."
It is interesting that Moeran had considered the work very close to completion, something
confirmed by his close friend Pat Ryan, who discussed it with him at great length in the
last few months of his life, as searches for it after his death have found little. John
Ireland, examining the remaining sketches after Moeran's death, considered there to be
too little material to attempt any kind of a completetion, an opinion reached by others
since. It therefore seems that either a large amount has been lost, or that Moeran
decided to destroy it himself to make sure it never resurfaced, something he had done
throughout his life.
Writing in the Forum here at The Worldwide Moeran Database, Barry Marsh noted "Sadly
there can be no 'realisation' or 'completion', whatever the word for it these days. 550 bars
of music exists in short score, but after only 9 pages the sketches become disjointed with
little or no fragments to point a further way. The MSS that is now in the Victorian College
of Arts, Melbourne arrived there after a series of blunders and misfortunes...". And so it
seems we will never hear the music which, for a while at least, so enthused and fired Jack
and Lionel up all those years ago.
In The Mountain Country (1921)
R10
Published
OUP, 1925
Recordings
)
(1989, CD
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
From Amazon.co.uk
Excerpt
In The Mountain Country was Moeran's first published
orchestral work, and, as far as can be ascertained, his first
attempt at writing any full orchestral piece. Remarkably for
a piece so early in Moeran's output there are definite links
to Ireland to be deduced, even if musically there are few
clues.
Moeran originally entitled the work "Cushinsheeaun:
symphonic impression", which even if it shows nothing on
the web search radar, if nothing else sounds Irish! (Actually,
further research suggests Co. Mayo, which he first visited in
1918 - see Chronology. He also dedicated the work to the
great Irish composer and conductor Hamilton Harty, whose
persistence with Moeran eventually resulted in the
magnificent triumph of the Symphony in G minor some sixteen years later.
In Geoffrey Self's view, "In The Mountain Country reflects that nature-worship
characteristic of other music of the period", citing Vaughan Williams' Pastoral Symphony
as a near contemporary work, and suggesting a titular affinity at least with his "In The
Fen Country", which one has to admit is pretty striking.
But looking beyond timing and
naming to the music itself we
find something of a paradox.
Moeran's two preceding
works, the Piano Trio and the
First String Quartet, are both
works bursting with exuberant
musical ideas and vibrant
melodies, yet the present
work shows none of this. As
Self says, "the crippling
handicap of the Moeran is the
dullness of its principal idea."
It's hard to put it any better.
This master of the lyrical
melody appears to come
seriously unstuck here.
And yet his orchestral writing
The Mountain Country of County Kerry
and textures, supposedly
those of a first attempt, shows an amazing degree of mastery. Both in texture, harmony
and counterpoint ideas it shows genuine invention and apparent expertise; if only the
core material had matched up to the technique.
Once again, Self puts this ultimately rather forgettable work firmly in its place: "...Moeran
aspires to mountain music and his earth-bound and wooden little tune does not have in it
the potential for ecstasy...and thus can never soar to reach that rapt contemplation of
nature in solitary splendour which we would reasonably expect from the title." Perhaps he
should have stuck to the more abstract Cushinsheean.
...his orchestral writing
and textures, supposedly
those of a first attempt,
shows an amazing degree
of mastery...
Rhapsody No. 1 (1922)
R16
Published
Hawkes, 1925
Recordings
)
(1989, CD
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
After the brilliantly-orchestrated but somewhat tunefully
lacklustre first orchestral work, In The Mountain Country (a
piece, incidentally, which Lewis Foreman described as
"effectively Rhapsody No. 0") of 1921, Moeran really found
his stride the following year with his First Rhapsody. Not
only does this build on the technique of the earlier work,
but melodically it is streets ahead, and writers such as
Geoffrey Self feel it to be a superior work to the Second
Rhapsody which followed it. This implies that here we have
Moeran's finest orchestral writing prior to the Symphony of
1937.
Moeran was still studying under John Ireland when he wrote
the First Rhapsody, and it is to Ireland that the work is dedicated. Despite this, Self finds
more of the influence of Delius, in particular the First Dance Rhapsody and Brigg Fair, and
also that of Butterworth's Rhapsody A Shropshire Lad. Meanwhile, mining other
influences, Foreman adds suggestions of Ravel, Bax and Frank Bridge.
While it can be both fun and instructive
to pick over the possible influences on
an early work of a young student
composer, it is important not to let this
overshadow the fact that the First
Rhapsody is very much a successful
piece in its own right. Beginning
somewhat mysteriously with a short
introduction throwing snippets of
melody around the wind instruments, a
sharp suddent chord interrupts and a
gentle rhythm starts underpin what is
still clearly an opening preamble.
Moeran seems to be warming us up for
the main body of music which doesn't
really get going until almost two
minutes in.
From here on we are into a set of
Ireland and Moeran, 1922
variations around a lyrical modal melody clearly evocative of English folk music, which are
the basis on which we are taken foward for a further ten minutes. That most diligent of
music detectives Geoffrey Self can find no identifiable folk tunes that have been used in
the piece - though the melodies Moeran creates were realistic enough to fool a Musical
Times reviewer in 1925.
Moeran was to become a master of exploring a lot in a relatively short time, as later
orchestral works like the Sinfonietta and its near-contemporary, Overture to a Masque
were to prove. Here he is quite successful in holding his ideas together, possibly more so
than in the Second Rhapsody, and though his build-ups and climaxes have great power
they can sometimes come more out of nowhere rather than out of a logical progression of
the preceding music.
Moeran is also keen to explore some of the more unusual time signatures, at one point
simultaneously pitting a 5/8 bass against a 3/4 orchestra in a way which, remarkably,
works quite brilliantly. As a showpiece for a young composer the First Rhapsody is a
triumph - engaging melodies, warm pasoral lyricism, thrilling climaxes, and mysterious
interludes. I leave it though to Peter Warlock, writing in 1924, to provide a final
alternative interpretation: "...the principal theme of his first orchestral 'Rhapsody' which presented by the bassoon in its upper octave - will always appeal to the ribald as the ideal
tune for all Limericks"
Beginning somewhat
mysteriously with a short
introduction throwing
snippets of melody around
the wind instruments...
Rhapsody No. 2 (1924, revised 1941)
R26/R77
Published
Hawkes, 1925
Chester, 1941 (rev.)
Recordings
)
(1989, CD
Sir Adrian Boult,
Lyrita SRSC 43
)
(1970, LP
Reviews
Proms 1929
Further Writing
Audio
At Moeran.com:
Excerpt
Moeran's Second Rhapsody was commissioned in 1923 by
the Norfolk and Norwich Centenary Festival for 1924, and
received its debut performance under Moeran's baton just
two months after the composer had conducted his first
Rhapsody at the Proms, in October and August 1924
respectively. Yet the second Rhapsody was not heard again
for five years, and he came back to revise it in 1941.
This short history suggests that perhaps not all is right with
this work. indeed, Geoffrey Self goes so far as to say "It is a
flawed work. Its textures are crude...attempts made at
polyphony betray an uncertain apprentice hand". Yet in
1929 the Manchester Guardian was to write that it "made a
good impression on the Promenaders tonight...there is so
much to listen to in this work".
Well in both cases some selective quotation seems to
Real Audio
perhaps mask the truth - see the full reviews and you'll see From the Chandos recording
what I mean. The Second Rhapsody is a very interesting
by Vernon Handley and the
work for Moeran scholars, and contains some fabulous
Ulster Orchestra, the
writing and melodies for listeners. By the time of his mature wonderful central theme:
works, Moeran was a master at encapsulating broad ideas
and themes in a tight space, knitting together the logical
Rhapsody 2 (30")
threads of his musical argument in a way he explored in a
1931 article, John Ireland as Teacher.
But here we find the younger Moeran struggling somewhat.
In that article on Ireland he wrote: "All the music which has escaped consignment to the
shelf has been inherently logical. Music, without logical continuity and shape, is lifeless
from its inception." Perhaps this is a lesson he had already learned. Perhaps in learning
that lesson he realised the value of stalling work on the symphony he'd begun in the
same year as he'd premiered the Second Rhapsody, to return to it many years later,
ready at last to do his material justice.
As I said earlier, the Second Rhapsody
does possess some fine musical ideas.
The central, broad slow melody is
undoubtedly one of Moeran's finest, and
bursts from the surrounded music like
sunlight on a summer's day - a section
of this is illustrated here. The work sees
some of Moeran's earliest genuine Irish
influence, at times unable to stop itself
from leaping into a spontaneous jig.
And there's the Norfolk influence there
too.
It is a work bursting at the seams with
creativity - too much so. He's often so
keen to show us his next great idea that
we seem to say goodbye to the last idea
too quickly. Just as you're wondering
where one theme is going to lead
something else starts bubbling under
until it bursts through and shoulders the
last out of the way. In the push for each
idea to get to the front for a place in the
spotlight the joins start to show.
The Second Rhapsody is one of the
earliest examples of a musical form
Moeran was to make one of his
Jack Moeran, late 1920's
trademarks - the Rondo. Yet here he's
still wrestling with the idea, and it seems to have got the better of him somewhat.
In summary, the Second Rhapsody has all the ingredients the more mature Moeran could
have mixed to create a particularly wonderful musical cake. Yet the less experienced
hand, whilst making a fair stab at it, let it sink a little in the oven and singed the edges a
bit. It still tastes great, but lacks the presentation skills of the master chef. It would be
eleven years before he published another full orchestral score.
As a postscript, Moeran returned to the work in 1941 and revised it for a somewhat
smaller orchestra. Whether this was for musical or financial reasons (he was being
courted by another publisher at the time) is hard to say - perhaps he thought it had
enough in it to merit a second look.
The central, broad slow
melody is undoubtedly one
of Moeran's finest...
Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra (1942-3)
R79
The Rhapsody in F sharp minor* for Piano and Orchestra is
almost, but not quite, Moeran's Piano Concerto, written
shortly before the Sinfonietta which wasn't quite his Second
Symphony. It was written as a Proms commission (following
an earlier suggestion from Arnold Bax that Moeran write
something for piano and orchestra) for the pianist Harriet
Cohen to play. It was first performed at the Royal Albert
Hall on August 19th, 1943, a concert later reflected on by
Lionel Hill:
Published
Chester, 1943
Recordings
Margaret Fingerhut,
Vernon Handley,
Ulster Orchestra:
"I waited impatiently until at last Miss Cohen entered to
applause and sat down at the piano, adjusted her stool,
looked to the conductor - and the Rhapsody sprang to life.
1 - c/w Symphony
2 - c/w Rhapsodies 1 &
2 & In The Mountain
Country
(1989, CD
)
John McCabe,
New Philharmonia
Orch., Braithwaite:
Lyrita SRCS 91
)
(1977, LP
Reviews
Further Writing
"New Music" by Robin
Hull (1946)
Audio
At Moeran.com:
Excerpt
"I had studied the piano reduction score of this work during
Real Audio
previous weeks; nevertheless, I was captivated by the
triple-time entry of the cellos and double basses, followed by Margaret Fingerhut with
by the piano's dramatic statement of the first theme, and as Vernon Handley conducting
the performance continued I became enthralled by the spell the Ulster Orchestra, the
that this composer could weave. There was a juxtaposition opening:
of violence and lyricism that I was later to know was typical
of the man himself. There was also a pervading sense of
Piano Rhapsody (30")
nostalgia for the pastoral scene of long ago - something
whose roots lay deeper than folk music itself."
Geoffrey Self points out that Moeran, despite initial
scepticism, grew to quite enjoy the work himself - unlike
some of its contemporaries. Having writen in October 1943 "to my certain knowledge, it
contains more than its fair share of tripe", eleven months later he was to confess "I find I
was wrong, and I really think that after all it is a very good effort on my part. It seems
now so virile and logical."
Written with a wartime audience in mind, the piece is
both immediately accessible and requiring of
considerable showy virtuosity. Geoffrey Self calls it a
'large-scale waltz', albeit one for which the composer
claimed to have found the inspiration in the 'four-ale
bars of Kerry'. Certainly for an unchallengng,
attractive introduction to Moeran's music, this fifteen
minute piece is hard to beat. As Self notes: "for this
work and one or two others of about the same time,
there was to be a looseness of construction and
relaxation of manner which was not inappropriate to
the aim - a popular work for the delectation of Proms
audiences in wartime." This 'looseness' was to be
significantly tightened up when he came to the
Sinfonietta of 1944.
*Note - from Barry Marsh: "Barry Collett, conductor
of the Rutland Sinfonia, performed the Piano
Rhapsody with Margaret Fingerhut in Leicester in
Pianist Harriet Cohen
EJM's Centenary Year 1994. Both came to the firm
conclusion that the piece should be re-titled 'Rhapsody in F sharp minor' - indeed a study
of the score would seem to support this, that much of the music veers towards the minor,
rather than major keys."
"I was captivated by the
triple-time entry of the
cellos and double basses,
followed by the piano's
dramatic statement of the
first theme, and as the
performance continued I
became enthralled by the
spell that this composer
could weave"
Lonely Waters (1924/31?)
R27
Published
Novello, 1935
Recordings
*Ann Murray,
English Chamber Orch,
Tate
)
(1987, CD
)
(1989, CD
(*includes vocal coda)
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
At Moeran.com:
Vocal coda
From Amazon.co.uk
Excerpt
Of Moeran's shorter pieces for orchestra it is Lonely Waters
which gets the rave reviews. Warlock described it as "a very
attractive piece for small orchestra", Geoffrey Self calls it "a
near-perfect miniature" and for Lionel Hill it was the spur to
his first making contact with Moeran and later became the
title of his book describing his friendship with the composer.
Hill wrote "In retrospect it seems poetically right that Jack
should have met his death in 'some lonely waters'. This
beautiful work was the cause of our friendship, and
somehow his end was foreshadowed in its dying cadence.
Of all his output this is the one work which I can only
occasionally bear to hear."
Lonely Waters has proved difficult to tie to any particular
date - thought Warlock refers to it in 1924 it has also been dated at 1930-31 by Hubert
Foss in his "Compositions of E J Moeran" of 1948. Geoffrey Self seems to plump for the
work being substantially revised at the later point from an earlier work, citing the
harmonic and structural treatments as being too advanced for Moeran's earlier style.
The piece lasts for around nine and a half minutes, and is built around a Norfolk folk song
already included in the 1923 collection Six Folksongs from Norfolk. Moeran wrote two
alternative endings for Lonely Waters, though made clear his preference for the solo voice
rather than cor anglais. Alas all too frequently it seems the latter is easier to get hold of,
though it is possible to find a recording with Ann Murray singing the unaccompanied lines
towards the end of the piece heard in the audio clip on this website:
So I'll go down to some lonely waters
Go down where no-one shall me find
Where the pretty little birds do change their voices
And every moment blow blustering wild
The song originated in Moeran's visits to remote Norfolk pubs collecting and notating the
songs still sung there in what was already a dying oral tradition. With this in mind Moeran
stated "...it should be understood that the singer need not be a professional
one...anybody with a clear and natural manner of singing may sing the verse."
For Self the music is in some ways reminiscent of the style of Vaughan Williams' Pastoral
Symphony of 1922. It certainly has an especially pastoral, romantic, almost tragic air to
it's nostalgic melancholy. It is easy to understand how hearing the music could bring a
tear to the eye of Lionel Hill as he recalled the loss of his good friend.
Lonely Waters was published alongside Wythorne's Shadow as Two Pieces for Small
Orchestra, despite having very little in common, either musically or in orchestral
requirements. One may wonder whether the association actually does each individual
work a disservice.
"somehow his end was
foreshadowed in its dying
cadence"
Whythorne's Shadow (1926-31?)
R49
Published
Novello, 1935
Recordings
English Chamber Orch,
Tate
)
(1987, CD
)
(1989, CD
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
From Amazon.co.uk:
Excerpt
"This piece is based on a part-song by Thomas Whythorne published in 1571. The nature
of the present work cannot be better expounded than by quotation of the poem of
Whythorne's song.
As thy shadow itself apply'th
To follow thee whereso thou go
And when thou bends, itself it wry'th
Turning as thou both to and fro:
The flatterer doth even so;
And shopes himself the same to gloze,
With many a fawning and gay show,
Whom he would frame for his purpose"
from Moeran's preface to Whythorne's Shadow
According to Barry Marsh's meticulous chronology, Moeran
began work on a short piece for small orchestra in 1926
while living in Eynsford with Peter Warlock. The previous
year, Warlock had transcribed, edited and published
Whythorne's As Thy Shadow Itself Apply'th, reviving the
maligned Elizabethan composer's reputation, and providing
the inspiration for one of Moeran's few compositions of the
time.
Unfortunately we will never hear the original version written
at Eynsford. In mid-January, 1929, Moeran left England
with Warlock and a group of friends for France and an
expedition to visit Delius. According to Eric Fenby, however,
Moeran was 'mislaid' on the way, and almost certainly
never met his hero. He also managed to end up drunk in Brussels, as Warlock soon after
related: "his last composition...was unfortunately not picked up by the kindly Brussels
gendarme who found its composer in a state of beatific coma in the gutter some years
ago; and nothing more has been heard of it since that occasion".
Warlock did not live to see the resurrection of Whythorne's Shadow that emerged in
1931, and it is impossible to say how closely it resembles the original. If the
forward-looking String Trio might be seen as an elegy to Warlock, Geoffrey Self suggests
that Whythorne's Shadow is Moeran's almost nostalgic 'In Memoriam' to his friend. The
music begins gently in a very formal evocation of the original harmony, and moves
gradually through rondo form, to become what Self entitles "Warlock's Shadow", its final
chromaticism soaked in the harmonies both composer friends had loved in the 1920s.
Christopher Palmer, in 1976, wrote "What he does here, in fact, is to gather together in a
single brief movement the whole complex chain of technical affinities relating Delius, the
folklorists and the Elizabethans. Here is the English Delius movement in a nutshell."
The piece is coupled with Lonely Waters as "Two Pieces for Small Orchestra", and
invariably the two appear together in recordings. Yet there is little to link the pieces even the orchestral requirements are different - and it seems the association is one of
publishing convenience rather than musical affinity.
Here is the English Delius
movement in a nutshell...
Overture For A Masque (1944)
R82
Published
Joseph Williams, 1949
Recordings
)
(1987, CD
Sir Adiran Boult
Lyrita SRCS 43
)
(1970, LP
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
Blast Legge, his overture must wait... ...honestly, I wish the overture were finished with,
and I were onto something else... ...it is not my top notch... ...now that it's getting into
full score, it is turning out really well... ...I think it turns out to be a good little work what you might call athletic in style...
from Moeran's letters to Peers Coetmore, Nov. 1943 - Feb. 1944
Overture for a Masque was commissioned by Walter Legge
in 1943 for the Entertainments National Service Association
(ENSA), Moeran being one of several composers asked to
write music for performance at concerts for troops during
the Second World War. It comes at a time when Moeran
was at a musical peak, was falling in love with Peers
Coetmore (and consequently would rather have been
writing cello pieces for her), and was approaching a level of
output not seen since his earliest work some twenty years
earlier. It would be a mistake to suggest that he was
churning work out, but certainly this was a fertile and
productive time for him, coming hot on the heels of the
Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra and immediately before
the Sinfonietta and Cello Concerto.
Andrew Burn, in his sleevenotes for the Chandos release, suggests "It is first and
foremost a work designed to entertain...and with its exuberant syncopated rhythms and
sparkling orchestral textures it does just that", a sentiment Geoffrey Self appears to
agree with - it is, he says, "perfectly tailored to its function...[and] demonstrates...his
thorough professionalism." Self goes on to suggest the orchestration as a response to the
Russian school, particularly Tchaikovsky, and perhaps some Stravinskian rhythmic
syncopation, to which I might add the occasional fleeting shadow of Prokofiev.
The Overture is assembled as a Rondo, one of Moeran's favourite musical structures, and
this allows for a wide range of different musical emotions and textures to be explored in
its compact ten minute duration, from the majestic opening fanfare through the
inspirationally dramatic, hints of far away lands (my Prokofiev moment is followed by an
oboe which perhaps suggests the Orient), some defiantly pastoral English lyricism, a
vigorous march, and that's only the first three minutes!
Whether or not Moeran deliberately set out to invoke specifics images memories or
thoughts in the minds of his audience, most of whom would be fighting far away with little
chance of seeing home and their loved ones in the foreseeable future it's difficult when
listening to the Overture not to associate almost all of the music with a mental
progression of images. There's even a menacing central section which would perfectly fit
a reel of Hitler at his most menacing before the British boats, planes and troops march in
to sort him out...
Unlike contemporaries like William Walton, who became heavily involved in writing music
for propaganda films during the war, this was something Moeran never attempted.
Listening to the Overture for a Masque, one can only believe that film music would have
suited Moeran's style down to the ground, if not his temperament!
"It is first and foremost a
work designed to
entertain...and with its
exuberant syncopated
rhythms and sparkling
orchestral textures it does
just that"
Nocturne (1934)
R70
Published
Novello, 1935
Grez-sur-Loing 3.1.1935
My Dear Moeran,
The poem is beautiful and I am sure it must have inspired you to give the best and most
intimate and tender...you have in your heart. Please dedicate it to the memory of
Frederick, it is a tribute which I know would have given him great pleasure.
Recordings
Hugh Mackey,
Ulster Orch.,
Renaissance Singers,
Vernon Handley
)
(1990, CD
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
Jelka Delius.
The Nocturne stands at a crossroads in Moeran’s career as a
composer. Before Delius died in 1934 Moeran had already
accepted a commission from the Norwich Philharmonic
Society, but seems to have been stuck for an idea until the
poet Robert Nichols gave him some lines from an unfinished
verse drama entitled ‘Don Juan Tenorio, the Great’. Why
this should have happened remains unclear, unless it is
reasonable to speculate that within the framework of Don
Juan’s ‘Address to the Sunset’ lies Nichols’s own eulogy for
Delius - he knew Delius well. It is essentially a poem of
twilight, evoking much of the atmosphere that is to be
found in Delius’s own settings of texts by Nietzche and Walt
Whitman. But how did Nichols want Moeran to respond? It
is indeed rare that any composer should so quickly put
aside work on a symphony in order to satisfy the plea of a
poet to set his words to music; yet throughout the late summer and autumn of 1934
Moeran took up residence in Nichols’s own Sussex home so that he might complete the
Nocturne. Once finished, he sent the piece to Delius’s wife Jelka, receiving in turn what
seemed to be the ultimate approval.
There is evidence to support the fact that it was much needed. From his student days at
the Royal College of Music Moeran had fallen in love with with the music of Delius and, in
the company of Philip Heseltine [AKA Peter Warlock], himself a Delius ‘disciple’, he had
the opportunity of visiting Grez on at least two occasions. It is, perhaps, a telling
reflection on Heseltine’s relationship with his friend that Moeran, always the less dominant
of the two but probably the one with more humility, was left to be ‘mislaid’ (Heseltine’s
own word) in a taxi and so never got to meet his idol. Fate was to deal a crueller blow in
1929, when, with the invitation to meet Delius at Beecham’s Delius Festival in London
accepted, Moeran suffered an injury which was to confine him to bed for the next
eighteen months. It became a time of self-appraisal, of realising that the years spent with
Heseltine, although fun, had rendered him creatively sterile.
The sudden death of Heseltine in 1930 was a bitter blow, but, in retrospect, the answer to
Moeran’s dilemma - how to go about re-establishing the reputation that he had made
over six years earlier on the British musical scene.
"Delius would have loved to set Robert Nichols’s poem. Moeran does not, however, try to
tell us how Delius would have done it", wrote the critic Basil Maine after the first
performance of the Nocturne in 1935. In the 1933 Songs of Springtime Moeran had
already written a kind of ‘choral chamber music’ but here the treatment is broader, the
canvas a larger one. Although the work is short, it encapsulates much of what was to
come - the Symphony, the two concertos and the 1939 choral suite Phyllida and Corydon.
In Moeran’s words, "The Nocturne should be regarded as a kind of tone poem evolved
around Nichols’s lines, from which both its form and inspiration have been derived. As a
preliminary to hearing this music, the listener is advised to read the poem carefully
through, allowing its mood and meaning to sink in, rather than to attempt to follow it in
performance as a literal line by line "setting" of the words."
Exquisite stillness! What serenities
Of earth and air! How bright atop the wall
The stonecrop’s fire and beyond the precipice
How huge, how hushed the primrose evenfall!
How softly, too, the white crane voyages
Yon honeyed height of warmth and silence,
whence
He can look down on islet, lake and shore
And crowding woods and voiceless promontories
Or, further gazing, view the magnificence
Of cloud- like mountains and of mountainous cloud
Or ghostly wrack below the horizon rim
Not even his eye has vantage to explore.
Now, spirit, find out wings and mount to him,
Wheel where he wheels, where he is soaring soar.
Hang where now he hangs in the planisphere Evening’s first star and golden as a bee
In the sun’s hair - for happiness is here!
Robert Nichols
"It is essentially a poem of
twilight, evoking much of
the atmosphere that is to
be found in Delius’s own
settings of texts by
Nietzche and Walt
Whitman"
(Address to the Sunset,
from ‘Don Juan Tenorio, the Great’)
Solo music
There is of course a certain degree of overlap between this and other sections of Moeran's
output - with the exception of the piano pieces he did not write for unaccompanied solo
instruments. It is therefore in the interests of helpfulness that all works where there is an
identifiable instrumental soloist involved have been included in this category.
Piano Music
Piano Works Page
Three Pieces (1919) R4
(1920) R5
On a May Morning (1921)
Written during what is roughly the first half of his career, Moeran's R12
music for solo piano is just about sufficient to fit onto a Compact
Toccata (1921) R13
Disc - indeed an excellent recording of these works has been
made by Eric Parkin. Several of the pieces were published
Stalham River (1921) R14
grouped together, and these have been presented here in those
original groupings. The works span the years 1919 to 1933, and
Three Fancies (1922) R17
vary from relatively playable two or three minute pieces to the
technically challenging fifteen minute Theme and Variations. In
Two Legends (1923) R22
addition he wrote a Piano Trio in 1920, and much later on, the
Third Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, completed in 1943.
Summer Valley (1925)
R37
Bank Holiday (1925) R36
Sonatas
Moeran's three sonatas often seem to explore areas untouched by
his other works. The better known of the three, those for Violin
and Piano and for Cello and Piano both offer a starkness of voice
not often apparent in Moeran's other work. Of great interest to
historians and true Moeran nuts is the Sonata for Two Violins.
Written largely from his hospital bed, this work comes from a vital
time as he attempted to turn from the Delius-influenced
harmonies of the 1920s and find a new voice. Despite receiving
good reviews on its debut, the work has, more than any other,
been the subject of neglect. In an attempt to rectify this, I have
been able to track down a copy of the score and commission a
world première recording of this fifteen minute piece, now
available on the site.
Irish Love Song (1926)
R47
The White Mountain
(1927) R50
Two Pieces (1933) R67
Rhapsody for Piano and
Orchestra (1942-3) R79
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Concertos
Moeran's Violin Concerto is, for me, one of the great works of this
Violin Sonata (1923) R15
genre. If there is one piece which justifies Moeran receiving
greater recognition it is surely this - a work which can swing you
from delight to tears in minutes. The Cello Concerto was one of
Moeran's last major works, written for his wife - the cellist Peers (1930) R53
Coetmore - in 1945, and stands as a robust and sweeping
Cello Sonata (1947) R92
confirmation of his compositional brilliance.
©2001 Andrew Rose
Oboe Music
The Fantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings was written in 1946 for the great oboe player Leon
Goossens, and is one of a very small number of works for this particular combination of
instruments. This piece is also to be found in the Chamber Music section.
R78
Cello Concerto (1945) R89
Fantasy Quartet (1946)
R90
Solo Piano Works
Published
See individual works
Recordings
Eric Parkin
(1994, CD
)
Una Hunt
(Spring 2001, CD)
Eric Parkin
(Selection)
Lyrita SRSC 42
(1972, LP
)
Iris Loveridge
(Selection)
Lyrita RCS 3
(1959, mono LP
)
Moeran wrote just about a CD's worth in total of published
music of solo piano, in addition to a handful of earlier,
unpublished works, between the years 1919 and 1933.
Most of the works last somewhere between 2 and 5
minutes, with the notable exception of the Theme and
Variations, his only extended work for solo piano, stretching
towards a quarter of an hour. Much of the music of this
time shows Moeran's earlier influences, such as Delius and
Ireland, and the set makes an attractive listen. The
recording by Eric Parkin is excellent, and a new disc by Irish
Pianist Una Hunt is due for release in 2001.
I am grateful, as ever to Barry Marsh, for his notes, and
also to J Martin Stafford for permission to use extracts from
his Eric Parkin CD. For anyone having difficulty in obtaining this CD, he writes "I will send
the Moeran disc to any address in the world (air mail where appropriate) for £12-50
(cheque to me) or a $20-00 bill (not cheque, as my bank would charge me about $10 to
convert it to sterling). I am only an e-mail message or a letter away, so no one who
wants my products should have too much difficulty in obtaining them."
You can contact J Martin Stafford, 298 Blossomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1TH, England,
visit the website, or e-mail: [email protected]
Barry Marsh's Piano Works Notes
Three Piano Pieces (1919). R4
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
At Moeran.com:
Autumn Woods
On a May Morning
Stalham River
Elegy
Summer Valley
Bank Holiday
Also available from
Amazon
These are Moeran's first published compositions; they also mark the start of a lifelong
love affair with Ireland, its scenery and its people. Early in 1918 he had come to Boyle in
County Roscommon to recuperate from his war injuries. His first response to the
landscape presents us with an impression not of reality but of other-worldliness. The Lake
Island evokes Yeats's `land of fairie', unfolding lento over the calm and peaceful water.
As a student, Moeran had heard Bax's In the Faery Hills. Autumn Woods owes something
to that composer's tone poem November Woods, composed only the year before (1917).
By contrast, At a Horse Fair is a lively depiction of a fair that Moeran had attended in
Roscommon. For the first time we hear the offbeat rhythms which were to colour so many
of his later works.
Published: Schott, 1921
Theme and Variations (1920) R5
The theme, introduced andante, seems instantly recognisable and yet cannot be
categorised. A Norfolk folksong, surely? But no. It is Moeran's own, and its beauty serves
as the basis for six variations and a finale. The first two are marked Poco piu moto and
Allegro scherzando. The third, Alla marcia a con energico, is a march built out of rising
octaves, which climax only to fall away into stillness. By contrast, Variation 4 is a calm
Allegretto mixing bars of 6/8 and 9/8. The fifth, Vivace, reveals Moeran's true stature and
looks forward to the Cello Sonata of 1947. Variation 6 is slow and songlike, non troppo
lento a rubato. A series of violent chords wakes us from our reverie as the finale,
Allargando ma non troppo brings this, the most extended of his piano pieces, to its
scintillating conclusion.
On a May Morning (1921) R12
In 1920 Moeran resumed his studies at the Royal College of Music. His composition
teacher was John Ireland, whose influence is clearly heard in this work of 1921. If the
style is derivative, the structure is individual, transforming a rather limpid introduction
into a more eventful dance in 6/8 time.
Toccata (1921) R13
Written in Norfolk at the same time as Stalham River, the music is characterised by the
emergence of its theme in chords contrasted by a singing central section. Again the
writing is florid, in the manner of Debussy's Children's Corner Suite, for which Moeran had
a great affection.
Published: Chester, 1924
Stalham River (1921) R14
The inscription on the manuscript "Bacton, Norfolk September 1921" refers to the village
where the family had been living since 1913. Expeditions into the East Norfolk countryside
often brought the composer to the tiny hamlets of Sutton and Stalham. With its florid
writing, this is a loving portrait of that part of the world which he knew so well and which
inspired the 1924 orchestral piece Lonely Waters.
Published: Chester, 1924
Piano Music
Three Pieces (1919)
(1920)
On a May Morning (1921)
Toccata (1921)
Stalham River (1921)
Three Fancies (1922)
Two Legends (1923)
Summer Valley (1925)
Bank Holiday (1925)
Irish Love Song (1926)
The White Mountain
(1927)
Two Pieces (1933)
Three Fancies (1922) R17
The Norfolk countryside impressed the young Moeran, particularly on his long walks from
village to village in search of folk songs. After a short introduction the main theme of
Windmills develops presto from a three bar fragment. The reiterated accompanying figure
suggests the whirling of windmill sails - a familiar sight on the Broadland skyline. Elegy
brings us to the heart of the matter, a dreamy pastorale yet with hints of darker moods
below the surface - a prophetic glimpse perhaps of the composer's own destiny.
Burlesque whirls us around, calling to mind the music of Mahler, of whom he was to write:
his music is perfectly sublime to the point of spiritual ecstacy.
Two Legends (1923) R22
By 1923 Moeran was on the threshold of success. Folksong had been the unifying element
in his first orchestral rhapsody but, as with Vaughan Williams, it was so much a part of his
subconscious that he could just as easily create his own. This is how A Folk Story is cast.
Rune is more elusive but no less atmospheric. Its title, which relates to the Viking
`alphabet of signs' may owe something to Bax's interest in the subject. Moeran had met
him in 1919, but both composers were influenced by a greater master, who had long ago
fallen under the spell of the Norse myths - Sibelius.
Published: Augener, 1924
Summer Valley (1925) R37
Moeran dedicated this piece to Delius, whom he fervently admired ever since hearing his
Piano Concerto while still a student. Delius's style is imitated in a beautiful Sicilienne, a
form often used in Delius's tone poems. The layout of Summer Valley seems to show
Moeran thinking more of orchestral colour than of the textures of the piano.
Published: OUP, 1928
Bank Holiday (1925) R36
This short celebratory piece, with more than an echo of Percy Grainger's Shepherd's Hey,
seems to be Moeran's way of expressing optimism for a new future. 1925 was, after all,
the year in whch he would break away from his conventional family background and go to
live with the equally unconventional Peter Warlock.
Irish Love Song (1926) R47
Moeran's visits to Ireland did not become frequent until the early 1930s, so this folk song
might have been brought to his attention by Peter Warlock (who too had spent some time
in Ireland and to whom this arrangement is dedicated). On the other hand, Moeran might
have heard it as early as 1918. Hamilton Harty, another of Moeran's mentors, also used
this tune in his Irish Symphony.
The White Mountain (1927) R50
Moeran made his piano arrangement of this Irish folk song in 1927, a significant year in
which he was considering how to exorcise the dominant influence of Peter Warlock. The
overt use of chromaticism is here avoided in favour of simplicity. The tune must have
haunted Moeran; for shortly before he died in 1950 he was contemplating a Symphonic
Scena to verses by his friend Niall O'Leary Curtis, the last part of which was to have been
based on The White Mountain.
Two Pieces (1933) R67
Several of Moeran's works after 1930 are pervaded by an underlying sadness which
mirrors a loss. Peter Warlock had died in that year. The hymn-like almost mournful
sadness of the Prelude in G minor is in curious contrast to the perky echoes of `Tom, Tom
the Piper's Son' in the middle section. The Berceuse is a continuous melody rooted in the
traditions of folk- song, freely accompanied but also harmonised in the grandest Delian
manner.
Key
Vocal Music
= Additional notes
Jack Moeran was a prolific writer, collector and arranger of vocal music, almost entirely in
available
the song form. It is a seam which cuts through the middle of his entire life's output, from
the early 1920's to the very last year of his life. Of the 97 published works listed in
Geoffrey Self's book "The Music of E. J. Moeran" no less than 63 are vocal works, many of which
are collections or cycles of several individual songs.
Unlike the instrumental music, much of which has been recorded and can be bought, vast tracts Spring goeth all in white
(1920) R8
of Moeran's vocal music are unavailable at a store near you today. Yet I would imagine that
more people are exposed to Moeran's vocal music, through choirs and amateur singing, than
Twilight (1920) R7
have ever listened to the rest of his output.
Folk Song
Ludlow Town (1920) R9
The Day of Psalms (1922)
R18
When June is Come (1922)
R19
Two Songs (1923) R24
Two Songs from the
Repertoire of John Goss
(1924) R29
Moeran began collecting folk songs whilst still at school at
Moeran Lyrics etc.
Uppingham. It was a passion which was to endure to the very end
of his life, even taking in the Spring of 1948, which he spent living Lyrics and texts used by
Moeran can be found here:
amongst the tents of a group of tinkers in south-west Ireland,
prior to completing his Songs From County Kerry, a collection that
The Lieds and Songs Text
had begun in 1934.
Page
The Merry Month of May
By 1926 Peter Warlock suggested Moeran had already collected at
least 150 songs - a collection of seventeen were published in The An extensive British song site (1925) R38
Folk Song Journal in 1922, notated simply with the tune and
can be found here:
Come Away, Death (1925)
words. Of these, six were to form his Six Folksongs From Norfolk,
R39
published with piano accompaniment in 1924. Another such
British Song Fa-la-la
collection came from Suffolk in 1932.
A Dream of Death (1925)
R40
Moeran had an instinctive ear for folk melodies, and much of his instrumental music appears to In Youth is Pleasure (1925)
be shot through with tunes one might imagine he collected in the pubs and inns of rural England R41
and Ireland. Yet in truth Moeran was able to turn his natural melodic gifts to creating new
folk-like melodies which would sit easily alongside the best of his collections, and these collected
Troll the Bowl (1925) R42
songs rarely appeared outside of his specific folk song arrangements.
'Tis time, I Think, by
Wenlock Town (1925) R43
See also Moeran's article "Folk Songs and some Traditional Singers in East Anglia" (1946) and
Far in a Western Brookland
Peter Warlock's article "E J Moeran" (1924)
(1925) R44
Search
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©2001 Andrew Rose
Original works for voices
In addition to his folk song arrangements, Moeran wrote a large
number of original vocal works, setting the words of several great
poets, including, in particular, A. E. Housman, Shakespeare,
James Joyce and Seamus O'Sullivan. His two major works for
unaccompanied chorus, Songs of Springtime (1930) and Phyllida
and Corydon (1939) both take a series of Elizabethan poems from
a variety of writers, yet brings them together in quite different
styles - the earlier work full of the Delian harmonies of Moeran's
earlier output, the later written in the style of the Elizabethan
madrigal, albeit reinterpreted with a truly modern sense of
chromaticism.
Seven Poems of James
Joyce (1929) R51
Rosefrail (1929) R52
The Sweet O' the Year
(1931) R61
Loveliest of Trees (1931)
R62
Blue Eyed Spring (1931) R63
Tilly (?) R105
Four English Lyrics (1934)
R69
Diaphenia (1937) R72
Rosaline (1937) R73
Four Shakespeare Songs
Another important work, neglected more for difficulty in staging than for lack of musical merit is
(1940) R76
the Nocturne Moeran wrote following the death of Delius in 1934. This beautiful work, for
Invitation in Autumn (1944)
baritone, chorus and orchestra, lasting around fifteen minutes, is, in the words of Geoffrey Self,
R84
"less that or a choral work than of an orchestral tone poem which chorus obbligato; much of the
chorus, indeed, is wordless". Self suggested it a piece more suited to recording than live
Six Poems of Seamus
performance - perhaps Chandos picked up on this comment when they recorded it in 1990.
O'Sullivan (1944) R85
Rahoon (1947) R93
O Fair Enough are Sky and
Plain (?) R100
Church Music
Moeran wrote a small amount of music for the church. Despite his
father, grandfather and brother entering the Anglican priesthood,
Jack Moeran was no believer, and described his religious output as
"this tripe for the church". It is therefore interesting to note that
three of his four published works for the church came out in the
same year, 1931 - a time when Moeran was a little strapped for
cash. Geoffrey Self suggests Moeran would have seen this as a
potentially lucrative market, yet it was one he would only return
to one more time. Moeran's opinion of his church music may not
have been high, but they were well received and still performed
now. A long search may track down recordings of both the Te
Deum and Jubilate, (The Choir of Norwich Cathedral on Priory
Records) and the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (The Choir of St Edmundsbury Cathedral on
I - Voice & Piano
Six Folksongs from
Norfolk (1923) R23
The Sailor and Young
Nancy (1924) R30
Gaol Song (1924) R31
The Little Milkmaid (1925)
Priory Records) - or you can order direct from their website.
R45
O Sweet Fa's the Eve (1925)
R46
Six Suffolk Folksongs
(1931) R60
Parson and Clerk (1947) R93
Songs from County Kerry
(1950) R97
II - SATB Chorus
O Sweet Fa's the Eve (?)
R101
The Sailor and Young
Nancy (1948-9) R97
The Jolly Carter (1944) R86
III - Vocal Trio
I'm Weary, Yes Mother
Darling (1946) R91
IV - Male Voices
Sheepshearing (?) R102
Alsatian Carol (1932) R65
Under the Broom (1924)
R32
Commendation of Music
(1924) R33
Christmas Day in the Morning
(1924) R34
The Jolly Carter (1924) R35
Maltworms (1926) R48
Green Fire (?) R106
The Echoing Green (1933)
R68
Weep You No More, Sad
Fountains (1934) R20a
The Lover and his Lass (?)
R102
To Blossoms (?) R107
Moeran's Church Music
Magnificat and Nunc
Dimittis (1930) R55
Praise the Lord, O
Jerusalem (1930) R56
Te Deum and Jubilate
(1930) R57
Blessed are Those
Servants (1938) R74
Unaccompanied Chorus
I - SATB
Weep You No More, Sad
Fountains (1922) R20
Gather ye Rosebuds (1922)
R21
Robin Hood Borne on his Bier
(1923) R25
Songs of Springtime
(1930) R54
Phyllida and Corydon
(1939) R75
II - Mixed Chorus with Male
Voice or Semi-Chorus
Blue Eyed Spring (1931) R63
Male Voices
Ivy and Holly (1932) R66
Candlemas Eve (1949) R96
Chorus and Orchestra
Nocturne (1934) R70
Ludlow Town (1920)
R9
Published
OUP, 1924
1. When smoke stood up from Ludlow
2. Farewell to barn and stack and tree
3. Say, lad, have you things to do?
4. The lads in their hundreds
Recordings
Moeran's first settings of Housman date from 1916, a mid-summer respite from the war.
Ludlow Town was composed in 1920 following the resumption of studies at the RCM with
John Ireland.
Graham Trew (baritone)
Roger Vignoles (piano)
Meridian E 77032
)
(LP
Moeran chose to set Housman's 'Word-music' in closely corresponding terms; compare,
for example, the contrasting subtleties and simplicities of "When smoke stood up from
Ludlow" with the more grisly "Farewell to barn and stack and tree".
John Shirley-Quirk
(baritone)
Martin Isepp (piano)
Saga EC 3336-2
"A Recital of English
Songs"
)
(1996, CD
[excludes 'The Lads in
their Hundreds']
Reviews
Musical Times,
Jan 1925
Further Writing
Complete Lyrics
Audio
When the text demands a background of colour and suggestion, the 26 year old composer
can respond as effectively as any of his contemporaries. If the harmonies of "Say, lad,
have you things to do?" betray more than a hint of his teacher, the final song of the cycle
points the way ahead. "The lads in their hundreds" describes the bustle Ludlow Fair; fair
days always excited Moeran and usually brought out the 'Irishness' in him. The lively jig
that we hear would have its apotheosis in the wild Rondo of the Violin Concerto twenty
years later.
"the 26 year old composer
can respond as effectively
as any of his
contemporaries"
Seven Poems of James Joyce
R51
Published
OUP, 1930
Recordings
none known
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
a - Strings in the Earth and Air
b - The Merry Greenwood
c - Brightcap
d - The Pleasant Valley
e - Donneycarney
f - Rain Has Fallen
e - Now O Now in this Brown Land
...there's often an almost
melancholy reflective
wistfulness about them...
1929 saw the start of Moeran's renaissance as a
creative composer, following the barren years
spent with Warlock in Eynsford where drinking
and partying tended to push musical composition
into a rather forgotten corner. It was a series of
poems by James Joyce entitled 'Chamber Music'
which finally galvanised Moeran back into action
and produced this set, plus a couple of other
songs - Tilly (R105) and Rosefrail (R52). Joyce
was apparently delighted with Moeran's settings,
though it has been suggested that he was almost
always generous with his praise for any composer
choosing to set his texts!
That said, without doubt the Moeran settings in
the Seven Poems are truly delightful, and despite
quite a range of expression and mood - The Merry
Greenwood and Bright Cap are particularly upbeat
by contrast to the other songs, which often have
an almost melancholy reflective wistfulness about
them - there is a real unity holding them together
above and beyond the words. Geoffrey Self points
James Joyce in 1929
out the commonality of a single chord underpinning three of the seven songs - a widely
spread G-D-B-A - which he associates with Joyce's idea of 'music of the transient seasons'
underpinning his texts.
In The Cool Valley anyone familiar with Moeran's piano music will immediately recall his
1925 piece Summer Valley (R37), for here Moeran reworks this as an instrumental
prelude to the song. Self even goes as far as to ask whether Moeran did not already have
the Joyce poem in mind when writing the original piano piece - perhaps he had had these
poems in the back of his mind for several years. It is certainly interesting that the central
song is the one which looks back so clearly to a work which came at the tail-end of his
previous burst of intense creativity.
Another apparent parallel though turns out to be impossible. When I first heard the
opening three notes of Donneycarney, I was immediately reminded of the jazz song
'Misty' - where the words "Look at me..." match so closely in tune and rhythm Moeran's
opening "Oh It was out..." it is uncanny. But no, Moeran was not secretly tuning into
shortwave jazz broadcasts of BIllie Holliday from the USA in the '20s - it turns out that
Errol Garner wrote the music for Misty around 1957, so in this case any likeness is totally
coincidental! So there goes another tempting Moeran theory...
The final song of this set, Now, O Now in this Brown Land, is by far the longest of the set,
more than double the length of any other. Examining the score, Self notes that the
opening bars for the piano here appear to predict the opening of Moeran's Violin Concerto.
It's one of those things which doesn't necessarily jump out at you when you hear the
piece, but listen carefully and you may well hear it. As in all of these cases there is a clear
temptation to read hidden meanings into these things, and Self presumes this deliberately
implies the Ireland that Joyce appears to be writing about, the same Ireland with which
the Violin Concerto is associated so strongly. Well, in these instances one can only go on
instinct, and I am inclined again to veer towards coincidence. Yes, on the page there is
clear similarity, but to the ear they seem quite different and to the majority it's a link
which needs careful pointing out. Having been so brazen in his use of Summer Valley
earlier in this cycle, would Moeran choose to do this more covertly later?
This does in fact raise an important issue with Moeran's music in general. As a composer
he often wears his heart on his sleeve, and parallels have been drawn between many
different works and those of Moeran, where it is sometimes suggested that Moeran is
taking rather too much from those who preceeded him. Yet a composer with such a gift
for lyricism surely has no need to borrow from anyone else, and his music always makes
musical sense regardless of whether a snatch of this or a snippet of that sounds like
something else. Recall Bax's quote: "I well remember his perturbation when I pointed out
to him that a passage in his Symphony bore a remarkable resemblance to the famous
whirlwind in [Sibelius'] Tapiola". There is also a debate about similarities between the first
movement of the Symphony and that of Stenhammer's 2nd.
I would suggest that the Seven Poems of James Joyce suggests not only that Moeran very
occasionally quoted conciously, but also that there are a number of genuinely coincidental
similarities between his music and that not only of other composers but also of his own.
Moeran is clear where he deliberately quotes. It is little more than unfortunate where he
accidentally quotes, but is surely not worth getting worked up about to the extent that it
might impair one's enjoyment of his music.
Four English Lyrics (1934)
R69
Published
Winthrop Rogers, 1934
Recordings
Anne Dawson, Roderick
Barrand
Hyperion A66103
)
(LP, 1984
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
1
2
3
4
-
Cherry Ripe (Campion)
Willow Song (John Fletcher)
The Constant Lover (William Browne)
The Passionate Shepherd (Marlowe)
Moeran wrote the Four English Songs in 1934, the same year he restarted work on his
Symphony, and after several years of reappraisal which had seen the innovations of the
Sonata for Two Violins and the String Trio in particular. His most recent song collections
prior to this had been the Seven Poems by James Joyce and the Songs of Springtime,
both written 5 years earlier in 1929, and just as Moeran was getting back into the swing
of composition after his relatively barren years in Eynsford with Peter Warlock.
The previous set of solo songs, the Joyce settings, came together as a real masterpiece,
perhaps among his finest sets of vocal work, and yet somehow Moeran seems unable to
capture that same je ne sais quoi here. One senses perhaps a lack of personal
engagement in the creation of this set that perhaps he was more inclined to work on
when setting the words of his friend Joyce. Indeed, that highly sensitive, personal feeling
was to reappear some years later, with the Six Poems by his friend Seamus O'Sullivan.
