Subtly Harmonized Moeran solo folksong arrangements - delight PATRIC STANDFORD '... a delightful exploration of the sensitive and creative treatment of folksongs ...'

Jack Moeran (as he was known to all his friends) encountered folksong almost by accident as a student at the Royal College. Hearing Vaughan Williams' Norfolk Rhapsody sent him immediately to find Cecil Sharp's collection of Somerset folksongs and persuade an elderly member of the choir in his father's Norfolk church to explore his memory and sing to him. Such were the tentative, if not very successful, attempts to 'collect', and the beginning of a life-long enthusiasm. For the youthful Moeran Norfolk was the first fruitful pasture, and whilst he was occasionally infuriated by pianists who would attempt to improvise accompaniments during the pub singing sessions, his own were careful, sensitive, appropriately and subtly harmonized, as in The Shooting of His Dear, one of the Six Norfolk Folksongs published in 1924. The seven songs in this group, all with poignant and imaginative accompaniments, are sung by Adrian Thompson...

E J MOERAN

ADRIAN THOMPSON

JOHN TALBOT

BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY