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Browne, whose song To Gratiana singing and dancing (recorded by Martyn Hill on Hyperion Dyad CDD 22026) has been dubbed 'one of the finest English songs ever written', was one of Brooke's pall-bearers when the poet died on the Aegean island of Skyros on St George's Day, 23 April 1915.

The composer's letter, displayed at the Imperial War Museum exhibition, makes moving reading : 'We chose a spot in the most lovely grove I have ever seen or imagined, a little glade of about a dozen trees, carpeted with mauve flowering sage. Over his head droops an olive tree ... we buried him by cloudy moonlight.' Browne's words are almost a song in themselves.

Denis Browne's Arabia and Epitaph on Salathiel Pavy (to the poem by Ben Jonson on the great Jacobean boy actor) also appear on the Hyperion double disc, as do Kelly's Shall I compare thee? and six settings by Farrar, including three 'Vagabond Songs' (The Wanderer's Song, Silent Noon and The Roadside Fire).

Ernest Farrar, subsequently commemorated in his friend Frank Bridge's violent Piano Sonata of 1922-5 (a passionate denunciation of human conflict) was a dire loss to British music. His orchestral output was highly significant : his magical The Forsaken Merman [listen : Chandos Farrar disc, track 3 1:01-3:05] is among five works that appear on a superbly recorded Chandos disc, CHAN 9586 : to mistake Farrar for D'Indy, Chausson, or even the Debussy of Pélleas, would be in no way far-fetched; there are affinities, too, with Delius.

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