As Geoffrey Self points out, Moeran was no great fan of singers, and he seems to suggest
that these songs were, in a way, 'dumbed down' to find popular appeal amongst those
singers who had tended to ignore him in the past. Moeran's mistake, perhaps, was to
chose the ballad form, whose heyday had already passed, and to miss his target by trying
to hard to conform to what he felt would be popular, rather than follow his own musical
instinct and whim.
That is not to say that the songs here are not worth hearing. On the contrary, there is
indeed good material here, and good craft. 'Cherry Ripe' in particular seems to have the
sort of sticking quality that makes it hard to get out of your head once heard. Self points
to close similarities between The Constant Lover and Warlock's 'Passing By', before
coming to the robust conclusion that Moeran has taken Warlock's model and improved on
it.
And yet... And yet... There seems a lack of overall progression, a lack of coherence which
leaves one somewhat unsatisfied. Despite the craftsmanship and experience of 1934
vintage Moeran, there is something lacking which can be found even in his most early
song cycle, Ludlow Town of 1920. The Four English Lyrics do deserve a hearing, but they
are unlikely to set your heart on fire.
...seems to have the sort
of sticking quality that
makes it hard to get out of
your head once heard...
Six Poems of Seamus O'Sullivan (1944)
R85
Published
1946, Joseph Williams
Recordings
Reviews
Robin Hull,
Penguin Music
Magazine, 1947
Further Writing
Audio
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Evening
The Poplars
The Cottager
The Dustman
Lullaby
The Herdsman
Seamus O'Sullivan was the pen name for James Sullivan
Starkey (1879-1958), the Dublin born writer who founded
the 'Dublin Magazine' in 1923 which he edited until the year
of his death. He was one of several Irish literary friends of
Moeran, and his 1944 setting of six O'Sullivan poems for
solo voice and piano is one of the highlights of Moeran's
song output.
The Six Poems of Seamus O'Sullivan came at a time when
Moeran was at a creative peak - the same year saw his
Sinfonietta and Overture for a Masque, the Violin Concerto
and Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra were only just behind
"The six Seamus O'Sullivan
Poems I did a good bit of in him, and he was about to scale the heights of his Concerto
the public lounge of Wynn's and Sonata for Cello of 1945 and 1947 respectively. These
Hotel in the centre of Dublin" were golden years indeed, and the O'Sullivan songs fit
perfectly into this as superb examples of Moeran's
(Letter to Leonard Duck)
songwriting skills.
Moeran did in fact set seven O'Sullivan poems to music at this time, with "Invitation to
Autumn" appearing separately. An eighth, unpublished and undated setting of O'Sullivan's
"If there be any Gods" survives as a pencil manuscript, the first page of which can be
seen in Geoffrey Self's book, "The Music of E J Moeran".
Of the six songs published together there is a definite
Letter, 1943
feeling of wistfulness, or as Self suggests, "a haunted, fey
feeling...autumnal in mood...an imagery of aging and
"I think these are my swan
transience". The piano accompaniment is clean and sparse
songs as far as solo songs
by comparison to his earlier style (none of the "mush of
are concerned"
Delius-line chords" he was so keen to purge in 1930) - the
opening of The Cottager, for example consists of a single, simple chord followed by seveal
bars of unharmonised solo melody before the singer enters, almost unaccompanied.
Moeran was about to entend his orchestral technique in setting the Sinfonietta for a
Haydn sized orchestra, successfully refining his mastery of orchestration to get the most
out of deliberately limited resources. One detects a similar 'less is more' philosophy
informing these songs settings, as if at times Moeran is deliberately paring down his
earlier tendencies to see how far he could move in the opposite direction. Of the final
song, The Herdsman, he wrote to Peers Coetmore in 1943:
"The one I have done today is strange; it is called The Herdsman and is about slow
moving cattle. As the vocal part is largely on one note, it is possible it will not find favour
with our brilliantly intelligent English singers!"
It must be said that Moeran did not hold singers in very high regard! Yet Moeran uses a
near single note idiom to great effect when performed sensitively, allowing his performer
a brief moment central to the song in which to shine - "Oh happy meadows and trees and
rath and hedges" - as the piano breaks out of its eerie bitonal sparsity to throw a ray of
sunlight over the proceedings - a typical Moeran device.
Of the other songs in this collection, Evening starts out in a warm sunny major key which
drifts in and out of darker tonalities, capturing perfectly in music the onset of the "twilight
and the darkening day".
The Poplars seems to recall something of the Norfolk in Moean's use of melody, whereas
The Dustman, told from the perspective of one watching through a window at night is a
brief musical description, first setting the insomniac wandering through his house to a
languid atmosphere, before sparking into life as he spots the dustman, already up and
about and doing his work.
Finally, Lullaby, the penultimate song, alternates between a gently rocking piano
accompaniment and a dream sequence section that is more a depiction of the lyrics "dream of the wild winds that wrestle in the night", while the vocal melody slips in and
out of tonalities, its wide leaps contrasting with The Herdsman that follows it.
"a haunted, fey feeling...
autumnal in mood...
an imagery of aging and
transience"
Six Folk Songs from Norfolk (1923)
R23
Published
Augener, 1924
Recordings
Benjamin Luxton (bar.)
David Willison (piano)
2 songs only:
The Pressgang,
The Shooting of his
Dear
)
(1990, CD
1. Down by the Riverside
2. The Bold Richard
3. Lonely Waters
4. The Pressgang
5. The Shooting of his Dear
6. The Oxford Sporting Blade
Reviews
"Maybe to the townsman they are bawdy, but to the countryman who sings as he works
in the fields, they are just a natural and simple expression of fact", concluded Moeran in a
1947 BBC broadcast. He was well qualified to make such a statement, having been an
avid folk-song collector since the age of 15. Starting in his home county of Norfolk, he
had collected some 150 songs by 1924. His relaxed manner with the locals soon
dispensed with any formality - in contrast to the academic approach of other collectors at
the time, it is Moeran’s collection that retains something of the spontanaeity of the
Saturday night "frolics" as they were known locally. "The company...assemble in a
low-ceiling’d room, and through a haze of smoke from strong shag tobacco the chairman
can be seen presiding over the sing-song. He maintains absolute discipline, talking must
cease during the singing of a song....he has such a personality that he succeeds in
producing conditions like those of Wigmore Hall during a quartet recital!"
Further Writing
A collection of six songs appeared in February 1924 in which singers like Harry Cox,
Walter Gales and Robert Miller (‘Old Jolt’) are acknowledged, in addition to "Mr.George
Lincoln, landlord of the ‘Windmill’, Sutton". Two songs of the set were to provide
inspiration for work on a wider canvas - the orchestral piece ‘Lonely Waters’ and, as
Geoffrey Self has pointed out, ‘The Shooting of his Dear’ became the framework for much
of the Symphony in G minor.
Audio
"to the countryman who
sings as he works in the
fields, they are just a
natural and simple
expression of fact"
Church Music
Published
OUP, 1931
Novello, 1938
Recordings
You also ask about church music: I have a Te Deum and Jubilate at the Oxford Press; this
is frequently to be heard on Sundays in cathedrals. Both Westminster Abbey and
Southwark do it from time to time.
There is also a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (temporarily out of print) at the Oxford Press,
and an anthem, Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem [R56]. Another short unaccompanied
anthem is at Novello, the title of which I forget.
Letter to Lionel Hill
June 12th, 1943
Magnificat and Nunc
Dimittis:
St Edmundsbury
Cathedral Choir
Priory PRCD 554
)
(1996, CD
Te Deum and Jubilate:
Norwich Cathedral Choir
Priory PRCD 470
)
(1994, CD
Priory Records Online
Reviews
Further Writing
The piece Moeran forgot in his letter to Lionel Hill was a
1938 anthem, Blessed are Those Servants (R74). This
piece, written in 1938, was his only return to writing for the
church after the brief spurt in 1930 which produced the
other pieces he mentions.
From a man surrounded by family clergymen - his
grandfather, father and brother were all vicars - it may
seem odd that Moeran wrote so little for the church. Yet he
was not a religious man, and described his output as 'this
tripe for the church'. So why bother at all? The most
obvious answer is that he wrote it for the money. By 1930
he was away from the Eynsford years and re-evaluating his
mainstream output, as well as suffering bouts of ill-health
and injury. He'd had very little published for several years, and saw this as a way to make
some quick and easy money.
This does not explain his return to the church for the one-off 1938 anthem - perhaps he
was asked for the piece - but it is clear that the 1930 work was well received, and both
the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis and the Te Deum and Jubilate have made it onto CD as
part of the Priory series.
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in D R55
Audio
Geoffrey Self writes: "It is no mean achievement to write a tune so strong, memorable
and singable as the opening statement [of the Magnificat]. The Nunc Dimittis is similarly
apt and masterly in its effortless art".
Although the distinctive voice of Moeran is barely obvious in the music, and one would not
perhaps be inspired to explore his secular output from hearing these works alone, they
are well written and not without interest. Mervyn Cousins commented in his 1996
sleevenotes: "His D major canticles show [lyricism and craftsmanship] within an overall
simplicity - there is much two- as well as four-part writing, with canonic structures
providing interest."
Te Deum and Jubilate in E flat R57
Moeran's morning canticles are quite diffierent in tone.
Michael Nicholas wrote in 1993: "...strongly diatonic unison
writing contrasts with the modal flavour of the harmonised
passages. The choral writing, often heard over marching
bass lines in the organ accompaniment, suggests Vaughan
Williams and Holst... However, these movements have
characteristics of their own, fitting well into the regular
round of Anglican worship."
Certainly the longer Te Deum gives greater scope for
creativity than any of the other works considered here, and
one feels that if he dwelt on any of them it was the Te
Deum which captured his imagination and allowed greatest
scope for his powers of invention. Indeed, for someone so
dismissive of his church output, Moeran was a regular visitor to Hereford Cathedral
whenever he had the chance to hear these works performed.
Anthems
Of the two anthems I have managed to find little trace. No commercial recordings appear
to exist, and they barely get a mention in Geoffrey Self's book. This is perhaps an
interesting corner of Moeran's output for someone to explore in the future.
"The Nunc Dimittis is apt
and masterly in its
effortless art"
R54
1. Under The Greenwood Tree (Shakespeare)
Published
2. The River-God's Song (John Fletcher)
3. Spring, the Sweet Spring (Samuel Daniel)
Novello, 1933
4. Love is a Sickness (Thomas Maske)
5. Sigh no More, Ladies (Shakespeare)
6. Good Wine (William Browne)
Recordings
The Finzi Singers,
(1993, CD
7. To Daffodils (Herrick)
)
East London Chorus
(songs 1,3,4,6 only)
Redbridge RRCD 1021
)
(1990, CD
Reviews
Review of first
performance Musical Times, 1934
Disc review from
Gramophone Magazine
@ Amazon
Further Writing
Audio
I was pleasantly surprised recently to be in a conversation
with someone I'd just met who, when I mentioned this web
site and my interest in matters Moeran, immediately
exclaimed: "Oh - he wrote Songs of Springtime, didn't he?
We sang that in our choral society!" The choral society in
question must be a good one - early reviews question the
practicality of the work (see reviews, left)- its difficult
chromaticism and awkward jumps from song to song
without instrumental pitch assistance giving even the best
choirs something to really get their teeth into.
Songs of Springtime was among Moeran's first post-Warlock
pieces, though there seem to be differing opinions as to
exactly when it was written - Geoffrey Self has it written in
1929 in his text, but 1930 in his list of works; Barry Marsh's Chronology dates the first
sketches to Spring 1931*, while Malcolm Rudland states in the Chandos sleevenotes that
the cycle was "finished in the spring of 1929", going on to say: "He told Hubert Foss
(Compositions of E J Moeran Novello 1948) of the importance of keeping the songs in
order, especially the last, because by the time of its composition, the daffodils on the
Lawns of Lingwood had begun to peer within range of his bedroom."
Which ever way you look at it, though, this was a crucial period in Moeran's musical
development, moving away from his Delian 1920's influence towards the mature style of
later large scale works, and it's interesting to see where this particular piece draws its
main influences from. The words are all poems from the Elizabethan age, yet Moeran's
settings do owe more to the influence of Delius than his later song cycle, Phyllida and
Corydon, which pastiches (to a degree) the madrigal style. Many of the Elizabethan
settings of these words would have been known to Moeran, albeit "filtered through"
Warlock, as Self puts it. However, Self finds something of an Ellington blues influence,
alongside Delius, in some of these pieces - though you might have to listen quiet hard to
hear it!
Malcolm Rudland's notes effectively summarise the seven songs thus: "Under The
Greenwood Tree portrays a feeling of irony, whereas The River-God's Song and Love is a
Sickness move like Dowland's lute songs, the latter in an intense G minor [notably the
key of Moeran's Symphony]. Warlock dedicated his solo song Sigh no more, Ladies to
Moeran in 1928. Moeran's part-song reply, although influenced by him, offers a more
popular response, as is Spring, the Sweet Spring, (also set by Britten in his Spring
Symphony). Good Wine fits the words like a glove... Herrick's To Daffodils cast a shadow
over the work, symbolising that all beauty must die."
* In response to this dating question Barry Marsh notes:
"I'm sticking out for 1931 because this was the period when Jack was recuperating from a
long illness at Ipswich and had gone to stay with his parents at Lingwood, near Acle. Cyril
Pearce, the Norfolk gentleman whom you hear on the documentary [that Barry made for
Radio Norfolk], also told us that it was in 1931 that he visited Jack at Lingwood and he
was at work on the Songs. Remember that my chronology dates where possible give the
date of first sketches/composition, not just the first performance or publication. So first
sketches 1931 - yes!!"
"by the time of its
composition the daffodils
on the Lawns of Lingwood
had begun to peer within
range of his bedroom"
R75
1. Madrigal - Phyllida and Corydon (Nicholas Breton, 1545-1626)
Published
2. Madrigal - Beauty sat bathing by a stream (Anthony Munday, 1553-1633)
3. Pastoral - On a hill there grows a flower (Nicholas Breton, 1545-1626)
Novello, 1939
4. Air - Phyllis inamorata (Lancelot Andrews, 1555-1626)
5. Ballet - Said I that Amaryllis (Anon., C16)
6. Canzonet - The treasure of my heart (Sir Philip Sidney, 1554-1586)
Recordings
The Finzi Singers
(1993, CD
7. Air - While she lies sleeping (Anon., C16)
8. Pastoral - Corydon, arise (Anon., C16)
)
9. Madrigal - To meadows (Robert Herrick, 1591-1674)
Moeran was busy on his Violin Concerto, begun in 1937, and
not completed until 1941, when he interrupted his work to
write the madrigal suite for unaccompanied SATB chorus,
Phyllida and Corydon. Unlike the Concerto, which seems to
follow logically and musically on from the Symphony in G
minor, there is little to relate either work to this one.
Reviews
Musical Times, 1939
Other reviews,
1940-44
Wilbye and Benet.
Further Writing
Musical Times, 1939
(analytical descriptive
article, June 1939)
Audio
Moeran set exclusively Elizabethan period pastoral poetry,
much of it only loosely connected, in a particularly well
honed madrigal style. Unlike earlier, Victorian pastiche
efforts, Moeran has fully understood and implemented the
intricacies of rhythms, accents and melodic shapes of the
original English madrigalists, in particular Morley, but also
But Moeran is not writing straight imitations, and within the established patterns he is
able to add his own chromaticisms and modulations from a harmony many centuries
forward. Some commentators have found this cross-pollination to be something of a
problem, and have expressed unease with chromaticism sitting upon such strict sixteenth
century structures.
Geoffrey Self, however, finds value in this: "The work is highly characteristic of its
composer, and valuable therefore precisely because of the stylistic inconsistency. For we
are continually made aware, throughout his music, of a kind of divide/dichotomy. Within it
lyricism has two faces - major/minor tonality is split in false relation, passages of pastoral
diatonicism are dispersed in polytonality: and here, in Phyllida and Corydon strict Tudor
polyphony is set against extreme chromaticism."
He goes on to suggest that some of the most "worrying" examples of this are also the
sections of most overwhelming intensity. To my own ears I must admit I find no great
problem with this aspect of the work. I do admit it is not a piece I have studied
extensively, but to one who has grown up with far more 'difficult' harmony to contend
with, Phyllida and Corydon works very well indeed.
Self also picks up on some interested and perhaps unexpected musical relations with
other works of the time. Despite my assertion that Phyllida and Corydon bears little
relation to contemporaneous works, plucking out the line "so vain desire was hidden"
from Beauty sat bathing by a stream and finding almost direct parallel melodic use in both
the Symphony and Violin Concerto. From this he speculates on a hidden meaning now
illustrated: "If its use is deliberate, what 'vain desire' is enshrined in the two major works
- a desire, a yearning even, for ultimate peace?"
Yet the conclusion of Phyllida and Corydon fails to find this 'ultimate peace' - Self
describes the final madrigal To meadows as an image "of utter loneliness, bereft of
consolation. I know of only one work, Delius' Sea Drift...to compare with its emotional
desolation." Perhaps 1939 was not an ideal year for an injured First World War veteran to
be writing particularly optimistic music.
"strict Tudor polyphony is
set against extreme
chromaticism"
Moeran's People and Places
Here are some short biographies or notes on those whose paths crossed with Moeran's - once
again we have Barry Marsh to thank for their provision.
People
Robert Sterndale Bennett
Cpt Michael Bowles
Arthur Catterall
Desire Defauw
Leslie Heward
Lionel Hill (BMS obit.)
A. E. Housman
John Ireland
Heathcote Statham
Places
Hallé Orchestra
Norwich
Promenade Concerts
Royal College of Music (RCM)
Bartok 1 2 3
Bax 1 2 3 4 5
Bliss 1 2
Brahms 1 2 3 4 5
Bridge 1 2
Britten 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Butterworth 1
Rebecca Clarke 1
Debussy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11
Delius 1 2
Dvorak 1 2 3 4 5 6
Elgar 1 2 3
Fauré 1 2 3
Grainger 1 2 3
Ivor Gurney 1
Harty 1
Holst 1 2 3
Ireland 1 article here
Mahler 1 2 3 4 5 6
Parry 1 2
Robert Sterndale Bennett
Director of Music at Uppingham Public School, Rutland, England.
Prokofiev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
January 1909 - M. comes under the influence of;
Ravel 1 2 3
1911-12 encourages M. to compose; January
Rubbra 1
1919 - appoints M. to the post of assistant music master;
Sibelius 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1928 - receives dedication of M’s song ‘Christmas Day in the Morning’.
Stanford 1
March 1951 - Writes obituary of M. for Uppingham School Magazine.
Stravinsky 1 2 3 4 5 6
Vaughan Williams 1 2 3
Walton 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(Captain) Michael Bowles b.1909
Studied at the Irish Army School of Music, and University College, Dublin Conductor of the Radio Warlock 1 2 3 4
Eirann Orchestra, Dublin.
Adrian Williams 1 article
Music Director, Radio Eire, 1940-48.
here
Conductor, New Zealand National Orchestra, 1950-53.
Author of ‘The Art of Conducting’ (1959)
March 12, 1942 - Conducts first performance of M’s 2nd Rhapsody in its revised version, at
Mansion House, Dublin.
March 5, 1944 - Gives the first Irish performance of the Violin Concerto with Nancie Lord as
soloist, at the Capitol Theatre.
ASV
November 25, 1945 - Conducts first performance of the Cello Concerto with Peers Coetmore as Barbirolli Society
soloist.
British Music Page
British Music Society
British Song Fa La La
Arthur Catterall b.Preston, Lancashire, England, 1883. d. London 1943.
Classical Net
Violinist. Pupil of Brodsky at the Royal Manchester College of Music.
Classical Music UK
Leader of the Halle Orchestra, then BBC Orchestra, and of own String Quartet 1910-1925.
Chandos
M. dedicates his Violin Concerto to, 1942;
Gramophone Magazine
Gives first performance of Violin Concerto at the Proms, July 8 1942
Performance reviewed in ‘The Times’ 9th July 1942
J Martin Stafford
M. helps to sponsor a memorial to; (letter in ‘Musical Times’ January 1945)
MusicWeb
The Norwich Singers
Naxos/Marco Polo
Desire Defauw b. Ghent 1885. d. Gary, Indiana, USA 1960.
Radio Three
Violinist and conductor.
20th Century Music
London debut 1910; had own String Quartet from 1913;
Thames Publishing
Conductor of the Brussels Conservatory Orchestra from 1920; established the Orchestre
Nationale de Belgique 1937;
Toccata Press
resident in the USA from 1939;
Vanburgh Quartet
conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra 1943-1949.
Vivo Books
M. dedicates his String Quartet in A Minor to; January 25 1923 - Defauw and Allied String
Quartet give first performance at the Wigmore Hall, London.
Moeran's People
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Leslie Heward b. Liversedge, Yorkshire, England 1897. d.May 3rd 1943
"Succeeded Adrian Boult as director of the City of Birmingham Orhestra. Choirboy at Manchester
Cathedral under Dr.Sydney Nicholson, with whom he studied the organ. He became assistant
organist at Manchester. He has since become well-known through his conducting for the
B.N.O.C. and later for the BBC. In 1925 he went to Cape Town as conductor of the orchestra
there, and as programme director to the Cape Peninsular Broadcasting Corporation. He has
conducted for films and gramophone recordings."
[from The Musical Times, May 1930]
Geoffrey Self - "The Music of
E J Moeran"
Book reviews here
Using these links to buy
January 13 1938 - first performance of M's Symphony in G minor given by, at a Royal
Philharmonic Society Concert with the RPO.
January 14 1938 - review of the above in 'The Times'.
See 'Leslie Heward: A Memorial Volume' for Moeran's contribution to;
A. E. Housman
'Shropshire Lad' cycle of poems influences a whole generation of
20th Century English composers;
Shows general antipathy to composers' efforts - Vaughan Williams,
Howells etc.
Midsummer 1916 - M. works on 'Songs from A Shropshire Lad' but
these remain unpublished.
1922-1924 - M. composes 'Ludlow Town' cycle of 4 songs.
March 20 1925 - first performance of 'Ludlow Town' at the Wigmore
Hall, London, sung by John Goss with Moeran (piano)
See reviews of the above in The Times, Telegraph, Morning Post,
Daily Mail, Sunday Times, Observer, Manchester Guardian.
1926 - M. composes 'Far in a Western Brookland' and 'Tis Time I
think by Wenlock Town'. See review of the above, by T.A., Musical Times issues January and
March 1927.
1932 - M. composes 'Loveliest of Trees' 'Oh Fair Enough are Sky and Plain' (posth. publication
1957)
Heathcote Statham
"Organist of St.Mary's Church, Southampton, he has been appointed organist of Norwich
Cathedral. Dr.Statham began his musical career as a choirboy at St.Michael's College, Tenbury,
and studied under Geoffrey Shaw. From there he went on a scholarship to Caius College,
Cambridge, and finally to the Royal College of Music, London, studying with Stanford, Bridge,
Parratt and Charles Wood. Before going to Southampton he had held appointments at Calcutta
Cathedral, and St.Michael's College, Tenbury. He took his A.R.C.O. in 1920, his F.R.C.O. in
1921, and obtained his Mus.Doc. degree in 1923. His published works include "The New
Master", (a comic operetta for boys), Organ Rhapsody in C major, string quartet, Plantation
Songs arranged for sopranos and violins, and '40 16th Century Rounds' for schools. He has
transcribed from original manuscripts 14 anthems and a service in the Dorian Mode by Dr.John
Blow."
[from the Musical Times, July 1st 1928]
April 4 1935 - gives the first performance of Moeran's Nocturne at the Norwich Festival.
See review of the above in the Musical Times, May 1935.
April 1935 - writes article for the April Musical Times edition 'E.J.Moeran's new work'.
October 1936 - see review of Nocturne performance at 1936 Norwich Festival.
January 1940 - see review of Nocturne performance in Norwich, conducted by;
Moeran's Places etc.
Hallé Orchestra
Early tradition of performing works by Bax and Moeran;
1924/1928 'In The Mountain Country' conducted by Hamilton Harty.
1939 - Symphony in G minor conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.
1943 - Leslie Heward records the Symphony in G minor for the British Council.
1944 - John Barbirolli conducts 'In The Mountain Country' for the first time.
March 1946 - first Halle performance, by Albert Sammons, of the Violin Concerto.
October 1946 - first Halle performance of the Cello Concerto, by Peers Coetmore conductor,
John Barbirolli.
1947 - M's Second Symphony (unfinished) commissioned by the Halle.
July 1 1948 - M. attends performance of 'Lonely Waters' at the Cheltenham Festival
October 6 1949 - Rhapsody No.1 performed at Manchester Milton Hall.
NORWICH (Norfolk, England)
1924 - Moeran shares the conducting of the Queen's Hall Orchestra for his own Second
Rhapsody (commission) with Vaughan Williams at Norwich Festival revival.
1934 - Norwich Philharmonic Society commissions new work from M.;
April 4 1935 - first performance of M's Nocturne conducted by Heathcote Statham.
September 23 1936 - M. in Norwich for the second Norwich performance of Nocturne. M. plays
the anvil in Patrick Hadley's 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' !
1947 - Sinfonietta performed in Norwich at the Norwich Festival. M. attends Sammons' second
performance of Violin Concerto played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian
Boult (broadcast - Sammons recording)
PROMENADE CONCERTS (London, England)
September 6 1924 - M. conducts own Rhapsody No.1 at the Queen's Hall.
See reviews of, in the Musical News and Herald.
September 13 1929 - Henry Wood conducts the Rhapsody No.2 as part of British Composers'
Night, at the Queen's Hall.
See reviews of, in the Manchester Guardian of 13/9/29;
See reviews of in the Sunday Tmes of 15/9/29;
See reviews of in the Times/Telegraph/Daily Mail/Observer of 15/9/29;
September 6 1934 - M's Farrago Suite performed.
See reviews of, 'Audax' July Musical Times issue;(about broadcast of;)
See review of, by F.H. in Musical Times issue of Thursday, 11th August 1938.
July 8 1942 - First performance of the Violin Concerto by Arthur Catterall conductor Henry
Wood.
See review of, in the Times, of Thursday July 9th 1942.
August 19 1943 - First performance of the Rhapsody in F sharp minor for Piano and Orchestra
by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Henry Wood, with Harriet Cohen (piano) at the
Royal Albert Hall.
See reviews of, The Times 20/8/43;
See reviews of, 'Cavalcade', August 28th 1943;
See reviews of, the Sunday Times 22/8/43;
See reviews of, E.B. in 'Music and Letters' October 1943;
See reviews of, 'Musical Opinion' September 1943;
See reviews of, Daily Mail 20/8/43;
See reviews of, Daily Telegraph 20/8/43.
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Orchestral Works
Symphony (1924-37)
(1937-41)
Sinfonietta (1944)
1st Rhapsody (1921)
Piano Rhapsody: 1 2
(1942-3)
(1931?)
(1921)
Piano Trio (1920-5)
(1921)
String Trio (1931)
Cello Sonata (1947)
Vocal Works
(1923)
Nocturne (1934)
Other Songs 1 2 3
Using these links to buy CDs
earns Moeran.com a small
commission which goes
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ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC London, England.
September 1912 - July 1914 M.'s first period spent at, studying under
Stanford. first compositions for piano Dance; Fields at Harvest
Mid Summer term 1914 - M. awarded a Council Exhibition.
Autumn 1914 - First World War interrupts his studies.
February 21 1920 - M. rejoins the college after a spell of teaching at
Uppingham. Studies with John Ireland. Composes first chamber works.
Works on 'In the Mountain Country'.
April 2 1921 - Leaves without a diploma or degree.
November 24 1921 - conducts student orchestra in the first
performance of 'In The Mountain Country.' at a Patron's Fund Concert.
June 22 1922 - conducts student orchestra in the first performance of
the Rhapsody No.1 at a Patron's Fund Concert.
More to come! In the meantime I've compiled a list of composer website
links - do let me know if I've missed anyone crucial to the Moeran story or any vital websites
related to the composers listed.
I'm also building a list of general links here, so do e-mail me if you've got a site you'd like to put
here - [email protected]
Moeran's Writing
This page links you to articles and letters written by Moeran himself, all published within his
lifetime.
Elgar and The Public (1933)
The BBC and British Music
Jack Moeran was quite a letter writer. Without these preserved documents Lionel Hill's excellent
(1934)
memoir "Lonely Waters, the diary of a friendship with E J Moeran" (below) would probably not
have been written. As it is, however, we have a fascinating insight into the opinions of Moeran
on a wide range of musical subjects, as well as his own compositional progress. A further
publication, the article by Geoffrey Self in the magazine 'British Music' (Volume 16, 1994)
quotes newly discovered letters and postcards written between February 1931 and December
1941 to the singer George Parker.
John Ireland as Teacher
But Moeran's private letters are not the only source of insight into his way (1931)
of thinking. He wrote a number of articles for publications such as the
Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society and Countrygoer, which Sleevenotes to Symphony
will see the light of day again here. One such article is the fascinating Folk (1942)
Songs and some Traditional Singers in East Anglia, which was published in
Article on Leslie Heward
Countrygoer in 1946 and details the origins and development of Moean's
(1943)
interest in traditional folk song and singers.
There are also the letters written to and published by newspapers and
magazines, and it was with two of these that this section opened. The first
appears to be written in response to the news that Elgar was 'at it again',
but actually concetrates on folk song and its influence on a vareity of
composers. The second, to the Telegraph, discusses the Proms and the
BBC's handling of contemporary British music.
Another tack is a brief questionnaire which Moeran completed in 1949 on "The Composer and
Society" which offers some insight into Moeran's social thinking and desire for more assistance
for British music. I've also linked here to the Symphony sleevenotes by Moeran that have been
on the site for some time.
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British Music and the BBC
(1946)
Folk Songs and some
Traditional Singers in East
Anglia (1946)
Some Folk Singing of Today
(excerpt) (1948)
The Composer and Society
(1950)
Letter to The Musical Times, 1933
The idiom of folk-song in
British music is for the
moment submerged beneath
‘Elgar and the Public’
a wave of unpopularity,
possibly because, despite our
SIR national wealth of melodies,
we have not yet produced a
I was extremely interested in Mr.C.W.Orr’s1 article in the January number of The Musical Times,
Haydn or a Mussorgsky...
and while I am able whole-heartedly to share his enthusiasm for Elgar at his best, I feel bound
to point out certain historical inaccuracies among his remarks.
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The folk-song rage did not take place after the war, as Mr.Orr states, but before 1914, and it
largely manifested itself in the excellent series of concerts given by Mr.H.Balfour Gardiner2 and
the late F.B.Ellis3 , and with which were ultimately associated at that time the activities of the
Oriana Madrigal Society. The post-war period, in fact, had no bearing whatever on the revival of
folk-song in this country and its application to symphonic art. Mr.Orr says that ‘Parties of
enthusiasts went back to the land,’ carefully noting down the effusions of rustics ‘to be worked
up into English Suites,etc.’ This is a statement which simply will not bear investigation. In the
first place, practically the whole of English folk-song had been noted long before. (Vide the
published journals of the Folk-Song Society.) The immediate outcome was such works as ‘Brigg
Fair’ by Delius, Vaughan Williams’ Norfolk Rhapsodies4,and numerous works by Grainger, Holst,
Butterworth and others.Secondly, at the period of which Mr.Orr writes, new works by British
composers, with one notable exception, were conspicuous by their absence from folk-song
influences. Thirdly, by this time, save for rare and isolated instances, spontaneous folk-singing
on the part of country people had died out. The idiom of folk-song in British music is for the
moment submerged beneath a wave of unpopularity, possibly because, despite our national
wealth of melodies, we have not yet produced a Haydn or a Mussorgsky. English folk-song, as is
that of any nation, is apt to become exceedingly dull when it is handled by musicians who, with
the best intentions, possess more technical resource than inspiration, and who, by virtue of their
surroundings, their sophistication and their respectability, have never experienced the feeling
which gave birth to this kind of music. Even so, there exists already at least one really
important achievement which owes its existence directly to the influence of folk-song, and that
is the supremely beautiful ‘Pastoral’ Symphony of Vaughan Williams. I have an unbounded
admiration for this work, and also for Elgar’s Second Symphony, which owes nothing whatever
to primitive music. It is surely possible to wax enthusiastic over ‘Tristan’ and ‘Parsifal’, without
decrying the chamber music and concertos of Brahms, which are soaked in the good vintage of
folk-song, and to appraise Tchaikovsky’s symphonies without detracting from those of Borodin
and Balakirev. Mr.Orr, himself a composer of some distinguished songs, is of all people one of
the very last who can afford to sneer at those musicians who have spent much time and money
in searching out and noting down our tunes of the countryside, which on their own merits are
surely worthy of preservation from the oblivion into which they must otherwise have fallen.
I, too, remember the first performance of Elgar’s ‘Falstaff’5 , as I was one of the few enthusiasts
who was present at Queen’s Hall, and I was shocked at the rows of empty seats on that
occasion6. It was difficult to square this with the public acclamation with which repeated
performances of the First Symphony and the Violin Concerto had been hailed only a short time
before.
In conclusion, let me express the hope that the recent report that Sir Edward Elgar is ‘at it
again’, after nine years of silence, and is writing a large work, may prove to be true, and that he
may succeed in adding yet another masterpiece to an honourable series7.
Yours, etc.,
E.J.Moeran
11, Constitution Hill,
Ipswich. 8
Notes:
1 - C.W.Orr, British composer 1893-1976
2 - Henry Balfour Gardiner 1877-1950. English composer and also patron of new British music
1912-1913 with an interest in Bax, Holst and Percy Grainger in particular.
3 - H.Bevis Ellis, composer, killed in the First World War.
4 - Three Norfolk Rhapsodies were written - only No.1 has survived.
5 - ‘Falstaff’ : first London performance was at the Queen’s Hall on Nov.3rd 1913.
6 - See Kennedy: Portrait of Elgar’ Chapter 11: ‘Full Orchestra’. Walter Legge rebukes London
for producing (quote) " only a beggarly row of half-empty benches".
7 - The Third Symphony, unfinished at Elgar’s death in 1934, reconstructed Anthony Payne
1998.
8 - Letter undated, but probably January or February 1933.
Letter to the Daily Telegraph: January 27th 1934
The B.B.C. and British Music
Mr. E.J.Moeran writes to comment on the B.B.C.’s recent concerts of British music, and on our
article arising therefrom, of last Saturday. He says:
"It is easy to criticise, and, after all, the B.B.C. deserves praise for what it has done, But I
heartily agree that we ought to get back to the old system at the ‘Proms’.
"Works that prove their merit at the ‘Proms’ should be repeated at the winter symphony
concerts - but not segregated.
"With one line of argument I distinctly do not agree, and that is the suggestion that the fact of a
man’s being a professor at the R.A.M. or R.C.M. entitles his works to a hearing at Queen’s Hall.
In the dreadful old days the Philharmonic used automatically to produce whatever orchestral
stuff the bigwigs of the Academy and the College turned out. We don’t want the B.B.C. to land
us back into that.
"It was a pity an opportunity was not found to include something by Jacob, and I should have
liked to hear something by Finzi, Rubbra and Elizabeth Maconchy, who seem to claim attention
more than anyone else of that generation. It is high time Miss Maconchy’s fine work, ‘The Land’,
was heard again.
"A serious omission from the programme was the name of Edward German. He is interesting
historically, apart from the value of his music. In the 1890s, when others were purveying
second-hand Brahms, German was producing symphonies and suites with a distinctly English
flavour and original character.
"Peter Warlock should have been given a place. He was our outstanding song-writer since the
Tudors. I should have represented Cyril Scott by his piano concerto; it is Scott at his high-water
mark, and is not widely enough known."
Notes
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Gerald Finzi, English composer 1901-1956
Edmund Rubbra, English composer 1901-1986
Elizabeth Maconchy, English composer d.1990
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Edward German, English composer, famous for his opera ‘Merrie England’.
In the dreadful old days the
Philharmonic used
automatically to produce
whatever orchestral stuff the
bigwigs of the Academy and
the College turned out...
"John Ireland as Teacher"
by E J Moeran
This article by Moeran, published in 1931, whilst ostensibly about John Ireland, Moeran's
composition tutor in the early 1920's at the Royal College of Music, also offers a rare and
fascinating insight to Moeran's own ideas and attitudes towards composition.
I lived and worked for a time in a Kentish village. One day I was feeling
very pleased with myself, having composed a pianoforte piece that I liked. I
was playing it over when my landlord, the village grocer, looked in on me.
"You made that all up yourself, did you?" he asked, and added rather
sorrowfully, "Ah, I wish I could do that; but you see, I never had the
education."
I should mention that my good friend's knowledge of music amounted to
precisely NIL. He was one of those who even had to be told when the
National Anthem was being played.
It is undoubtedly a fact that there are some people who imagine that
musical composition can be taught, even in the same way that a knowledge
of languages, chemistry, mathematics, hairdressing, home-coping and
countless other subjects can hammered into the receptive brain of any
willing pupil by a skilled teacher. Also there are many who believe that
given enthusiasm and a first-rate professor of composition, any intelligent musician may
become a composer if he works sufficiently hard. Hence, unfortunately, the existence of so
much of that type of music which is known as 'Capellmeister' music
In this sense, John Ireland, in spite of the title of this essay, is not a teacher of composition.
This is one of his virtues. He is a very wise adviser and an acute critic, both of his own work and
of that of others, and he succeeds in instilling into his pupils that blessed principal of
self-criticism. Moreover, he possesses an uncanny knack of immediately and accurately probing
the aesthetic content of what is put before him, thus arriving at the state of mind which gave it
birth, and understanding its underlying mood and aims. It is here that his sympathy is aroused,
for he has the faculty of understanding the music from the pupil's point of view, and his wide
experience then steps in to suggest the solution of difficulties, and not only the technical ones.
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These are not the qualities of an academic teacher of composition, who is accustomed to dole
out weekly lessons of forty minutes' duration to all sorts and conditions of students. Ireland is
not a mere machine whose brains may be purchased at so much an hour. I recollect one session
- this is a better word that 'lesson' in his case - which lasted for about an hour, then continued
for another half-hour after tea. At this point Ireland advised me to go home and work at the
problem concerned with while our discussion was still fresh in my mind, and to bring it back to
him later in the evening for a final talk.
Ireland does not believe that any
standardised technique can be
taught. "Every composer must make
his own technique," is his dictum. At
the same time he is a firm believer
in the strict study of counterpoint,
and, much to my surprise and
sorrow, I found myself expected to
spend many weary hours, struggling
with cantus firmus, and its
embellishments in all the species. I
state emphatically that I am glad of
all this today, for I have come to
realise that only by this means can a
subconscious sense of harmony,
melody, and rhythm be acquired.
Ireland and Moeran, 1922
Genuine harmony arises out of
counterpoint, for it implies contrary motion among the parts; otherwise it is no longer harmony,
but faux-bourdon. Moreover there can be no rhythm without melody, otherwise it descends to
mere metre, which is not music. On the other hand melody, divorced from harmony and
rhythm, descends into a meandering succession of fragmentary ideas, bearing little relation one
to another, and totally lacking organic unity. Thus it is that the greatest music, from Palestrina
and Vittoria down through Beethoven and Wagner and the present day, has been polyphonic.
For without polyphony nothing can be complete, and any attempt to break away from it has
invariably ended in a blind alley.
I mentioned just now that first of all I was surprised at Ireland's insistence on counterpoint, but
I hope I have grown a little wiser than I was just over eleven years ago when I commenced
work with him, and I feel unbounded gratitude for having been encouraged to do the drudgery.
I deliberately use the word encouraged, for Ireland has no interest in work done which is not
worth while, and it is by the lucidity of his argument that he expounds to his pupils the logic of
doing something that hitherto may have seemed futile, and the task, distasteful as it may
appear at the time, is undertaken with the sure sense that there is a real reason for doing it,
and doing it to the best of one's ability. Personally, I have always been so lazy that it would
...without polyphony nothing
can be complete, and any
attempt to break away from
it has invariably ended in a
blind alley...
have been nearly impossible to induce me to go to the trouble of working a single counterpoint
exercise, had I not been encouraged to believe in some very definite value in so doing.
Ireland's remarkable individuality in his own work does not hinder him from observing and
fostering unity of style in the work of his pupils, even though it may be very different from his
own. He will not tolerate the slightest falling off or failing in continuity. He has no use for
padding in any form, and he does not consider a piece of work done with until the minutest
detail has been scrutinised again, down to the last semiquaver rest and the smallest mark of
phrasing and dynamics. "What about that sforzando?" he will ask. "Have you thought carefully
about it?"
His own mastery of form has been evolved in the wake of some hard thinking and deep
experience the results of which, apart from his creative work, bear fruit in the guidance which
he is able to give to those who study with him. For him, form does not necessarily imply a
dry-as-dust formula of first and second subjects, double bars and so on. He enjoins his pupils to
look ahead and plan.
I took him one day the exposition of a movement in sonata form. "This is most exciting," he
said. "But the question is, will you be able to go one better before the end? Otherwise you will
have an anticlimax."
Here again, Ireland is emphasizing one of the raisons d'etre of the heritage which has come
down to us from the old masters. All the music which has escaped consignment to the shelf has
been inherently logical. Music, without logical continuity and shape, is lifeless from its inception.
As for instrumentation, Ireland holds that the true principles thereof are not necessarily to be
found in text-books, but they eventually come about in relation to the music ("Every composer
must make his own technique"). It is essential, however, to understand the true nature and
character of each individual instrument, apart from its compass and technical resources. This is
only knowledge that can be gained by listening to concerted music, but it is when the beginner
sets forth on his own first full score that the experienced adventurer is able to guide his faltering
steps. It is here that Ireland's psychological sense, in getting to the rock-bottom in what the
pupil is making for, enables to put his finger on the weaknesses and, by means of his
considered suggestion, to point out the right road to take to over-come them.
I have tried here to show that John Ireland is an exceptional counsellor for those fortunate
enough to work under his teaching. When all is said and done, it is the fact that he is the very
antithesis of the so-called teacher of composition that is the secret of his success. He gives
unstintingly of his very best to those who come under him, and behind that keen intelligence
that brings to bear on their work and its many aspects and problems his pupils soon discover a
very human personality and a very warm friend.
E J Moeran
MMR
March 1931
Symphony Sleevenotes
Moeran's own sleevenotes from the HMV recording of the Symphony released in 1943:
Published
Novello, 1942
Recordings
(1987, CD)
New Philharmonia of
London,
Sir Adrian Boult,
Lyrita SRCS 70
(1975, LP)
English Sinfonia,
Neville Dilkes
(1973, LP)
Hallé Orch,
Leslie Heward,
(1942, 78s, reissued on
Dutton CDAX 8001)
Reviews
This symphony was completed early in 1937 and received its first performance at a Royal
Philharmonic Society concert at Queen's Hall, London on 13th January 1938 under the
conductorship of Leslie Heward. It may be said to owe its inspiration to the natural
surroundings in which it was planned and written. The greater part of the work was
carried out among the mountains and seaboard of Co. Kerry, but the material of the
second movement was conceived around the sand-dunes and marshes of East Norfolk. It
is not 'programme music'- i.e. there is no story or sequence of events attached to it and,
moreover, it adheres strictly to its form. It is scored for a moderate sized orchestra
(double wood-wind).
I Allegro.
The Symphony opens without any preamble with the
Real Audio
From the 1973 recording by
principal subject of the first movement, given out by the
Neville Dilkes and the English
violins. In the fourth bar of this there is a figure of four
Sinfonietta, the opening of
semiquavers which subsequently plays an important part.
Special notice may be taken of the downward leaps at the the first movement:
end of the theme. Presently there appears a fanfare-like
Allegro (1'01")
motive on the horns, with which is combined the first
subject fortissimo on strings. This very soon reaches a slight
climax, ending with the downward leap. The music gradually
quietens and slows down, a good deal being heard of the
semiquaver figure, and we arrive in B major for the second
subject. This is a long-drawn-out tune of lyrical character. It continues unbroken almost
to the double bar, just previous to which part of the first subject is alluded to on solo
violin and horn.
W H Mellers' attack
The development is ushered in by the semiquaver figure on a clarinet. The tempo
becomes Allegro molto, the pace is set by a rhythmic figure on the strings, over which the
semiquaver figure, now inverted, is treated at some length on the wood-wind, later in
combination with the first subject in augmentation on bassoons and horns. There is a big
climax leading to what amounts to the return and recapitulation. This is brief and quiet,
the component parts of the first and second subjects and the horn fanfare being
dovetailed in succession contrapuntally.
Audio
A lengthy coda concludes the movement, during which the rhythmic figure from the
double bar assumes importance on the brass, and the inverted semi-quaver figure now
augmented to crotchets is further developed by a solo horn over string accompaniment.
Further Writing
At Moeran.com:
1st movt. opening
11 Lento.
The slow movement, which is in B minor, is based entirely on four motives which are
given out at the start in quick succession. The first is an undulating one on cellos and
basses, the second follows immediately on low flutes and bassoons, the third in canon on
all four wood-wind sections, and finally a three-bar motive on divided cellos. The
foregoing material occupies the first seventeen bars. These four motives are subsequently
developed and combined in various ways until the second of them gradually attains final
supremacy in what may be described as a variation of it in the form of a broad twelve-bar
melody, appearing unostentatiously first of all on cellos and basses against running thirds
on the wood-wind. This is repeated on violas, cellos and horn, a climax is led up to by the
fourth motive, in which the first is thundered out by brass and wood-wind in combination
with the tail-end of the second on drums and brass instruments. The music quietens, and
once more the broad melodic variation of the second motive comes back into its own,
played by the upper strings with the first motive in the bass. The movement closes with a
brief glimpse of the third motive on the clarinets.
III Vivace.
The key is D major, the sunlight is let in, and there is a spring-like contrast to the wintry
proceedings of the slow movement. The construction is so simple that detailed analysis
would be superfluous. The main ingredients are the long oboe tune with which the
movement commences, and the subsequent broader melody for strings with its
appendage of a dancing or, more truly, jumping motive on wood-wind instruments.
Eventually, a burst of sharp crescendo chords on the brass leads up to a sudden brief
climax, after which the first oboe is left over and hangs on to recall a fragment of his
original subject over mysterious murmurings on muted violas and cellos, and the
movement comes to an end, 'snuffed out', as it were, by a passing cloud.
IV Lento - Allegro molto.
The Finale is preceded by a slow introduction of twenty-four bars in which the downward
leap from the beginning of the Symphony is much in evidence. The germ of the second
subject of the Finale is heard on the horns and there is a serene and peaceful melody on
the strings which provides complete contrast to the sudden wild mood of the ensuing
Allegro molto.
Here the tempo becomes a quick three-in-a-bar, and violas give out the first subject
proper, which is in the rhythm of a triple jig. This is worked up to a climax on all the
strings, underneath which the trombones come in with a short passage of sharp rising
"It may be said to owe its
inspiration to the natural
surroundings in which it
was planned and written"
chords of the sixth, at the close of which the downward leap appears for the last time, to
be swept aside by the subsidiary first subject. This is a soaring motive on violins and
violas treated canonically with its second half on cellos, bases and tuba, which
last-mentioned instrument now makes its first appearance in the Symphony.
A rhythmic bridge passage makes way for a climax in which the jig-like first subject is
heard in two forms of augmentation, first on horns against staccato chords and then
further stretched out on trombones against rushing scales on the strings and wind.
Another climax heralds the second subject, given out on oboes and bassoon over a
monotonous pedal figure on drums, harp and basses. This alternates with a broad,
march-like theme for strings and an attendant canon for horns and basses, but eventually
tails off on violins and violas, the concluding harmonic progression forming the germ on
which is built up a long, rushing string passage. Over this appears first the jig-like tune,
then a persistent development of the subsidiary first subject, which now assumes
ascendancy. Presently the second subject makes several tentative experiments and
eventually, after what has been a combination of working out and return from preceding
material, appears in its final recapitulatory position, now in seven-four time.
The tempo slackens and the coda or, more properly, the epilogue, takes place for forty
bars, all of which, except the last two, are on the tonic pedal of G.
Here there is quiet retrospection of the march-like theme on the violas, introduced by its
attendant canon on the upper wood-wind. The semiquaver figure from the first movement
is recalled in its inverted form, a final crescendo leads to the conclusion, and the
Symphony ends with a series of six crashing chords.
Leslie Heward
by E J Moeran
Leslie Heward not only conducted the premiere performance of Moeran's Symphony in G Minor
but was also responsible for the first recording of the work in 1942, a magnificent performance,
and the first recording ever sponsored by the British Council. This was transferred to CD on
Dutton CDAX 8001, a disc sadly out of print, though existing stocks may still be found - try
here.
It was shortly after the 1918 armistice that I first heard the name
of Leslie Heward. I was re-visiting the Royal College of Music after
four years' absence and I asked a former fellow-student, who had
lately joined the teaching staff, whom had they there among the
students, if anyone at all, who showed outstanding promise. He
replied: "There is a lad called Leslie Heward who is brilliant, but
he never appears to do any work". I think that what was implied
was that his natural ability was so phenomenal that he seemed to
take anything in his stride without effort.
I am unlikely to forget my first meeting with him. This was at
Bristol in the 1920s. An opera season was running there in which
he was one of the conductors. Staying on a holiday in Somerset, I
had gone over to Bristol to hear a performance of 'Parsifal'. In an
hotel near the theatre, where I had repaired for an early dinner
before the show. I ran into some friends of mine, members of the
orchestra. With them was Heward, and they introduced me to him
before hurrying off to take their places. He was not conducting
that night. Neither did I go near the opera, but in his company I
very soon forgot all about it. The Knights of the Grail must have grown old and Kundry turned a
humble penitent before I suddenly realised the original object of my coming into Bristol that
evening.
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During the next few years I saw little of Leslie, but I remember encountering him after a
performance of 'Petrushka', at which he had stopped in at a moment's notice to play the brilliant
and difficult piano part. On another occasion he was dressed up to play the concertina on the
stage in ''The Boatswain's Mate' . It was in 1929 that I began to know him as a composer. He
was certainly versatile and seemed to bear out what had been said about him that day at the
R.C.M. At that time I was living in Maida Vale, and there I had a room with two Bechstein pianos
in it. I had recently executed a small commission by writing a song for the director of a leasing
firm of wine merchants in the West End. An unexpected honorarium was provided for me by the
arrival of two vans in Priory Road, and I found myself with a completely stocked cellar, including
some of the choicest of French wines, with a liberal allowance thrown in of side-issues of various
assortments. Accordingly, I set about giving a series of weekly mid-morning parties, and to
these I invited composer friends to come and try out their works on the two Bechsteins. Leslie
came along with some of his manuscripts, including the first sketches of his 'Nocturne' for small
orchestra. It, was at these gatherings that he showed yet another side of his versatility, and
that was his uncanny facility in not only reading at sight at the piano, but making to sound
logical the most higgledy-piggledy manuscript full scores imaginable, and these often written
out in faint pencil. His enthusiasm for unfamiliar music was matched by the quickness of his
perception in getting to the root of it.
This enthusiasm was to bear fruit in later years when he became conductor of the B.B.C.
Midland Orchestra. He inaugurated there the famous Friday programmes, in which he included a
vast amount of out-of-the-way music, old and new, British and foreign.
Fortunate indeed was the inexperienced composer the initial performance of whose work was in
Leslie's hand. His immediate grasp of the minutest details was thorough and unshakable. He
was always ready beforehand with suggestions of adjustments and improvements of a practical
nature which could enhance the effectiveness of the music. His care in this respect was
superlative, and he would put himself to infinite trouble to ensure the best result. In my own
case, he ones sat up half the night at Birmingham doctoring the score and parts we had taken
home after a rehearsal at which the piece had not sounded entirely as I had hoped it would
when I wrote it. Occasionally he would even make considerable re-adjustments to the script on
the spot, when actually directing a rehearsal; in this he possessed a knack of explaining what
was aimed at to the players concerned, with such lucidity that there could be no mistake, even
after trying out the passage several times in different ways. In the matter of interpretation,
Leslie's instinct was unfailingly right, even if at times it led him to adopt tempi or dynamics
which were slightly at variance with the original intention when the work was composed. He had
that rare gift of getting right inside a composition and re-creating it in performance in such a
way that new aspects, which had only existed dimly in the composer's mind, would stand out
and take their logical shape.
It is the fate of a conductor holding an appointment in this country that if he himself also
happens to be a composer, he is expected to abnegate himself in the latter capacity. As regards
executive artists in general, this would seem to be an admirable principle, at any rate in the
case of singers, the majority of whom display in their programmes a paucity of erudition
commensurate only with their musical intelligence. However, it may have been partly Leslie's
habitual modesty which led him to keep himself in the background as a composer. If that were
so, it is a pity that nothing further came of the sole performance which took place in London of
"His enthusiasm for
unfamiliar music was
matched by the quickness of
his perception in getting to
the root of it"
any major work of his.
This was some ton years ago when he conducted his suite, 'Quodlibet' at a B.B.C. Sunday
evening symphony concert. Those few of us who were present to hear it in the studio were
unanimous in our opinion that this was music with a message of its own, of striking originality,
anal carried out with consummate technical virtuosity. So far as I know, the suite has never
been played in public before a London audience; an attempt to have it included in the scheme of
the 1936 Norwich Festival failed. The mere fact that a man is known and accepted primarily as a
conductor seems to militate against his eligibility as a composer.
Leslie Heward has left behind him among his friends the memory of the most lovable personality
among English musicians of his generation. This memory will remain, and many will be this
reminiscences of him that will be conjured up, so long as his old associates still find themselves
meeting together. It is to be hoped that his music will not be allowed to lie permanently
neglected, and that there too will be found something which will keep his memory alive for
future generations.
From 'Leslie Heward A Memorial Tribute' (1897-1943). P. 37-40.
British Music and the BBC
by E J Moeran
A genuine renaissance has come about in the field of modern British orchestral music. The BBC
untrammelled by box office considerations, is in a position to present adequately complex and
unfamiliar orchestral works, thoroughly rehearsed, in such a manner that they may become
known to the public.
Musicians, and composers in particular, owe much to the BBC. On the outbreak of war there was
a hiatus in the broadcasting of good music which lasted, fortunately, only for a short time. The
authorities soon realised that first-class music was a real necessity.
For those who took the trouble to tune into foreign wavelengths it was noticeable that, with the
exception of France, England alone - "the land without music" - maintained a consistently high
level of orchestral music, both in quantity and quality. German broadcasting was almost entirely
given over to political propaganda, or to martial music blared out by military bands.
Prior to the Battle of France in 1940, Paris maintained its outside relays of public symphony
concerts, but in England, at a time when conditions for orchestral music-making was precarious,
the BBC Symphony Orchestra upheld a policy of performing not only the classics but the music
of to-day, both British and foreign.
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The BBC Symphony Orchestra has undoubtedly done more than any other concern in awakening
in music lovers a keen stimulation for the music of their own land. This is proved by the fact
that the gramophone companies have found it worth while to record and market the works of
Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Bliss, Walton, and others.
©2001 Andrew Rose
After all, these companies are not public philanthropic societies; they could not be expected to
incur the enormous expense of manufacturing such records unless it were reasonably supposed
that purchasers would be forthcoming.
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In pre-broadcasting days, the literature of modern symphonic music was virtually a closed book
to those living far from the few towns possessing, or regularly visited by, a first-class orchestra.
Broadcasting has made it possible for this wider public to discover new beauties, hitherto
undreamt of.
A careful analysis of BBC programmes will show that a very fair share of the programmes is
invariably allotted to native productions, at any rate, as far as orchestral music is concerned.
The Regional stations, too, have done well in this respect. There were certain works suitable for
these programmes which were in danger of dropping out of the general repertory altogether.
Ian Whyte, in charge of the BBC Scottish Orchestra, frequently reminds us that Stanford was no
mean writer for the orchestra. In a lesser degree this would apply to Whyte's compatriots,
Mackenzie and Hamish Macuna, whose music also may be heard from time to time broadcast
from Glasgow
Outstanding
At Manchester the BBC Northern Orchestra is handicapped by having to play in a studio with
poor acoustics. Nevertheless, Charles Groves manages to perform programmes of the greatest
interest. Since his appointment as conductor of this orchestra, he has staunchly championed the
cause of native music. His recent performance of Edward Rubbra's Fourth Symphony was an
event of outstanding importance.
At Birmingham, when the war broke out, the Midland Regional Orchestra was dispersed to other
activities. Previously, that great conductor, the late Leslie Heward, made a musical history with
his Friday broadcast concerts. Probably a greater variety of music, old and new, familiar and
The splendid work on behalf
of British music done by the
BBC has not had its
counterpart in every branch
of music...
unfamiliar, was packed into the programmes than in any other series of regular concerts which
were ever given in this country.
Where else, for example, has anybody heard a Sinfonie Singuliere by Franz Berwald, the
Swedish composer born in 1796, the 150th anniversary of whose birth is being celebrated this
year by his countrymen? Where else the pianoforte concerto by the contemporary Czech, Arthur
Willner?
It may have been forgotten that the BBC saved the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts at a time
when, owing to financial difficulties, they were at the point of lapsing altogether. It was bold
policy, too, to carry on these concerts during the war, and subsequently at Albert Hall after
Queen's Hall was bombed in 1941. The Prom programmes still continued to uphold the cause of
British music. The annual list of novelties by native composers has always been one of the main
features.
At a time when there was an exceptionally large population of foreign visitors in London, serving
in the forces, or engaged in war activities, it was good policy to display modern British music.
The BBC certainly seized this opportunity as regards contemporary composers, or near
contemporaries, such as Elgar, Delius, and Holst. There has, however, been an unaccountable
neglect at the Proms of the great English masters of the past.
It is a thousand pities that foreign visitors should have been afforded practically no
acquaintance with the music of Purcell, who is not only England's greatest composer but one of
the supreme masters of all time, save through the famous Trumpet Voluntary, which has since
turned out to have been the work, not of Purcell, but of one Nathaniel Clark.
The Albert Hall, in spite of its echo, lends itself admirably to the sound of a large body of
stringed instruments, especially in music which is fairly slow-moving, and which demands the
utmost sonority. The Chaconne of Purcell certainly would sound impressive in this building.
The effect of the magnificent String Fantasies of Byrd would be superb played by the full
complement of the strings of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. There is probably no body of string
players in the world that could surpass them in this sort of music.
The splendid work on behalf of British music done by the BBC has not had its counterpart in
every branch of music. Certainly the BBC Chorus, and the smaller company of singers under
Leslie Woodgate, have done fine work in the presentation of compositions, sacred and secular,
from the Elizabethan Madrigal to present day choral music. But in the field of chamber music,
piano music, and, above all, in that of song, there has been a lamentable failure.
Golden Age
How many listeners are familiar with the Ayres of Dowland, Campion, Jones, Rossiter, John
Danyel, Tobias Hume, or, on fact, any of that band of Apollos of the Golden Age of English
music?
To return to more recent times, Peter Warlock has been described as the greatest song-writer
since Purcell. He has published over 100 songs; yet he is known to the public only by some
half-dozen "chestnuts" which are repeated with sickening regularity. The same might be said of
John Ireland, undoubtedly the most considerable English song-writer alive and active to-day. It
is continually dinned into us that Ireland wrote "Sea Fever," and one or two other songs.
Concerning his more important output, including the song-cycles "Marigold," "The Land of Lost
Content," the Thomas Hardy poems, or the Harold Monro Rhapsody for voice and piano - all of
them works which should be taking their rightful place as classics of twentieth-century song, the
outside listening world is kept in almost complete ignorance.
John Ireland has also produced a large body of extremely original and thoroughly pianistic
keyboard music. It seems extraordinary that the BBC keeps us in the dark as to this side of
Ireland's creative activity; but possibly not quiet so extraordinary when we find that this neglect
also applies to the piano music of other British composers such as Bax, Frank Bridge, Howells
and Alan Bush.
Singers are a much maligned race; they are said to be lacking in expertise and erudition.
However, it is not altogether singers and instrumentalists who are to blame here. There have
been far too many cases in which those who have wished to broadcast contemporary British
work have not been allowed to do so. It would seem that in this department of the BBC there is
room for more erudition and enterprise on the part of the directive.
We are now awaiting the promised addition to broadcasting of an extra wavelength [the Third
Programme, now Radio 3]. Let us hope that when that happy event comes to pass the
programme standard of music in the smaller forms may be improved, and may bear comparison
with the excellent fare provided in the orchestral and choral broadcasts.
After all, in music as in painting or poetry, it is not size that counts. A. E. Housman's
"Shropshire Lad" has become accepted as a classic. Yet the longest by far of these poems
consistes of 76 lines, while the majority of them are made up of less than half-a-dozen four or
five-line stanzas.
The songs of Hugo Wolf remain, while the vast and bulky symphonies of his contemporaries,
Raff and Rubinstein, which once took the world by storm, are now almost completely forgotten.
And one poem alone, "Heraelitus," a verse translation of a mere eight lines, has conferred
immortality on the name of William Johnson Cory so long as the English language may remain.
from Cavalcade
June 8, 1946
(date? - my copy of text almost illegible here)
From "Countrygoer", Autumn 1946, Issue No. 7
...one evening Jolt had
stopped dead halfway
through a song and, in spite
of shouts of encouragement
In the years immediately preceding the first world war, there took place in London some
from the assembled
remarkable choral and orchestral concerts at which the programmes consisted largely of British
company, "Go you on, old
music. They were held due to the generosity and enterprise of H. Balfour Gardiner, and at them
Bob, you're a' doing", he
there were given many first performances of the works of such composers and Holst, Vaughan
refused to sing another note.
Williams, Arnold Bax and Percy Grainger, names at that time quite unfamiliar to the general
"No, I ain't a goin' on," he
musical public. Having just left school, I had come to London as a student at the Royal College
said, "he ain't a' writin' on it
of Music; apart from a certain amount of Stanford and Elgar, I knew nothing of the renaissance
down in his book"...
that had been taking place in music in this country. So one winter's evening, when I had been
to St. Paul's Cathedral intending to hear Bach's Passion music and failed to obtain a seat there,
feeling in the mood for any music rather than none at all, I went to the Queen's Hall where
there was a Balfour Gardiner concert, prepared to be bored stiff. On the contrary, I was so filled
with enthusiasm, and so much moved by some of the music I heard that night, that from then
on I made a point of missing no more of these concerts.
"Folk Songs and some Traditional Singers in East Anglia"
by E. J. Moeran
Among other works I heard was a Rhapsody of Vaughan Williams, based on songs recently
collected in Norfolk by this composer. It was my first experience of a serious orchestral
composition actually based on English folk-song, and it caused a profound effect on my outlook
as a young student of musical composition. This, and many other works which I encountered at
these concerts, though not all based on actual folk-music, seemed to me to express the very
spirit of the English countryside as I then knew it. My home at this time was in Norfolk, where
my father was a vicar of a country parish, so I determined to lose no time in rescuing from
oblivion any further folk-songs that remained undiscovered.
Accordingly, when I was home the following week-end, I tackled
the senior member of the church choir after Sunday evening
service. He mentioned a song called "The Dark Eyed Sailor", but
nothing would induce him to sing it on a Sunday. I found
afterwards that I never could persuade anybody else, even some
hard-boiled reprobate, to perform for me on a Sunday, at least not
in Norfolk and Suffolk. As for this "Dark-eyed Sailor", I was able to
write it down, together with other old songs, on Monday: this was
actually the first song I "collected" as a boy. True, it was not an
entirely new discovery, but it was encouraging to me, and started
my ball rolling.
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MP3 Audio
I soon found that in the part of the county where I was living at
the time, there was not much spontaneous singing of the old
songs still going on. In any case, the 1914 war intervened to put a
stop to my activities for the time being. As most of what I heard
had been sung to me by elderly men, who assured me old songs
were fast dying out, by the time the war was over I assumed there
was no more to be had, and did not immediately make any serious "The Dark-eyed Sailor", sung
by Jack Clark (pictured) on
efforts at collecting folk songs.
Moeran's 1947 radio
However, when I was visiting East Norfolk in the autumn of 1921 I recording, with a short
received from a folk-song enthusiast, not himself a musician with programme announcement
the necessary knack of committing tunes to paper, an S.O.S. for at the end. (1.95 MB)
me to come at once to Stalham. It turned out that accidentally he
had overheard an old road-mender singing softly to himself as he The Dark Eyed Sailor
was breaking stones. Thus I met the late Bob Miller, known for
miles around the country as "Jolt". Bob admitted that he knew a
few "old 'uns", but he insisted that he had not really been singing,
but just "a-tuning over to himself". However, he was only too
willing to sing to me under proper conditions and suggested my
spending the evening with him in the Catfield "White Hart" or the "Windmill" at Sutton.
Old Jolt dearly loved conviviality, and was always at his best in company; he knew it, and liked
an audience. In fact, he was incapable of remembering anything at all a deux. He required the
atmosphere of a room full of kindred souls who would listen with appreciation, and he expected
his full share of applause. At the same time he was a keen listener when somebody else held
the floor in song or story. Anything in the way of interruption and he would wither the offender
with the glance of an autocrat. He gave me many very interesting songs, some of which were
hitherto unpublished.
There seems little doubt that the traditional singers unconsciously adapt their tunes to their own
personal fancy and singing idiom. Jolt was one who liked a tune with a wide tessitura. Also, he
was fond of the drop of a major sixth; it occurred frequently in his songs.
Bob Miller was an old bachelor of absolute integrity, but it delighted him, especially late in the
evening, to take on the semblance of a disreputable character, and it was invariably just before
closing time when he would come out with something to suit his rakish humour. He had several
scandalous ditties.
This singer, by his enthusiasm and personality, opened the way to a series of convivial evenings
at which I soon found out that the art of folk singing, in this corner of Norfolk at any rate, was
still flourishing in the 1920's.
About the third occasion on which I was at one of these
gatherings, Jolt greeted me with an introduction: "Here's
Harry: he've come over from Hickling purpose to sing to
you tonight." Thus it was that I first met Harry Cox, still
in his prime today, and probably unique in England as a
folk-singer, presenting his songs with true artistry in a
style which has almost disappeared. The Cox's have
been musicians and singers for generations, and Harry
has such a prodigious memory that, apart from his large
repertory of songs handed down through the family, he
is capable of hearing, on no more than three or four
separate occasions, a song of a dozen or more verses,
and remembering it permanently.
Moeran and Harry Cox
In November
1947 Moeran took
a BBC field
recording unit out
to Norfolk to
record traditional
folksingers for
broadcast on the
Third Programme.
Harry Cox (Real Audio)
Harry Cox (MP3)
These public-house sing-songs, or "frolics" in local
parlance, led to opportunities of meeting and hearing many other songsters. They also led to a
friendly rivalry on the part of some of them as to who could contribute the most songs to my
collection. Even if a song was one already known, or possibly not a folk-song at all, I found it
expedient to pretend to be noting it, in order not to cause offence. For one evening Jolt had
stopped dead halfway through a song and, in spite of shouts of encouragement from the
assembled company, "Go you on, old Bob, you're a' doing", he refused to sing another note.
"No, I ain't a goin' on," he said, "he ain't a' writin' on it down in his book."
Naturally, I heard many songs that were not traditional; these were mostly examples of the
Victorian ballad epoch. The people who sang had little idea of what was the nature of a
folk-song. Perhaps the most surprising appearance of an old song that was not a folk-song was
when a greybeard, wearing ear-rings, who hitherto had always sat silent, suddenly announced
that he was about to entertain the company with a song. "That's a rare old-un," he said turning
to me, "I'll lay you hain't heard it afore." I was somewhat startled when the song turned out to
be "Rule Britannia", and still more so when the whole gathering not only sat it through, but
solemnly joined in the chorus after each verse.
As for the actual folk-songs, it is difficult to single out many of them as belonging exclusively to
any one part of England. At the same time, I found a few that certainly have not been known to
occur away from Norfolk. There are certain tunes, too, which in one variant or another, are
commonly used for many different songs. Such a one is the second of these "Highwayman"
tunes I heard on the same evening. The first one, of a rather curious tonality, was probably one
peculiar to the particular singer who supplied it. Later in the evening, Harry Cox capped it with
his own version, but with a tune used for a number of other widely different songs.
It seems likely that the spontaneous singing of old songs when men foregather on Saturday
nights has now died out.
Until the advent of the radio, it held on in certain isolated districts, in particular where there was
a sprinkling among the population of those who annually used to follow the herring. It was
customary to sing at sea in the fishing fleet, and until comparatively recently it was still possible
to visit many an inn within easy reach of Great Yarmouth, and while away an evening with a
sing-song of the real old songs. If you travel further along the Norfolk coast, no matter how
remote the place seemed, you would encounter a little of the kind. It was the proud boast of the
late Bob Cox, Harry's father, that he would go to sea for the herring fishing season, sing two
songs every night aboard, and never repeat himself.
In this account of some of my experiences of English folk-singing, I have not been concerned
with the artificial revival of the art. In other words, with those who set about the teaching of
folk-songs in schools, or the organising of garden fetes, etc., at which folk-songs are sometimes
performed in the highly sophisticated manner of those who have never heard a real traditional
singer. Well-intentioned as these efforts may be, they evolve something quite apart from the art
of those who have it in their bones, handed down from father to son. It is unfortunate, too, that
up to the present the verbal text of nearly all published collections of English folk-songs bears
about the same resemblance to the genuine article as does Thomas Bowlder's version to the
authentic Shakespeare. It is to be hoped that some day this may be remedied by a complete
edition of the country's heritage in song, in which nothing worth while is glossed over or left out
for reasons of squeamishness or timidity.
Good Order!
Ladies and Gentlemen please
This is surely the closest we
will ever come to hearing
This CD (VT 140 CD), released by Veteran in December what Moeran referred to as a
2000, is based on restoration of two BBC radio
'frolic'...
programmes recorded either side of the Second world
War in The Eel's Foot, Eastbridge, Suffolk - capturing the
pub's atmosphere marvellously.
The first set of recordings was made in 1939 by A L
Lloyd, the second in 1947 for a programme made by
Moeran exploring the folk-singing of East Anglia which
also included music from a pub in Norfolk. Veteran have
used a mixture of BBC archive acetate discs and
recordings held by the National Sound Archive.
The sound quality has benefited from careful restoration,
though there is some clear difference between the two
recordings, with the later part significantly cleaner, and
the CD presents briliantly an audio portrait of the pub
folk-singing of the time. This is surely the closest we will
ever come to hearing what Moeran referred to as a
'frolic', and which first kindled his interest in collecting folk music around England and Ireland.
Interestingly, the sleevenotes state: "This is a joint production
between Theberton and Eastbridge Community Council and
Veteran [Records]. It is a millennium project with the aim of
celebrating the unique singing tradition recorded by the BBC at the
Eel's Foot by the production of the CD and the staging of a vilage
concert...a copy of this CD is to be given free to each household in
the village"
MP3 Audio
For more information and to order a copy of the CD, visit the
Veteran website. I am grateful to John Howson at Veteran for
permission to include audio from the CD on this site.
Disc Prices from Veteran:
Uk & Eire - £12.99 including P+P
EC - £13.99 including air mail
Rest of the World - £14.49 including air mail
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©2001 Andrew Rose
"The Dark-eyed Sailor",
credited by Moeran in his
1946 article as the first song
Comment
he ever collected, is sung by
Writing in Volume III of the Penguin Music Magazine in 1947 in an Jack Clark (pictured) on the
article on the then new BBC Third Programme, "Music On The Air", 1947 recording, with a short
programme announcement
Stanley Bayliss commented:
at the end. (1.95 MB)
"In a recent issue of Music Magazine E J Moeran introduced some
The Dark Eyed Sailor
recordings of folk-singers recently made in Norfolk. This was a
most interesting broadcast, but not altogether an enjoyable one. It
proved that collectors like Mr Moeran have been faithful and
accurate in noting down these traditional congs; but let me
confess that I found the timbre of the voices of all the singers
extremely raucous and almost unbearably ugly."
I wonder if Mr Bayliss would have preferred the Suffolk singers?
From the Sleevenotes:
The Eel's Foot
The Eel's Foot in Eastbridge, just like the Ship at Blaxhall, will go down in traditional music
history as one of the great singing pubs of East Anglia. Its singers were visited over the years
by many collectors but it was the evenings recorded by the BBC in 1939, instigated by folksong
scholar A. L. Lloyd and in the 1947 visit arranged by the Irish [sic] composer E. J. Moeran, that
captured the true spirit of a Saturday night's singing in such a remote, rural pub.
The pub was in the Ginger family for seven years and the Morling family for over forty years.
Eileen Morling, who is now in her eightieth year, kept the pub with her husband Stan from 1945
to 1958. She was at the 1939 recording, aged nineteen, and of course was the landlady when
the 1947 recording was done. She remembered that the producer, Maurice Brown, asked her
not to spread the word about that visit, but the word got out and the pub was crowded.
She described what went on Saturday nights:
"Everyone would arrive and they all had their own chairs, then at eight the dart board would be
taken down and order would be called by Phil Lumpkin with a crib pegging board being banged
on the table and they used to go around the room, 'sing, say or pay', and if you didn't sing you
had to give a little forfeit of some sort. Then they would sing the whole evening until ten o'clock
because you had to close on time in those days. Then there would be stepdancing: 1 believe
Jumbo danced and Eric Stollery could stepdance.. Some of them wouldn't always come out
'cause they weren't regular pub goers. Some like Percy Denny were regulars and others just
came on a Saturday for the singing. Velvet used to come from Leiston, then Mrs Howard, she
used to also come on dart matches. When the BBC came in '47 the pub was packed and I was
so proud. We didn't tell anyone but everyone knew and they all turned up early and they just let
every one sing ordinarily. They treated everybody really well and gave them all free beer. What
you heard was how it was. That was a lovely night but that was just a beer house in those days
and Stan had to go out to work but 1 had Philip to help me. Everyone were so pleased; they
were thrilled to bits to think the BBC came to our little pub."
Real Audio
The opening announcement
to the Moeran-recorded
section of the disc.
Introduction (1'00")
Sleevenotes on Moeran
E J Moeran submitted articles to many learned publications and in
December 1948 he had a piece published in the Journal of the
English Folk Dance and Song Society entitled 'Some Folk Singing
of Today'. In his introduction he mentioned an article he had
written some eighteen months before for a quarterly journal where
he had stated that it seemed likely that the spontaneous singing of
old songs, when men foregathered on Saturday nights, had now
died out. He continued:
"Last autumn I was asked by the British Broadcasting Corporation to make investigations In
East Anglia with a view to obtaining authentic recordings of traditional singers. I visited my old
haunts in East Norfolk and to my surprise, I found that not only were many of my old friends
living, hale and hearty, but that they were still having sing-songs on their own in local pubs.
"I was also told of a remote pub in Suffolk where singing took place, and there I found the same
thing happening. One of the singers there was a man of about fifty who learned his songs from
his father. The latter was also present, singing in the quavering and asthmatic tones of old age,
but it was only recently that he had allowed the young man of fifty, his son Jumbo to 'perform in
public,' for he was determined that he must acquire the true traditional style, uncontaminated
by outside influences, before so doing.
"In this Suffolk pub it is literally 'performance in public'. Every Saturday night the company,
male and female, assemble in a low-ceilinged room, and through a haze of smoke from strong
shag tobacco the chairman can be seen presiding over the sing-song (or 'frolic' in local parlance)
calling in turn for a contribution on those of the company he sees fit to honour. He maintains
absolute discipline; talking must cease during the singing of a song, and he has such a
personality that he succeeds in producing conditions like those in Wigmore Hall during a quartet
recital.
"There is dancing too, and proceedings always begin with a series of clog dances, danced on a
wooden table to the accompaniment of a melodeon; a grotesque performance, inasmuch as the
dancer has to bend nearly double because of the lowness of the ceiling
'Two weeks after my preliminary trip I went again with a recording van. The singers seemed
quite excited about it and were out to do their very best. The engineers, for the most part,
arranged things in such a way that all the men had to do was sit and sing and carry on as
usual."
Extract from "Hinrichsen's Musical Year Book 1949-50"
"The Composer and Society":
replies to a questionnaire by Robert L. Jacobs
1. What do you think is the minimum income a composer needs in order to live in such a way
that he can do justice to his art?
Mr. Moeran remarked that it was purely an individual matter that a composer may need luxury,
as Wagner did, or "do just as well in a dingy bed-sitting room or...in a caravan or houseboat",
and that accordingly the question was unanswerable.
2. Do you think is is possible to earn this sum by composing?
3. If not, what is the most suitable way for a composer to supplement his income?
"...Some job as a keeper of a level-crossing on a branch line, with only four or five trains daily
and a good cottage thrown in," replied Mr. Moeran: but if the composer preferred "the bustle of
town life", then musical criticism.
4. Do you think the State of any other institution should do more for composers (e.g. subsidize
individuals, promote performances, commission works, etc.) and if so, how?
Mr. Moeran suggested reducing entertainment tax at concerts in which "either a certain amount
of time is devoted to British music or...a major British work performed", and furthermore
making the entry and right to earn fees of a foreign artist conditional upon his performing a
proportion of british music. He also felt that a Ministry of Fine Arts, provided it could be kept
free of party politics, might do good.
5. Have you any specific advice to give to young people who wish to earn their living by
composing?
"Study the technique necessary to compose incidental music".
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...Some job as a keeper of a
level-crossing on a branch
line, with only four or five
trains daily and a good
cottage thrown in...
Wilfred Mellers - not a fan...
I am grateful to Pete Lopeman for not only digging out and typing up
"...the chaos of
these two articles, but also providing linking commentary. W H Mellers E. J. Moeran's Symphony..."
was not a great lover of Moeran, and these are certainly the most
hostile criticisms I've seen yet. Yet with almost sixty years gone since
the later article was written, are his arguments still relevant? You
decide.
"... composers like Moeran
succeed only in writing pretty
Pete Lopeman comments: They are both written by W. H. Mellers, a
pretty pastiche..."
music critic for Scrutiny. It is worth noting that Scrutiny was founded
and edited by the great English literary critic and Fellow of Downing
College, Cambridge University, F.R.Leavis - one of the great
supporters of traditional culture and high art and fervent opponent of
popular ephemeral arts. Scrutiny ran from 1932 until 1953, and was
very much in the editorial grip of Leavis (a right-of-centre Liberal) who
was following in the cultural tradition of Wordsworth, Matthew Arnold,
W H Mellers
and T.S.Eliot who all opposed the erosion of fine culture by mass
culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
There are two articles by Mellers whose extracts are below; the first is a general criticism of the
Moeran/Warlock/Delius influences.
'Delius and Peter Warlock' Scrutiny, Vol V, No 4, Cambridge, March 1937.
'Delius has nothing whatever to offer to the composer of the future those composers who, like
E.J. Moeran, try to follow him succeed only in writing pretty pretty pastiche - and the last thing
one would say about Delius's best and most typical music would be that it was pretty pretty.
The only composer who is supposed to have derived from Delius and who has composed music
of any lasting significance is Peter Warlock.' (p.390)
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So now we know what Mellers thinks about Moeran's general
On Mellers now
abilities as a serious composer; what is his opinion of the then
Pete
Lopeman:
" I think in
newly-released Halle/Leslie Hewerd/HMV recording of the G minor
hindsight, as it were, that
Symphony? This extract comes from:
maybe Mellers was swept
along by the tide of
`New English Music' Scrutiny Vol. XI, No 3, Cambridge, Spring
Modernism and expected
1943. p. 174.
Moeran's music to either take
up the blatantly Modernist
`How impossible it is to merge so restricted a dialect [Mellers'
dialect refers to Finzi's use of folk-song which he acclaims] either cause or keep itself firmly in
the Finzi/
into a vitally contemporary speech or into the main European
Rubbra/RVW camp, which
traditions is revealed clearly in the chaos of E. J.Moeran's
obviously it did neither, much
Symphony - the lack of adequate formalization and the
intermittency of its textural interest - for while this work no doubt to Mellers' annoyance."
contains material for three or four rural elegies of about four
minutes each it is as a "modern" symphony an anachronism. The Dr Bruce Polay: "Mellers'
kind of success that is possible for a contemporary composer in writings ARE dated and
certainly not amongst the
this vein is indicated by the yearning anguish which is given to
most authoritative -- at least
the first movement's modal, folksong first subject by a sinuous
twist of rhythm and tonal centre at the end of the phrase; but it that was my view from the
historical research I did in
is not the kind of virtue that can be developed to symphonic
proportions. This first movement has climaxes in plenty, it stops prep for my analytical
and starts with no doubt all kinds of thematic inter-relations, but research."
it has no emotional growth because there is a fundamental cleavage between the folksong and
Delian elements and the attempt at modernity - a cleavage still more patent in the ostensibly
"tragic" finale with its melodramatic metrical ferocities out of Walton's Symphony, its canon on
the brass from Vaughan Williams's Fourth. Potentially the most interesting movement is the
lento, which begins well in the Baxian manner, a wild "celtic" lament with surging strings and
chromatically gurgling woodwind; but here again it lacks direction, and it takes Delius at his
best to doodle around and get away with it. Nothing could be further from either the
concentrated evolution of a lyrical idea in Rubbra's symphonies, or the sharp lucidity of the
articulation of the sound pattern in Copland's sonata, than this verbose, opulent, wailing,
provincial music.'
One wonders what Peter Warlock would have made of his friend's music being described as
`opulent, wailing, provincial music'!
Who was Wilfred H Mellers? Find out more here.
(Sample quote: "Rarely has such erudition been joined with such a degree wisdom and insight."
Hmmm...)
www.gramphone.co.uk
The Piano Trio has been recorded but once, and I can only imagine that this took quite a bit of
detective work as Geoffrey Self suggested in his book that scores were particularly hard to come
by - especially from the publisher! This is a shame as this really is a remarkable piece of music,
a real must-have for anyone interested in Moeran's chamber music output.
ASV CD CDDCA1045
Joachim Trio
Published February 1999
We finish with the Piano Trio, Moeran’s grandest chamber work, first heard in 1921 (the A minor
Quartet dates from the same year) but extensively revised for publication four years later. Cast
in four movements, it is less distinctive than its companions (there are plentiful echoes of John
Ireland, with whom Moeran was studying privately – and Ravel’s Piano Trio can be heard loud
and clear in the Scherzo), yet in its heady lyrical flow the piece has much in common with such
contemporaneous offerings as the Violin Sonata and the orchestral In the Mountain Country and
the First Rhapsody. The Joachim Trio give a thoughtful, beautifully prepared rendering, and
although Cantamen’s rival world premiere account on British Music Society is scarcely less
passionate or accomplished than this newcomer, it is by no means as sympathetically captured
by the microphones.
In summary, an enterprising, beautifully engineered and uncommonly generous anthology – and
a release, I fancy, already destined for inclusion in my ‘Critics’ Choice’ come the year’s end.
AA
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...Moeran’s grandest
chamber work...
Wigmore Hall Concert Review
The flavour itself is good, but
Mr E J Moeran's ambition did not quite go to the length of giving a one-man's show, for his
concert at Wigmore Hall on January 15th concluded with the Ravel Quartet, but it was obviously we cannot entirely overlook
the circumstance that with
given for the purpose of introducing two important works from his pen - a String Quartet in A
the pentatonic scale it is next
and a Violin Sonata in E minor.
to impossible to go wrong...
The former is the earlier of the two, and its chief merits are concentrated in a vigourous and
sparkling final Rondo. Its opening subject suffers a little from the fact that its principal subject
was apparently chosen more with a view to the mission it had to fill than for its intrinsic
attractiveness.
In this respect the Allegro of the Sonata shows a great advance, for its impetuosity is not
hampered by technical obligations, although these are met as consciously as we have a right to
expect in a modern sonata. In short, this mevement falls into line, as the other did not, with the
general sponteneity of Mr Moeran's work.
This quality is perhaps more pronounced in the slow movements of both works, though it is
naturally less assertive in the lyrical mood. Where it leaps up to meet the listener is in the two
final movements, the Rondo which has been referred to above, and the concluding section of
the Sonata.
Mr Moeran, who has been working with John Ireland, inclines, like many other composers of
today, to rely on the pentatonic scale for the fashioning of his thematic material. It is this that
gives it the flavour which is conventionally recognised as Celtic, although a film now showing
proves it to be Tibetan. In his case it has been hailed as Irish, and non can object. The flavour
itself is good, but we cannot entirely overlook the circumstance that with the pentatonic scale it
is next to impossible to go wrong. The composer's treatment is, however, remarkably
interesting.
The performers were Miss Harriet Cohen (who played with much charm a group of not very
weighty pianoforte pieces before tackling the Sonata, in which she was joined by Desiré
Defauw) and the Allied String Quartet, of which Mr. Defauw is leader. Both the concerted pieces
were given with that assurance which denotes careful preparation and sympathetic interest.
Hence the interpretation was excellent.
E.E.
Musical Times
February 1923
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from Musical Times, December 1949
Sonatas and concertos for the cello are few, for it takes a composer of experience and
imagination to accompany the cello with piano or orchestra in such a way that the soloist shall
have a clear-sounding part and genuine interplay with an accompaniment that does not betray
reliance on a few types of texture or too frequent accommodation to an assertive partner.
Moeran's experience and imagination need no demonstration, and his new Sonata for Cello and
piano quite hides any difficulties he may have had in surmounting the demands mentioned. It is
indeed one of his finest works - finer, perhaps, than more ambitious works, such as the G minor
Symphony - for there is in each of its three movements that consistency of form and quality
which a rhapsodic composer can hope to achieve only in his full maturity.
With such a composer the melodic line takes precedence, and his themes must grow to climax
organically; not for him the modern habit of nagging a few little figures into the twitching
semblance of contrapuntal vitality, for counterpoint is more than imitative rhythms, and
rhythms more than units of metre.
Every piece of this work is genuinely impassioned, and one cannot find a point at which the
interest flags or the material belongs to a miniature conception. Indeed, since Delius's Cello
Sonata, there seems to have been no better work in the romantic and rhapsodic style that so
well suits the cello, for the style of Rubbra's splendid sonata does not invite comparison with
Moeran's.
A.H.
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Every piece of this work is
genuinely impassioned, and
one cannot find a point at
which the interest flags...
First Performance - Notes (1933)
Published
Withdrawn
FARRAGO 1932
Orchestral Concert Friday 21st April 1933 8.0 pm, National Programme, BBC Orchestra
(Section c) led by Marie Wilson. Conductor Julian Clifford.
Recordings available
[Suite Capriol - Peter Warlock]
Reviews
Farrago - E. J. Moeran
(1st Performance)
July 1934
October 1934
Further Writing
Serenade in G
The composer calls his work Farrago, which the Pocket Oxford tells us means medley or
hotch-potch - harsh words for what is really a sequence of four short movements:
Prelude, Minuet, Rondino and Rigadoon, joined together by association, but by no
particular spirit of affinity one with another; it is dedicated to D.B. Wyndham Lewis, and is
scored for a moderate orchestra.
[Puck's Minute - H. Howells]
[Procession]
[Suite "Facade" - W. Walton]
Audio Excerpts
Recordings
Proms - Programme Notes (1934)
PROM CONCERT Thursday, 6th September 1934
First concert performance in London of Suite FARRAGO
Programme note by D.M.C.
Reviews
Further Writing
Audio
1.
2.
3.
4.
Prelude
Minuet
Rondino
Rigadoon
E. J. Moeran began his first attempts at composition during his school days at Uppingham.
But although he left school in 1912, it was not until after the war that he seriously took
up the art of writing music, although he had spent a few months under the guidance of
Sir Charles Stanford prior to joining the army in 1914. Thus it was that at the age of
twenty-four he settled for a time in London and proceeded to study composition under
John Ireland.
Like many others others of the younger generation of English composers, his original
work goes hand in hand with an enthusiasm for native folk music, that of Norfolk, where a
good part of his life has been spent, has always attracted him specially, and much of his
best-known music has a distinctively English flavour. All his work, whether owing anything
to that influence or not, is instinct with the fresh wholesomeness which the rest of the
world recognizes as typically English.
This Suite owes its title to the fact that when it was written, close on two years ago, - it
was actually completed at the end of 1932 -, it was not originally the result of setting out
to compose a homogeneous work. The last movement was composed specially for an
amateur orchestra in Norwich who had asked Mr. Moeran for a piece of their own, and it
was laid out with a view to the orchestra's rather modest attainments. The Minuet was
not intended to be anything more than a pianoforte duet; it was composed in the first
place for a friend and neighbour with whom Moeran plays four-handed music on the
pianoforte. Although the Suite was written at odd times and with different purposes in
view, eventually the four movements were put together for the Hastings Municipal
Orchestra. It is scored exactly for their numbers, which accounts for there being only one
oboe and two of the other wood-winds. It did not have its first performance at Hastings,
however; an illness of Julius Harrison's had to postpone that. The first performance was
actually at the B.B.C. studio concert under Julian Clifford, last year, and it was repeated
there some three months ago. It was performed in Hastings, under Julius Harrison, in
February of this year. Laid out for the moderate-sized orchestra of Beethoven's day, with
only two horns and two trumpets and neither tuba nor harp, as the Suite is, the Minuet
dispenses with trumpets, trombones and percussion, calling only on strings, wood-wind,
and horns. Timpani are not used until the third movement, although in the Prelude there
are tambourine, cymbals, side drum and xylophone.
More than that the Suite cannot well need by way of introduction; the names of the
movements give sufficient clue to what an audience may look forward to hearing.
Reviews
There has been little to listen to lately, apart from public B.B.C. concerts and the opera
relays. As far too many concerts continue to be broadcast, most of them are routine
affairs, with rarely any distinction; sometimes even the orchestral playing is poor...
Moeran's Farrago Suite is good fun, though not his best work; too much playing about
the composer insisted: "it
doesn't exist..."
with a few patterns and those modalities which are still the bane of a lot of our native
music.
Wireless Notes by 'Audax' M/T July 1934
Critical attention tends naturally to be concentrated upon the work after the interval, for
on practically every evening something new or unfamiliar or difficult is provided for our
serious consideration after the unchallenging classics of the first part...
The actual works have all been slight: a tiny homely suite by Moeran with a captivating
finale.
F.H. M/T Oct 1934
Symphony in G Minor R71
www.gramophone.co.uk
There are four reviews of Symphony recordings in the Gramofile records on the net since 1983,
of which only the Chandos disc is currently in print. However, copies of the previous releases
may still be tracked down. Note that the two reviews of the Heward recording refer to two
difference transfers, before and after the introduction of digital restoration technology.
...tense anxiety that often
disrupts from beneath the
surface...
Chandos CD CHAN85770
(Ulster Orchestra/ Handley)
Published April 1988
With all its echoes of Sibelius and Vaughan Williams (even, in the finale, of Elgar), its fondness
for atmospheric episodes and its not-quite-symphonic form (a cruelly severe musical surgeon
could probably chop a couple of minutes from each of its movements; the main meat of the
opening Allegro is not so much a development of its material as a fantasia based primarily on its
first subject group), Moeran's Symphony ought to have faded long ago. This performance
proves that it has not, and suggests that its enduring strength lies not in its rich lyricism, nor its
vivid land- and seascape imagery but in the tense anxiety that often disrupts them from
beneath the surface.
...It scarcely needs me to
add that here is a
wonderfully vital and
heartfelt performance of a
fine symphony...
...an electrifying
It is a First Symphony by a composer in his forties who had not written a major orchestral work performance, recorded in an
before, and was rather unsure of his ability to write this one (it took him a decade to complete).
electrifying quality of
It is a flawed work, its recourses to Sibelian models are at times almost blatant, its changes of
richness and clarity...
direction can seem random, but in a good performance (and this is a very good one) the
violently abrupt closing chords of the finale sound like a culmination of those many earlier
moments of shadow, unease or apprehension, which can now be seen as far more essential than
the warm richness of the first movement's 'second subject' (deliberately under-used?) or the
Irish jig that seemed intended as the main matter of the finale itself (and besides, what a very
preoccupied jig it is). The Symphony is closer to school-of-Bax than to school-of-Vaughan
Williams, in fact, despite a franker use of folk-inspired or directly folk-derived material than was
generally Bax's practice, and it is a Baxian disquiet that gives the work its urgency.
MEO
HMV LP ED290187-1
English Sinfonia/Dilkes
Published December 1984
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At the time of the writing of this symphony the more familiar of Moeran's music (the Norturne,
the Songs of Springtime) was lyric, nostalgic, delighting those listeners who enjoyed 'evocations
of the English countryside', and arousing rather less interest among those who did not. New
worlds, for the composer, were disclosed by the symphony's first performance in 1938: here
was a new, powerful symphonic voice, and it was not for nothing that in 1942 the symphony
was chosen for the first British Council supported record (beating Belshazzar's Feast, no less, to
the post). I do not think I ever heard those early Moeran records (Halle/Heward—HMV
C3319/24, 1/43) at the time—though WRA's review of them fell out of my score just now. I do
know, though, that the newer recording now reissued expounds the symphony's breadth of
vision quite marvellously: an electrifying performance, recorded in an electrifying quality of
richness and clarity. Not quite of balance, the woodwind sometimes having difficulty in
projecting their solos.
This last detail is not the case at all in the two short pieces, I think with (very properly) fewer
strings used. These were among the Moeran music of the 1930's familiar to the original
enthusiasts; newer listeners will readily see how unprepared earlier audiences were for the
symphony. But Moeran's older and newer listeners alike must now rate this issue an entirely
treasurable one.
MM
HMV LP EM290462-3
Hallé Orch/Heward
Published August 1985
Heward had directed the first performance of the Moeran Symphony in 1938 and for years later
the work was chosen by the British Council for its first venture into the sponsorship of
recordings. Moeran himself attended the sessions and observed how ill Heward was in his last
work for the gramophone, but there is no sign of any weakness in a gloriously impassioned and
glowing account of the score.
AS
Dutton Laboratories CD CDAX8001
Hallé Orch/Heward
Published May 1993
In 1942 the British Council decided to sponsor recordings of British music, and Moeran's
Symphony was the first work to be chosen. Leslie Heward had conducted the first performance
in 1938, but at the age of 45 he was now mortally ill with tuberculosis, and time was running
short if his authoritative interpretation was to be preserved. At the autumn recording sessions in
Manchester both Moeran and the producer Walter Legge were alarmed by Heward's poor
physical condition, but somehow he fought off pain and fatigue to create a performance which
deeply impressed the composer. It became the most important recording left by a highly
sensitive musician of whom Sir Adrian Boult wrote, "There was no one to touch him, in my
opinion; he'd have gone a long way, if he had lived." Legge also admired Heward greatly,
describing him as "musically speaking, the most satisfying conductor this country has had since
Beecham".
It scarcely needs me to add that here is a wonderfully vital and heartfelt performance of a fine
symphony. Large-scale recordings had retreated to the provinces in the face of the enemy
bombing of London, and whilst it is true that the Halle were no longer quite the body they had
been under Harty, they played their hearts out for Heward. The original recording was dry and
lacking in range: EMI's own LP transfer (8/85—nla) was very serviceable, but Michael Dutton
has opened up the sound in a remarkable fashion. There is now increased tonal depth, more
warmth in the strings and a new solidity in the bass. Here is a case of new technology being put
to very best artistic use.
AS
All reviews ©Gramophone Magazine, Haymarket Publishing
Moeran and Stenhammer:
Two Symphonies too alike?
An article drawn from the
Moeran mailing list.
It's a question which has dogged Moeran's music for many years - is it too derivative? Is
Moeran's own voice sometimes lost beneath his influences? Does he wear his heart too much on
his sleeve?
One case in point is the apparent similarities between Moeran's Symphony and Wilhelm
Stenhammer's 2nd Symphony. Stenhammer (1871-1936) was a Swedish composer who owed
something to Sibelius, as did Moeran. His Second Symphony, written in 1915, was in G minor,
as is Moeran's. And even the most untrained ear can hear immediately the four note motif from
Moeran's Symphony (Self's Cell A) occur prominently in almost exactly the same rhythm
towards the beginning of Stenhammer's 2nd.
Moeran's 4 note motif in isolation...
...and in context (from Geoffrey Self's "The Music of E J Moeran")
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Yet looking beyond this particular motif, other striking similarities in the two pieces have been
detected, especially in the two respective opening movements. Taking part in a debate on the
Moeran mailing list, here is composer and Oxford academic Francis Pott discussing the
Symphonies and more:
To name but a few 'coincidences':
(a) Stenhammar fig. 1 (Gehrman score): woodwind figure strongly resembles ostinato patterns
in Moeran's development.
(b) repeated quaver G minor triads at fig. 16 (Stenhammar), plus inversion of his initial rising
fifth so that the theme now matches the opening of Moeran's...
©2001 Andrew Rose
(c) leading up to fig. 29: reduction to a double bass quaver ostinato: see -very curiously,
though this time coincidentally! -figure 29 also of Moeran... This leads back, in both cases, to
development of the ostinato figure.
(d) Stenhammar at fig. 36 (recap. of main theme) plonks in a sudden resounding tonic major
chord. Moeran does it first time around, at bar 8 of figure 2, to inevitably similar effect.
These are just a few. I make no suggestion of a close stylistic affinity (Stenhammar's overall
conception owes plenty to Bruckner's Fifth, especially in the finale, and that's a long way from
Moeran). The veneration in which Stenhammar held Sibelius MIGHT be significant: while one
has to believe that Moeran's innocent perturbation was genuine when ('pace' Bax's obit.) told
that he'd cribbed from Tapiola (which Bax does no less obviously, and consciously as well, in his
Sixth Symphony, scherzo reprise), the possibility must remain that if he DID ever hear the
Stenhammar it might have been the Sibelian tendencies in it that filtered selectively through to
him, without his
necessarily even realizing that's what they were?..
You can't ignore Moeran's own Sibelian tendencies (see also Symphony/slow movt), and they
are strikingly at odds with most other composers in Britan at the time in their personal effect
(though I've often wondered whether he knew and was symphonically influenced by Hadley's
'The Trees So High' - many similarities, including taste for the minor root chord with added
sharpened sixth - see first 'big'
thematic development in Moeran's slow movt).
No, Stenhammar is not lightly dismissed, however hard you try! If coincidence, it's a big one.
No true composer models himself entirely - sometimes even consciously - on one thing or
person. Who knows how much undiagnosed effect there is in Moeran's Symphony - or other
works - of his enthusiasm for Haydn, for example? But I bet it's there. My old composition
Stenhammar is not lightly
dismissed, however hard you
try! If coincidence, it's a big
one...
teacher Robin Holloway used to say that composing was a matter largely of 'digging into what
you already have': the fact that it's been sloshing around in your head with everything else, like
several lunches in your stomach, will mean that what eventually gets regurgitated (excuse
horrible image!) will have your stamp on it, if you're worth your salt (which EJM definitely is
-and so for that matter is Stenhammar: still much underrated). People are too black-and-white
about influences, and I tend to trust fellow composers on the subject because they usually seem
to have learnt by experience not to be!
Finally, just as a real bit of mischief, try comparing the oboe themes
(both in A minor) from the slow movt of Stenhammar's FIRST Symphony and the
Minuet from EJM's Serenade... Coincidence? Probably this time, yes, and the
resemblance is not THAT close: but if an influence IS conscious - as it may
be - then decency requires at least a judicious amount of disguise... People
bang on about EJM's Cello Concerto slow movt being so close to Brahms 2nd
Piano Concerto, Elgar's Cello Concerto, etc (not to mention Dvorak in the
Finale). Not many seem to have commented that the slow movt theme's first
seven principal notes exactly shadow the slow movt of Elgar's VIOLIN
Concerto. How conscious/subconscious/judiciously or injudiciously
'disguised' is that? Influence is a very slippery subject. Dismiss
Stenhammar and others at your academic peril!
Continuing on this theme, Jonathan Cook went on to make the following comments:
After spending 2 years contemplating the subject of Moeran and his influences whilst at Oxford
in the early nineties, I can honestly say there are reams to be written on the subject. Francis
has mentioned Elgar and Stenhammer, there is also Walton (Portsmouth Point as I recall), of
course Sibelius and most importantly for me the whole area of Moeran's relationship with
folksong.
I partly subscribe to Self's ideas of there being 'cells' in Moeran's compositional style, but take
this proposition further (more when I have had chance to revisit my earlier work) tracing
motivic constructs through folksong and into other's compositions.
It is easy to see the folksong link as 'quaint' but not 'real' music. The effort Moeran invested in
the Folksong & Dance Society and work he did for their publications, let alone his exposure to
the medium in his formative years in Norfolk (and later in Ireland), to me justify this subject for
serious discussion alongside proper comparisons with the works of Elgar, Bax, Sibelius etc etc.
So is there a conclusion to be drawn from this? It seems impossible to prove absolutely one way
or another that Moeran knew the Stenhammer 2nd Symphony. Francis Pott's arguments do
seem pretty convincing and watertight, yet others have rejected the idea outright: in his book
"The Music of E J Moeran", Geoffrey Self reduces the whole idea to a footnote where he
mentions a letter on the subject from Colin Scott-Sutherland. In conversation with me in 2000 it
is still a connection he vehemently rejects, as does Barry Marsh.
So for now I'll take the easy way out and reserve judgement - I really don't know the
Stenhammer well enough to comment. You could try getting hold of a copy of the Stenhammer
and draw your own conclusions - click here - and then join the debate on the Moeran Mailing
List - see the links above left.
Violin Concerto R78
There are two reviews of Violin Concerto recordings in the Gramofile records on the net since
1983, both of which are currently in print. Not included is a review of the excellent John
Georgiadis recording with the LSO under Vernon Handley on Lyrita vinyl - an LP well worth
tracking down.
Chandos CHAN8807
Mordkovitch/Ulster Orch/Handley
Published September 1990
I still have a clear recollection of hearing the Prom broadcast of the first performance of
Moeran's Violin Concerto in July 1942 when Arthur Catterall was the soloist. It swept me off my
feet and for days afterwards I was haunted by it. The spell, I fear, has not survived the passing
of nearly 50 years, in spite of my hearing several excellent performances by the Halle in the
Barbirolli era. Today I would rate the Cello Concerto much higher among English concertos and
in Moeran's own works.
What captivated me at first, of course, must have been the finale and in particular its last five
minutes, a most moving elegy which Lydia Mordkovitch plays very beautifully on this excellent
new recording. Generally, though, the work is too long and diffuse and there is too much rather
self-conscious Irish-jiggery. But if this doesn't worry you and you can surrender to its rhapsodic
musings and gusts of passion and forget its obvious debt to Elgar and Delius, then this is as
good a performance as you could wish, recorded with the clarity and fidelity that are the
hallmark of Chandos recordings. The Ulster Orchestra plays superbly, so that Moeran's attractive
and colourful scoring gets its full due; and, of course, Vernon Handley is a sympathetic
interpreter.
MK
Symposium mono (Full price) (CD) SYMCD1201
Sammons/BBC SO/Boult
Published May 1999
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©2001 Andrew Rose
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Lionel Hill (from whose private collection the present
triptych was quarried) that he managed to persuade his father-in-law, the great Albert
Sammons, to take up a work he was surely born to play. For those who love Moeran’s Violin
Concerto as much as I do, hearing this glorious broadcast performance with Sir Adrian Boult and
the BBC SO from April 1946 will be an intensely moving experience. Sammons plays with great
poetry and sweetness of tone, while Boult’s masterful accompaniment is a model of enviable
cogency and scrupulous sensitivity. In his booklet-essay, Hill (whose close friendship with
Moeran is touchingly annotated in Lonely Waters; Thames: 1985) describes how ‘over the
following months I moved Heaven and Earth to get HMV or Decca to record a performance with
Sammons and Barbirolli – all to no avail.’ That same year, Sammons gave his last concert
performance ever (of the Elgar) before he contracted the Parkinson’s disease that was to blight
the remaining 11 years of his life.
AA
...It swept me off my feet
and for days afterwards I
was haunted by it...
...Moeran's attractive and
colourful scoring gets its full
due...
...Sammons plays with great
poetry and sweetness of
tone...
Moeran's Violin Concerto
Mr. Moeran has pleasing
THE general plan of E. J. Moeran's Violin Concerto is somewhat unusual. After the first
things to say, and says them
movement there comes a scherzo, and after the scherzo a Lento, with which the composition
with a graciousness that is all
ends. This is unusual but not revolutionary. As the most popular symphony of our time, the
too rare in modern music
Pathétique, ends with a slow movement there is no reason why a concerto should not follow so
attractive a precedent. Indeed, Mr. Moeran is wise in refusing to write a final rondo if he feels,
as a composer does feel, that he has said all that for the time he wants to say. The Concerto is
also unusual in the construction of the first movement, and this innovation will not be accepted
without some reservations. One of the themes, for instance, appears in the orchestra but not in
the solo instrument, which is in keeping with the modern notion of a concerto as a composition
not written solely to display a player's skill, but one in which the solo instrument is a very
important, though not the only important, part.
But if the plan implies a loss on the swings it provides compensations with the roundabouts. The
limelight may not be constantly on the soloist, but that means not that it is dimmed; it means
that it is shifted on to some other feature. In any case the solo is conspicuous enough and, as
the exceedingly fine playing of Arthur Catterall showed the other night, as grateful to the player
as it is satisfying to the listener. Mr. Moeran has pleasing things to say, and says them with a
graciousness that is all too rare in modern music. He is modern enough in his technique but
does not make a parade of modernity; he has the gift of lyrical expression, but does not make
lyrical expression the sole aim of his composition ; his treatment of the orchestra is that of an
expert but he doesn't make the orchestra ' dance,' as Verdi expressed it.
The outcome of this happy combination of generous gifts and strict control, of a natural instinct
controlled by knowledge and experience is very gratifying. For one thing it gives the Concerto a
very original turn - not less original or striking because of the Irishness of the Scherzo and
concluding Lento. The programme notes told us that the work was conceived in Ireland and that
it might, therefore, bear the influence, conscious or unconscious, of Irish folk-song. That
influence is felt but does not intrude. The music is not based on folk-song, and one is aware of it
only as one might be aware of national characteristics in any other work which does not
deliberately imitate a foreign idiom.
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The brilliance of the Scherzo and the graver lyrical beauties of the last movement are
significant, pointing to an artistic temper that is neither easily led into wild experiment nor
afraid of novelty. The violin is an instrument that lends itself better than most to the mood of
the scherzo. The comparative ease with which it can perform tricks, the variety of its 'coups
d'archet,' open up great possibilities in that direction. Yet no concerto has ever tried to exploit
them with the single exception of a Concerto of Vieuxtemps which is still taught to
students-often omitting the Scherzo. Now moderns are showing a desire to explore this field. A
few months ago Sir George Dyson charmed an audience with the Scherzo he had provided for
his Violin Concerto, and now Mr. Moeran repeats the experiment with equal felicity.
But above all things the violin is a lyrical instrument, and Mr. Moeran never allows himself to
forget it. He has some very fine lyrical passages in the first movement, and the last abounds in
phrases which have a most fascinating eloquence.
Lastly his Concerto seems exceptionally well written for the soloist. The general tendency today
is to write extremely difficult passages which never make the effect they should. Composers
may say that the effect intended is, in fact, achieved and, of course, if the composer is satisfied,
the critic should be silent, while players possessing a great technique will probably support the
composer because they will be stimulated by the challenge to their powers. Thus all in the
garden would seem to be lovely-but it isn't. The system is simply uneconomical. It predicates a
maximum of effort with a minimum of effect. Such a combination has always been and ever will
be uneconomical. Now there is nothing of the kind in the Moeran Concerto. The writing does
here and there presume an unusual degree of ability in the player, but the reward is
commensurate with the effort. After all, the greatest skill of the player is not apparent in
triumphant progress through awkward double stops (of which the listener is totally unaware),
but in the treatment of a noble passage. The greatest difficulty in Beethoven's Concerto is not in
its scales and arpeggios but in the realization of the grave beauty of some extremely simple
phrases of the Larghetto.
F. B.
Moeran's Violin Concerto
By EDWIN EVANS
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MOERAN is essentially a lyrical tone-poet. Whatever the degree of constructive skill displayed in
his major works he is invariably at his best when moved to song. At such moments one forgets,
as being of little importance, whether he has or has not satisfied all the postulates of musical
architecture, in the sheer beauty of the lyrical expression. It is so, for instance, in the lovely
concluding pages of his Symphony, in which one is content to be swayed by lyrical exaltation
alone and cares little by what logical process that stage has been reached, though it will bear
examination from that angle if one is that way inclined. It is in the very nature of such music to
be, if not actually induced, at least profoundly affected, by the conditions under which it is
created. This lends more importance than usual to the circumstances of time and place of
composition. His Violin Concerto was begun on Valentia Island in 1938, the year after the
completion of his Symphony, but whereas much of the latter was composed during the stormy
winter months the first movement of the Concerto was written during the summer calm. The
rest of the work was composed at Kenmare, South Kerry, which lies at the landward end of a
long fjordlike inlet of the Atlantic. It was occasionally set aside while the composer was engaged
on other work, notably the choral Suite 'Phyllida and Corydon' (1939), some songs, and the
planning of instrumental works to follow, and was not completed until the end of 1941. So far as
the composer is aware, no use is made of actual folk-tunes but, as he explains, he was living in
the midst of a community where, apart from the radio, little else was to be heard. He was
actually taking advantage of the opportunity to collect folk-songs in the district. It would
therefore appear almost inevitable that the influence of folk music should assert itself, and
unnatural on the composer's part to strive against it-for which, as we know from other works,
he would have had little inclination. This influence is felt especially in the second movement, a
Rondo, which expresses the spirit of the summer fairs of Kerry, and particularly of the famous
Puck's Fair of Killorglin, which lies to the north, near Castlemaine Harbour and Dingle Bay. The
retrospective third movement originated during the autumn of 1941. In its concluding pages it
reflects the calm experienced in Southern Ireland at this season, before the gales begin to burst
in from the Atlantic.
The first movement, Allegro moderato (4-4) in G major, opens with:
on the strings, joined at the third bar by clarinet. This short phrase, which is reserved for the
orchestra and never given to the solo instrument, recurs frequently in the course of the
movement, and returns to preface the epilogue which concludes the work. At the sixth bar the
solo violin presents the main subject of the movement:
In modified form this same theme is also the basic subject of the last movement. At its
conclusion Ex. 1 is heard a tone higher, followed by a brief lyrical phrase which, although it is to
recur at the very end of the movement, has otherwise no individual thematic importance, but
like some others in the course of the work, may be considered an indication of mood. This leads
immediately to a new subject:
So far as the composer is
aware, no use is made of
actual folk-tunes but, as he
explains, he was living in the
midst of a community where,
apart from the radio, little
else was to be heard...
in the continuation of which, after a recall of Ex. 2 by the orchestra, occur dance-like figures
foreshadowing a mood which is to assert itself before the exposition is completed. After a
cadenza based on Exx. 3 and 2, and ended by the orchestra with Ex. 1, a modulation to B minor
introduces the second subject:
This is followed by the anticipated change of mood in a tripping, dance-like, non-recurrent
episode (12-8) , first on the wood-wind in imitation, then on the solo violin, towards the close of
which Ex. 3 reasserts itself on the orchestra, to be extended in imitation in a tutti, concluding
the exposition. As frequently in the works of contemporary composers, development and
recapitulation are virtually one. The solo instrument muses rhapsodically, molto rubato, on Ex.
2, the orchestra interpolating Ex. 1, and continues to elaborate until the oboe interposes with a
new non-recurrent lyrical phrase which the solo violin imitates an octave higher. This leads to a
variant of Ex. 1 on the orchestra, followed by a cadenza and the return of the second subject,
Ex. 4, on the clarinet, the solo violin taking over its second phrase. Ex. 1 in its original form and
the lyrical phrase which preceded Ex. 3 bring the movement to a very quiet conclusion.
The Rondo, Vivace in D (2-4, 4-4, 3-4) is largely based on various dance-rhythms all worked out
to the unit of the quaver, which remains constant in spite of many changes of time-signature,
and rhythmic combinations. It opens with the strings indicating the initial rhythm in triplets,
trumpet and wood-wind adding a rising figure. At the seventh bar the horns give out
marcatissimo a vigorous theme in a counter-rhythm:
the strings continuing their figure. The solo violin then enters with a short bravura passage
leading to:
which is quickly carried to a climax. A more flowing theme in E minor, mostly in sixths, is
presented by the solo violin against string tremolos, but otherwise the buoyancy continues.
Soon, against the resumption of the initial rhythmic figure by the strings, the violin gives out:
When this has been extended Ex. 6 returns in 3-4 time on tutti, followed by a new dance-figure
which, when it reaches the solo violin, is completed as:
There are references to material previously heard, notably Ex. 5. Then the flowing theme in
sixths is extended by tutti with a lyrical continuation on the solo violin ending in another
resumption of the initial rhythm. After a short cadenza the solo violin introduces yet another
dance-rhythm, Alla Valse Burlesca, which is a variant of Ex. 7, and begins a coda based mainly
on the initial rhythmic figure with Exx. 6 and 5.
The last movement, Lento (3-4) in F sharp minor, concluding in D, is largely based on Ex. 2,
which, however, is at first so modified that its identity is only gradually made clear as the
movement proceeds. First the strings, joined at the third bar by clarinet, announce a theme
over which solo violin and clarinet alternate with soaring phrases derived from Ex. 2. Then a
modulation to C minor brings another theme in sixths on the solo violin, but before long the
influence of Ex. 2 reasserts itself, in D minor, in a form appreciably nearer to the original, with
counter-phrases on the cor anglais. All the foregoing may be considered the first subject-group
of the movement. The second subject-group follows, in D major, cantabile a molto tranquillo.
First the orchestra unfolds a suave theme the initial phrase of which still retains a kinship with
Ex. 2 ; then the solo violin re-enters with:
After a climax an elaborate passage on the solo violin subsides pp into Ex. 1 on the muted
strings, and the epilogue begins in autumnal calm. Against a murmuring background of strings,
still muted, the solo violin resumes Ex. 9 and continues it with Ex. 2, which is now brought
nearest to its original shape. The conclusion thus accords with the opening; but this appears to
come naturally, as it were, without any deliberate restatement of the kind that is sometimes
resorted to in the hope of establishing formal unity.
The first performance of the Concerto was given at a Promenade Concert, July 8, 1942, the
soloist being Arthur Catterall, to whom the work is dedicated and who has edited the violin part.
Owing to the success of the Symphony, and perhaps also to curiosity having been stimulated by
those who had had access to the score, it had been awaited with much interest. For once such
anticipations were not disappointed and it was warmly welcomed-as well it might be, for the
qualities it displays are never too prevalent in music generally, and solo concertos in particular,
with their inherent temptation to virtuosity for its own sake, rarely prove so congenial to them.
Sinfonietta R83
There are three reviews of Sinfonietta recordings in the Gramofile records on the net since
1983, all of which are probably currently in print, though not all easily found. Not included is a
review of the excellent Boult recording with the LPO on Lyrita vinyl dating from 1968.
...the diminutive title belies a
work which is quite
large-scale...
Chandos CHAN8456
Bournemouth Sinfonietta/Del Mar
In the Sinfonietta the playing is again first rate, but the diminutive title belies a work which is
...It's a delightful work,
quite large-scale, and which needs a bigger body of strings than the Bournemouth Sinfonietta
eclectic like most of Moeran,
possess. On Boult's 1967 Lyrita recording, with its pleasing Kingsway Hall acoustic, the LPO's
but tautly and expertly
full complement of strings makes a better effect and Sir Adrian's objective approach works well
composed...
in a delightful work which has a well-contrived blend of high spirits, charm and warmth of
feeling. Del Mar points the reflective passages with his usual skill and sympathy: his tempos are
on the whole faster than those of Boult and it is possible to think that he presses too hard in the
lively episodes, which in the slightly over-reverberant acoustic become rather blurred and too
much dominated by the Timpani. The new record is most welcome, however, for another
viewpoint on the Sinfonietta and for the revelatory account of the Cello Concerto.
AS
EMI CDC7 49912-2
Northern Sinfonia/Hickox
Published February 1990
A very pleasant disc of orchestral works by Moeran and Finzi, sensitively played by the Northern
Sinfonia, and recorded straightforwardly, with no quirks, although the resonance of All Saints'
Church in Newcastle upon Tyne sometimes blurs the timpani rolls. Richard Hickox has flair for
this vein of British music and brings out both composers' considerable skill in the application of
orchestral colours, mostly pastel shades in Finzi, but bolder in the Moeran pieces, which are
among his more extrovert compositions.
Moeran's Sinfonietta has been brightly recorded by Norman Del Mar for Chandos and anyone
who possesses it needn't look further. It's a delightful work, eclectic like most of Moeran, but
tautly and expertly composed in an honourable tradition of lighter music by British composers. I
can't think why we don't hear it more often in the concert-hall—well, of course, I can think why:
the chronic timidity of audiences and managements.
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MK
EMI CDM7 64721-2
Northern Sinfonia/Hickox
Published August 1994 (Reissue, mid-price)
In the case of the Sinfonietta, Hickox's comparatively bluff way with the outer movements has
much in common with Del Mar's 1986 Bournemouth Sinfonietta version; the former is, however,
more acutely responsive to the chimerical mood-changes of the central Theme and Variations.
Let us hope that this, Moeran's centenary year, sees the restoration of Boult's pioneering Lyrita
account (11/85—nla) of this lovely score (coupled, ideally, to that great conductor's superb
recording of the Symphony in G minor).
AA
Notes by Robin Hull
Penguin Music Magazine (1948)
Few orchestral works of recent times have enjoyed a more well-deserved success than E J
Moeran's Sinfonietta, of which an excellent near-miniature score is now published. The score
provides a capital instance of a work that won cordial opinions at the outset, and whose
significance has been confirmed in the light of later performances.
It was widely recognised from the first that what seemed to be occasional (though of course
unconscious) echoes of Sibelius are purely incidental to a composer whose cardinal individuality
is beyond dispute. Still, it is a point of elementary fairness to pin down what may strike the
listener as Sibelian affinities, even if these amount to singularly little, and then give the chapter
and verse to which any composer is entitled.
It must suffice here to mention two examples. The first comes at Fig. 12 (1st mvmt.) where the
woodwind phrases, whose material has already been introduced, crystallize in a manner which
Sibelius has certainly made familiar. The second occures at Fig. 56 (3rd mvmt.) where the
following run of semi-quavers may bring to mind a feature of the Sibelian method, though, one
need scarcely add, nothing of any manner or matter except Moeran's own.
The cumulative effect of such affinities strike me as almost negligible, and worth mentioning
only because these points, if evident at first hearing, require that the perceptive listener shall
place them in the correct perspective. For the rest, there is little need to stress the resounding
originality of a work whose fame has become established far outside our own country.
The 'Theme and Variations' (2nd mvmt.) have a richness and resource whose imaginative
eloquence has seldom been exceeded by any composer in recent times. And the score, taken as
a whole, proves yet again that, in the expression of sheer beauty, Moeran can bring to bear an
inspiration reaching supreme heights.
Penguin Music Magazine No. 5, 1948
New Music - Robin Hull
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...a richness and resource
whose imaginative eloquence
has seldom been exceeded
by any composer in recent
times...
Moeran's Sinfonietta
...the harmony is active and
This work of 1944 has taken some time to reach the high places, but may be said to have
modern-sounding in a way
arrived on January 25th when it was admitted to the Royal Philharmonic itself, with Sir Thomas
that does not depend on
Beecham conducting. It entered under a certain disadvantage, for the works to which it bore
company were Berlioz's overture 'King Lear', Sibelius's fourth Symphony and Delius's first Dance manufactured discords; its
resources are more varied
Rhapsody, each an extreme example of individualism and remoteness from ordinary contacts;
than that...
whereas Moeran's work makes its communications on a plane we all know.
Its originality is what may be called short-termed, and lies in the way things are kept going
rather than in the shape and size of the things themselves. Sprightliness and colour can be
simulated, and frequently are; to Moeran they come spontaneously. He has his own brisk gait
and, especially in the variations of the second movement, his own intricacies of harmony and
colour. Further, the harmony is active and modern-sounding in a way that does not depend on
manufactured discords; its resources are more varied than that.
Well invested incidents abound; and if they sometimes seem to hustle each other, that is a rare
form of excess. From the manner of the scoring it was a likely guess that the players of the
R.P.O. enjoyed their parts; and something to the same effect seemed to come from Sir Thomas,
the conductor. His was indeed a remarkable evening's work, for he attended to each of the four
works as if his whole career depended on it.
W. McN. Musical Times Feb 1950
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Cello Concerto Premiere - Reviews
Irish Times, November 26th 1945
Yesterday’s symphony concert in the Capitol Theatre, Dublin, included the first performance of
Moeran’s cello concerto. The soloist, Peers Coetmore, gave a superb performance. Her tone was
of an amazingly rich quality, and her expressive playing was exactly right for this lovely work
with its delightful, almost song-like melodies woven into a pattern of rich colour.
Irish Independent, November 26th 1945
A new work by E.J.Moeran was performed for the first time by Peers Coetmore, with the Radio
Eireann Symphony Orchestra, in the Capitol Theatre. The composer has appreciated that the
‘cello is heard to best advantage in broad and flowing melody, and in the first and second
movements the soloist was given many opportunities to display power, beauty and a variety of
tone in smooth melodic playing. There is a fine cadenza at the end of the second movement,
well in character, which was excellently played.
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...this lovely work with its
delightful, almost song-like
melodies woven into a
pattern of rich colour...
Cello Concerto Hallé Review, 1946
THE HALLE CONCERTS
It is possible that the bright young people of our time, or at any rate those queer souls who are
known (strangely enough) as the intelligentsia, would deny that composers who are so
impulsive as to allow emotional feeling an equal place with intellectual effort when they write
their music are modernists in the strict sense of the term. If that notion prevails Mr.E.J.Moeran,
whose Violoncello Concerto was played at last night’s concert in the Houldsworth Hall,
Manchester, would no doubt gladly disavow any connection with modern fashions in musical art.
He is frankly and unashamedly prone to spontaneous emotional feeling and it is obvious that his
impulses are never cooled down or diverted from their natural expression by anxiety about
whether he is or is not true to up-to-date style. Yet it is no less obvious that Moeran has the
modern harmonic technique at his finger-ends and when he likes, can be as free, daring, and
ingenious in its use are most of the younger men. Whereas many composers who during their
early years lived in the midst of the romantic movement in art reacted against the spell and
sought to prove its illusoriness, Moeran is among those richer natures who combine present-day
ideas with undisturbed attachment to and real feeling for traditional views. The occasional
complexities of the ‘Cello Concerto which is highly original in thematical material and in the
treatment of it, offer more difficulty to the performers than to listeners. As Mr.John F.Russell
suggests in his analysis in the programme, Celtic influences as well as meditations on the
English countryside have apparently had their effect on the work, though the composer perhaps
remains sceptical about that matter. A deeply expressive adagio and a varied and picturesque
finale are movements that will, we think, appeal to all tastes, and both these sections of the
work show an inward cohesion which, in spite of rhapsodic passages, binds image to image in
logical sequence.
The soloist last night was Miss Peers Coetmore (Mrs.Moeran, the composer’s wife), and she
gave us a delightfully spirited performance of the ‘cello music. The solo frequently explores the
highest positions on the strings, and once or twice a slightly doubtful intonation was heard, but
the general firmness and fluency of Miss Coetmore’s playing were as admirable as its
interpretative range. Under Mr.Barbirolli’s sensitive direction the orchestral parts were finely
suited to the work’s texture and to the style of the soloist.
G.A.H.
[review of the first Manchester/Halle performance
of the Cello Concerto, 30 Oct.1946]
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...composers who are so
impulsive as to allow
emotional feeling an equal
place with intellectual effort
when they write their music
are modernists in the strict
sense of the term...
Cello Concerto R89
There is one review of Symphony recordings in the Gramofile records on the net since 1983,
which is currently in print. The only other commercial recording, on a 1970 Lyrita LP, is by Peers
Coetmore with Boult and the LPO. This is perhaps of historical interest only - there are severe
flaws in the performance which make it an almost painful experience to hear.
Chandos CHAN8456
Wallfisch/Bournemouth Sinfonietta/Del Mar
Written at the end of the Second World War, Moeran's Cello Concerto is a dark, sombre work, in
which the prevailing feeling of sadness and regret is relieved only at the beginning of the last
movement by an Irish reel-like tune, whose jauntiness soon however gives way to a more
introspective mood similar in feeling to the material of the first two movements. It's an elusive
piece, but repeated hearings reveal many passages of exquisite beauty, and it is good to have it
in such a sympathetic and well-played performance as this. This 1969 Lyrita recording, by
Moeran's wife Peers Coetmore, for whom the Concerto was written, gives an inadequate picture
of the work, since her insight is not matched by playing of sufficient strength or skill. Raphael
Wallfisch, on the other hand, plays with much beauty of tone and phrasing and Norman Del Mar
obtains eloquent, high-quality playing from the orchestra.
The new record is most welcome...for the revelatory account of the Cello Concerto.
AS
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...a dark, sombre work, in
which the prevailing feeling
of sadness and regret is
relieved only at the
beginning of the last
movement...
Reviews for the Second Rhapsody
Proms Performance, 1929
Manchester Guardian 13/9/29
Mr. E.J.Moeran’s Second Rhapsody, which was heard at the Norwich Festival five years ago but
has never been done in London, made a good impression on the Promenaders tonight, in spite
of the fact that the composer is not a practised conductor. The work does not strike one as
being firmly enough knit. It contains two kinds of music which will not quite blend into unity,
though both are distinctly congenial to Mr.Moeran. At one moment he loves to be alone with
nature and far from the tranquil places where Delius loves to linger; at the next he is eager to
be in touch with the rich humanity that sings its chanteys in country taverns. The hearer is
tossed from one mood to the other and back again until he feels the title of "rhapsody" to be an
apology. But there is so much that is good to listen to in this work that one forgoes good form
without insisting on excuses.
E.B.
Sunday Times 15/9/29
Mr.E.J.Moeran’s Second Rhapsody does not seem as well knit as some of his earlier work; its
looseness of articulation was all the more evident in comparison with the Elgar violin concerto
and the Introduction and Allegro for Strings. But Mr. Moeran has genuine imagination and a
vision of his own.
Daily Telegraph
Mr.E.J.Moeran, whose Rhapsody No.2 also had its first concert performance in London, has won
an established position amongst our younger composers, who are definitely English in outlook.
This Rhapsody has a strain of originality differentiating it from other musical bucolics.
H.E.W.
The Times
E.J.Moeran’s Second Rhapsody...owes its inspiration to folk-song. Its interest is melodic; the
melodies are original, neo-modal, and beautiful. The work is of considerable length and has the
strength of nationally tinged music. It ought to be heard again soon.
Daily Mail
The other new work was a rhapsody by Mr.E.J.Moeran, a much more serious aspirant, for his
joking, what there was of it, was sad. If there is a human story behind his patchwork poem it is
one of far-away things.
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Observer 15/9/29
Mr.Moeran’s Second Rhapsody shows him continuing further on the same broad lines as in his
former works. The themes of this Rhapsody are definitely in the folk-music language, and his
treatment of them is definitely expressive, perhaps romantic, though with little or no rhetoric. It
should at least be heard again.
Reviews compiled by Barry Marsh
If there is a human story
behind his patchwork poem it
is one of far-away things...
New Music
by Robin Hull
E J Moeran's 'Rhapsody in F sharp for Piano and Orchestra' offers a welcome alternative indeed
to some of the older concertos which have been worn threadbare up and down the country.
Here is a Rhapsody that really lives up to its title. Moeran is one of the few living composers
who can handle this kind of pattern with true mastery. He writes succinctly and often brilliantly,
giving due place to lyrical meditation, and achieves a feeling of spaciousness without the
slightest deviation into relaxed or diffuse thought.
He scores for a fairly large orchestra, but these resources are used economically and leave him
an ample reserve for movements of heightened power. Hs treatment of the keyboard, too, is
both expert and closely sympathetic; to be sure, the music calls for first-rate playing, alike in
matters of technique and interpretation, yet its demands on the player are wholly reasonable.
My own view is that Moeran finds himself thoroughly at home in a work conceived on this scale
(the duration of the Rhapsody is 17 1/2 minutes). He has given us some glorious music of
course, in the two concertos proper - for Violin and Cello respectively - but here the pattern
seems even more to his liking. Moreover the Rhapsody is an ideal length for many programmes
in which, frankly, the listener does not want a three movement concerto in addition to a big
symphony. Whether anything will induce the builders of programmes to realise this fact, ad turn
aside from the beaten track is a problem which seems to fall within the province of
brain-specialists!
Penguin Music Magazine No. 1, 1946
" New Music" - Robin Hull
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Moeran is one of the few
living composers who can
handle this kind of pattern
with true mastery...
Review from the Musical Times
Ludlow Town
'A Shropshore Lad' still draws composers like a magnet. E. J. Moeran has set four of the poems,
and issued them as a cycle under the title 'Ludlow Town'. The four are: 'When smoke stood up
from Ludlow', 'Farewell to barn and stack and tree', 'Say, lad, have you things to do?' and 'The
lads in their hundreds'.
Mr. Moeran need not fear the inevitable comparison between this cycle and previous 'Shropshire
Lad' essays. I can spare space for the mention of only one of the admirable qualities it shows,
and I choose one that is least often shown by song composers today, especially the young ones.
Mr. Moeran has acquired thus early the knowledge of what to leave out.
There are several pages - especially in 'The lads in their hundreds' - where the accompaniment
suggests Stanford in its successful reliance on a few detatched chords. But when the text
demands the setting up of a background full of colour and suggestion, he can do it as clinchingly
as anybody. See, as two widely different examples, the pianoforte to the grisly 'Farewell to
barn', and the subtleties and simplicities of that in 'When smoke stood up'.
Baritones who are also musicians, and who have a liking for the grey and earthy melancholy of
'A Shropshire Lad', should make a note of 'Ludlow Town'. It places Mr. Moeran at once among
the pick of our song-writers. (But I hope his publishers will not advertise him as such à la
Warlock.)
"H.G." - Musical Times, January 1925
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...when the text
demands the
setting up of a
background full
of colour and
suggestion, he
can do it as
clinchingly as
anybody...
Extract from 'New Music'
by Robin Hull
A cordial welcome is deserved by E. J. Moeran's Six Poems (Joseph Williams, 4s.), for voice and
...the finest since the time of
piano, set to the verses of Seumas O'Sullivan. The verses themselves are precisely of the kind
Peter Warlock...
to invite sensitive and imaginative music, and one could scarcely wish for anything more apt
than Moeran's response to this invitation. It is true that his own individuality becomes subdued
at times, and appears at variable strength, but this is patently the outcome of a desire fully to
preserve the simplicity of the words. Thus the first song, Evening, can strike one as belonging to
the world of folk-song at its best, rather than the realm of Moeran's personal style, yet the
result is so beautiful that one could hardly wish the case to be altered. The personal note is
altogether stronger in Moeran's very remarkable setting of The Herdsman. This reflective,
poignant song strikes to great depth, and can be worthily compared with the finest since the
time of Peter Warlock. The Six Poems as a whole are to be cherished by all who recognise the
richness of Moeran's inventiveness, and ought on no account to be missed by others who have
yet to make a full acquaintance with the art of this outstanding composer. The songs are wholly
reasonable in their demands on executants, but require, of course, an interpretation which does
justice to Moeran's sensitivity.
taken from Penguin Music Magazine
Volume III (1947) P.59
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Review of First Performance
Moeran's 'Songs of Springtime'
At their Aeolian Hall concert on March 13th [1934], Mr C. Kennedy Scott and the Oriana
Madrigal Society gave the first performance of Moeran's seven 'Songs of Springtime', hereby
fitting a double feather into their cap. They not only did the songs first, they did them all.
This example of singing the series straight through is not likely to become the rule. The songs
are not a conncted whole that becomes greater than the sum of its parts when treated whole.
Mr. Scott even made his choir pass from one song to the next without a chord or cue from the
pianoforte to make or rectify pitch. This was unquestionable as etiquette and as an indulgence
to the aesthetic ear; but was it practical? 'Sigh no more, Ladies' ends in F, and 'Good Wine'
begins in E. Only a heavenly choir could be sure of making an exact transition; and the Oriana,
being at least one stage lower, failed to make a true anchorage in the new key till a dozen bars
had passed. Again, the chromatic writing throughout the seven songs is an invitation to
flattening. The Oriana, it is true, held their pitch until near the end, but not many choirs would
be as successful.
This by the way. The songs made an even better impression in tone than they do in print.
Harmonic complexities that had threatened a slight vexation of the ear were carried into it
smoothly and with no more than an agreeable piquancy by the well-managed vocal movement.
The performance also established the unity that comprehended the Tudor suggestion on the one
hand and the modern harmonic feeling on the other. The total effect was that of something
singularly fresh and pleasant and stimulating in vocal music, and we hope that the Oriana will
do the songs again.
McN. Musical Times, April 1934
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The total effect was that of
something singularly fresh
and pleasant and stimulating
in vocal music...
Moeran's Phyllida and Corydon
The BBC Singers gave the first performance* of this suite of nine unaccompanied pieces on
October 30th 1939. I admired the choir's manipulation of the material, as it was directed by
Leslie Woodgate. The male singers still sound a bit etiolated through over-refinement; such
slight stroking sometimes fails to make us feel the chordal nerve of swiftly-changing harmonic
passages. The choir's verve was happy, its pointing (as in 'fa-la's) often pretty, and its spirit, at
the best, truly evocative.
The first impression about the music is that it stands in a clear succession, finely following an
ancient convention with a revived sensitiveness; the twentieth century mating with the
sixteenth (Breton, Munday, Sidney, and the like poets). This composer subtly individualises
certain procedures of modality and harmonic strangeness which few besides Warlock have
satisfactorily bent to their use. The modal convention has sometimes weakened Moeran's art;
here its use is almost entirely congenial; his fresh air can disperse the mists that enrap some of
his brethren when they `go modal'. That is the considerable achievement of a rich imagination.
In harmonic suggestiveness he is at his best, finding appropriate inflections for the subtlety of a
vocal caress. Now and again he over-subtilizes, I think, as in 'weep you no more' (No. 7). To
match in music the curious blend of simplicity in subject and exquisite fragility of poetic
expression is an almost impossible task for any musician. The moment he forsakes the shore of
period-style, as we know it in ayre or madrigal, he braves an ocean of harmonic currents which
may carry him to ports he seeks not - or even to over-emotional shipwreck. Moeran navigates
with high wisdom; the seamanship is as admirable as the ship is beautiful.
W.R.A. (1)
Musical Times November 1939.
* Note: The reviewer is probably referring to the first broadcast performance - see below
1 - W.R. Andersen.
"The first performance of Moeran's Choral Suite 'Phyllida and Corydon' will be gien by Kennedy
Schott's A Capella Choir at Aeolian Hall on October 24th 1939" - (footnote in M/T July 1939)
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"Moeran navigates with high
wisdom; the seamanship is
as admirable as the ship is
beautiful"
Phyllida and Corydon - assorted reviews
Moeran is not afraid of
As to be expected, Moeran's nine songs were most successful in practice when they depended
showing his indebtedness to
most upon play of rhythm and word among diatonic harmonies; that is, when their Elizabethan
great
masters of the English
dress had the most reality in its texture. Modern madriganlianism has nothing happier to its
choral age because he knows
credit than 'Phyllis inamorata,' 'I said that Amaryllis,' and 'Corydon, arise'. Other parts of the
their art intimately and
Suite involved the choir in a tussle that could not always be watched in comfort; the case is an
appreciates their genius...
extreme on when Mr Lawrence's choir drops a whole tone. The music of these pages may be of
the best, and embody all the virtues of free part-writing and harmonic and melodic thought; but
in giving rein to his gifts as a composer Mr. Moeran has called for a high degree of specialist
talent on the part of his singers, a technique that is no more prevalent in Fleet Street than in
Kensington or a cotton-mill.
...The concert was a seasonable example of courage and determination on the part of the choir.
Music Times, June 1940
review: The Fleet Street Choir, Wigmore Hall, May 27th 1940
This series continues to offer attractive programmes to the promoter's patrons. On February 13
the Fleet Street Choir conducted by T. B. Lawrence sand Benjamin Britten's 'Ceremony of
Carols' and 'Hymn to St. Cecilia' together with E J Moeran's three movement [sic] "Phyllida and
Corydon" and 'Alleluia' by Randall Thompson. Britten's 'Ceremony' is now familiar. His 'Hymn to
St. Cecilia', if less striking, has the same richness and resource. Moeran is not afraid of showing
his indebtedness to great masters of the English choral age, which he does, not because of a
lack of musical ideas, but because he knows their art intimately and appreciates their genius...
Musical Times, April 1943
review: Gerald Cooper Concerts
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The most enjoyable programme this month was provided by the B.B.C. Chorus, in Moeran's
suite 'Phyllida and Corydon', the first being pronounced with a redundtant 'r'. This very subtle
harmony beat the choir once or twice, but not badly. I am apt to be lost in admiration of the
B.B.C. Singers' intonation skill, even when I cannot feel that musical intuition keeps pace with it.
Moeran's suite is a glorious test for both powers. The composer has the craftsmanship of a
Parry, a Stanford, a Delius, and a beautifully refined creative spirit. We have now no finer
songsmith for the choir.
Round about Radio by W R Anderson
Musical Times, August 1944
'If these things had been
broadcast under the names
of any composers of the
madrigalian epoch, the
general verdict would
probably have been that
these ancient gentlemen
were writing at the top of
their form, if not, indeed, a
bit above it!'
A New Choral Work by Moeran
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MR. MOERAN'S 'Songs of Springtime,'*
produced a few years ago showed so marked
an aptitude in handling the medium and
capturing the spirit of Elizabethan lyrics that a
further venture in the same field seemed
inevitable. Here it is - a work on a larger scale:
nine numbers instead of seven. For poems Mr.
Moeran has drawn on Nicholas Breton (two),
Anthony Munday, Lancelot Andrewes, Sir Philip
Sidney, Herrick, and Anon. (three), practically
all representing the latter half of the sixteenth
and the first half of the seventeenth centuries.
'Phyllida and Corydon' is not a collection of
part-songs, but a Suite conceived with a view
to complete performance. In this respect it
differs from 'Songs of Springtime,' which,
being connected only by their common concern
with spring, were for practical purposes
separable because the performance of a group
of seven songs about spring might lack the
element of contrast. But 'Phyllida and Corydon'
is about persons and feelings, and so achieves
both unity and diversity. The Suite is, in effect,
a Pastoral in several scenes, representing
more or less definitely events concerning
Phyllida and Corydon. Here are the titles (I add
in brackets some indications of the '
programme ' kindly given me by the
composer) :
(1) ' In the merry month of May' (the crowning
of Phyllida as Queen of the May);
(2) 'Beauty sat bathing by a spring' (scene in
the drowsy heat of the afternoon) ;
(3) ' On a hill there grows a flower ' (reappearance of Corydon) ;
(4) Phyllis inamorata: 'Come, be my valentine ' (Corydon's wooing is successful) ;
(5) ' Said I that Amaryllis' (a ballet in which Corydon protests his love for Phyllida alone:
'Said I that Amaryllis
Was fairer than is Phyllis ?
Upon my death I take it,
Sweet Phyll, I never spake it.')
Nos. 6 and 7 belong to the serenade or nocturne family (the term used by the poets of the
period, 'Nightpiece,' is best-e.g., Ben Jonson's ' Nightpiece to Julia');
(6) ' Lock up, fair lids, the treasure of my heart';
(7) 'Weep you no more, sad fountains';
(8) ' Corydon, arise, my Corydon.' (Morning: Phyllida calls Corydon, and the dialogue between
them culminates in a dance);
(9) ' Ye have been fresh and green ' (Epilogue, in which Herrick's poem, ' To meadows,'
contrasts the former scenes of life and gaiety with the loneliness of autumn).
The movements are diversified in mood, key and form, thus: Madrigal, Allegro con brio, F
major; Madrigal, Andante, F minor; Pastoral, Andante sostenuto, G sharp minor; Air, Con brio, E
major; Ballet, Presto, G major; Canzonet, Andante con moto, G major; Air, Lento, A minor;
Pastoral, Allegro moderato, F major; Madrigal, Andante ma poco rubato, G minor. The key
sequence is so designed that singers should be able to pass from number to number without a
helping chord.
The length of performance is just under thirty minutes.
A composer setting Elizabethan texts usually chooses one of two methods : he either writes in
the idiom of the period, or adopts that of his own time. The former is apt to suggest a pose,
though at its best it may lead to successful results - e.g., the pick of Pearsall and Walmisley.
The second is successful in the hands of composers who have the English choral idiom in their
bones and whose own style is diatonic. Thus both Parry and Stanford - especially the latter were admirable in this field, although there is very little that suggests conscious imitation of the
past. This self-denying ordinance was specially notable in the case of Stanford, who shared with
Saint-Saens the dangerous gift of being able to put on as a garment the style and idiom of
almost any period or person. There is, however, a third way-a compromise which unites past
and present. A free use of the idioms (harmonic, polyphonic, and rhythmic) of the Elizabethans
provides a ' period' background and reflects the general style of the poems; the use of modern
chromaticism for emotionally expressive moments throws them into sharp relief and also
provides the necessary element of contrast. This is the method adopted by Mr. Moeran.
Let us look at one or two examples of free use of traditional matter and manner. No. 5 (' Said I
that Amaryllis ') is a ballet, and therefore includes much fa la-ing. The two opening phrases are
rhythmically the same as those of Morley's 'Now is the month of maying,' and they are followed
at once by fa la's ; but the fourth line of the verse is made to overlap the fa la's-a plan that
avoids the square and sectional method of the old ballet:
The fa la refrains, though diatonic, are freshened by occasional touches of dissonance. The
buoyancy of these portions is shown by a brief extract:
The overlapping of verse and refrain occurs again later, the fa la brusquely interrupting, ff, the
end of a languishing tenor phrase, ' More love and beauty pang me.'
A further use of fa la occurs in No. 3 ('On a hill there grows a flower'), the first verse being a
soprano solo, with a gently swinging A.T.B. fa la accompaniment. But perhaps the most striking
vocal accompaniment is that of No. 8 ('Corydon, arise'). The poem is a dialogue between
Phyllida and Corydon, given to soprano and tenor, the alto and bass providing an
accompaniment of 'la la' save for a brief 'lips closed' passage. As a result of the dialogue much
of the writing is in three parts, alternating between S.A.B. and A.T.B. Further variety is obtained
by giving the second half of the piece to full chorus, with a good deal of two-part antiphony.
Here is a quotation showing a couple of phrases of the dialogue:
There is an exhilarating two-page section midway with la-ing in varying degrees of power and
'touch' culminating thus:
Even more original, perhaps, is the treatment of 'Hey nonny nonny' in No. 2 ('Beauty sat
bathing by a spring'). The refrain of the second verse is quoted on p. 426 (Ex. 5):
One more aspect of the composer's livening touch on traditional methods and material may be
mentioned. Nobody can be familiar with the English polyphonists without observing that much of
their finest music is based on imitative treatment of themes that are, per se, of little account.
Why did these men of undoubted genius apparently give so little thought to thematic invention ?
The obvious and generally accepted answer is that the day for this side of composition was not
yet-a theory that is not supported by their fund of melody when writing ayres and other music
for solo voices. Is not the explanation to be found rather in the fact that, their treatment of a
poem being on point-to-point lines, a succession of striking themes would produce an effect of
scrappiness? Conventional subject-matter, on the other hand, would not interfere with the unity
obtained by its polyphonic treatment. Mr. Moeran seems to have worked on this principle. The
freshness and originality of his imitative writing is not in the 'points,' but in what they evoke.
A word on the use of modern harmony in this type of choral work may not be out of place.
Those who object to it do so on the ground that it is an anachronism and out of the picture: in
short, it doesn't fit. This argument overlooks the fact that the early polyphonists themselves
used for 'high light' purposes chromatic harmony so daring that much of it still taxes singers. A
modern composer who mixes diatonic and 'period' idiom with modern harmony is following the
best of precedents, the only difference being in the wider and more vivid contrast between the
diatonic and chromatic-a contrast that is entirely in keeping with the needs and general practice
of today. The only tests that chromatic vocal harmony must pass are its suitability to the words
and its singableness. Mr. Moeran's expressive and poignant harmony does not lend itself to
quotation, because its effect depends on its relation to the context.
****
At the beginning of this article reference was made to the ease and effect of Mr. Moeran's choral
writing. Its excellencies are of the kind that are the more notable because the composer has
hitherto been known almost entirely as a composer of orchestral and chamber music. Here the
discipline of four-part a cappella writing (it is worth noting that there is no division of the parts)
does not hinder him from showing the freedom and vitality that mark his instrumental works
plus the characteristics of the English polyphonists. The impression this Suite gives of deriving
from that great school was evidently at the back of Mr. Ernest Newman's mind when, after
hearing a broadcast of 'Songs of Springtime,' he referred to their imaginative quality and
'exquisite craftsmanship,' adding:
'If these things had been broadcast under the names of Marenzio, Morley, and any five other
composers of the madrigalian epoch, the general verdict would probably have been that these
ancient gentlemen were writing at the top of their form, if not, indeed, a bit above it!'
An exhaustive study of 'Phyllida and Corydon' leaves one convinced that Mr. Newman's eulogy
fits the new work as well as its predecessor.
H. G.
*'Songs of Springtime,' Seven Elizabethan Poems, Novello

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