Ernest John Moeran facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ernest John Moeran
Ernest John Moeran
Born	(1894-12-31)31 December 1894 Heston, Middlesex, UK
Died	1 December 1950(1950-12-01) (aged 55) Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland
Nationality	British
Education	Suffield Park Preparatory School Uppingham School
Alma mater	Royal College of Music
Occupation	Composer, teacher
Spouse(s)	(Kathleen) Peers Coetmore ​ (m. 1945)​
Parent(s)	Rev. Joseph William Wright Moeran Ada Esther Smeed Whall
Military career
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1914–1919
Rank	Second Lieutenant (1915)
Unit	Royal Norfolk Regiment}
Battles/wars	Second Battle of Bullecourt (1917)

Ernest John Smeed Moeran (born December 31, 1894 – died December 1, 1950) was an English composer. He had some Irish family background. His music was greatly shaped by English and Irish folk music. He loved collecting these traditional tunes.

Moeran wrote many kinds of music. These included pieces for orchestras, concertos (for a solo instrument with orchestra), chamber music (for small groups of instruments), and piano works. He also composed many songs and choral pieces.

His father was a clergyman. Moeran first studied music at the Royal College of Music. His teacher was Charles Villiers Stanford. His studies were stopped by the First World War, where he was injured. After the war, he studied with John Ireland. He quickly became known as a promising composer.

From 1925 to 1928, he shared a cottage with composer Peter Warlock. This period was very lively and distracted him from composing for a while. He started composing again in the 1930s. He became famous again with major works, like a symphony and a violin concerto. From 1934 onwards, he spent much time in Ireland, especially in Kenmare.

In 1945, Moeran married the cellist Peers Coetmore. He wrote several cello pieces for her. Their marriage did not last, and Moeran's last years were lonely. He died in Kenmare on December 1, 1950. He had a sudden medical issue and fell into the water. He left a second symphony unfinished. Composer Anthony Payne said Moeran was a very skilled composer. His music was clear and his orchestral writing sounded wonderful.

Life Story

Early Years and Music

Ernest John Moeran was born on December 31, 1894. His family lived in Heston, Middlesex, England. His father was an Anglo-Irish clergyman. His mother was a talented pianist and singer. Ernest started music lessons when he was about five or six.

In 1904, he went to Suffield Park preparatory school. In 1908, he attended Uppingham School. There, he studied music and became a good pianist. He also learned the violin and started writing his own music. In 1913, he joined the Royal College of Music (RCM). He first studied piano, but then switched to composing. His teacher was Charles Villiers Stanford. He also joined a music club where famous composers like Vaughan Williams were members.

World War I Service

Moeran was 19 when the First World War began in August 1914. He joined the army as a motorcycle messenger. The next year, he became a second lieutenant. Even in the army, he kept up his music. When he was on leave in Norfolk, he started collecting folk music.

In early 1917, his army unit went to France. On May 3, during a battle, he was wounded in the head. Some stories say he needed a metal plate in his skull. But other information suggests the wound was not as serious. He seemed to recover quickly. In August 1917, he played a difficult piano piece at a concert in London. This showed he was quite fit.

After recovering, he returned to duty in Ireland. He used this time to connect with his Irish family roots. He also collected more folk songs. In January 1919, he left the army. Just before this, he met composer Arnold Bax. Bax described him as a charming young officer.

Becoming a Composer

After leaving the army, Moeran returned to England. He briefly went back to the Royal College of Music. He then continued to study composing privately with John Ireland. His biographer, Geoffrey Self, noted that Moeran's music was now influenced by his teacher, his Irish and English heritage, and his love for the English countryside.

His mother gave him money, so he didn't need to work. This allowed him to focus on studying and composing. A music club helped his works get performed. For five years after the war, he wrote many pieces. He became known as a promising composer. These early works included songs, piano pieces, and chamber music. He also tried writing for orchestra. These early orchestral pieces showed influences from Delius and Vaughan Williams. But they also showed his own unique style.

During this time, Moeran collected many folk tunes from pubs in Norfolk. In 1923, he joined the committee of the Folksong Society. As he became more famous, he made friends with important musicians. One friend was Hamilton Harty, a conductor. Harty performed one of Moeran's orchestral pieces. He then asked Moeran to write a symphony. Moeran found this challenging and put the project aside for a while.

He also became good friends with Philip Heseltine, a writer and composer. Heseltine greatly admired Moeran's early work. In 1924, he wrote that Moeran was a British composer from whom "we may more confidently expect work of sound and enduring quality."

Life with Heseltine

Moeran's friendship with Heseltine grew stronger. In 1925, they rented a cottage in Eynsford, Kent, with an artist friend. The cottage had many visitors from the music and art worlds. It became known as a place with a very lively atmosphere. Moeran found it hard to compose with all the distractions. His music writing slowed down and then stopped. He stopped going to London music events. He also felt influenced by Heseltine's stronger personality. Moeran later said he lost faith in his own abilities. He found it harder to start composing the longer he waited.

He completed only a few works during his time at Eynsford (1925–1928). One was a song called "Maltworms," which he wrote with Heseltine. It was meant for a local festival. The song was later withdrawn, but a version for piano and voice survived.

Moeran left the cottage in 1928. In 1929, he went to France with Heseltine. When Heseltine died in December 1930, Moeran was very sad. He wrote to Heseltine's mother that his loss would leave a "terrible gap."

Restarting His Career

After leaving Eynsford, Moeran went back to his parents' home. He slowly started composing again. The music world had not forgotten him. In January 1930, a critic wrote about Moeran's earlier works. He hoped that Moeran would create "real music on a big scale" in the future.

An accident in early 1930 gave Moeran time to rest. This allowed him to think about his musical style. Slowly, he began to write new pieces. These included the Sonata for two violins (1930) and the String Trio (1931). He also wrote two orchestral pieces, Wythorne's Shadow (1931) and Lonely Waters (1932). A choral work, Songs of Springtime, followed in 1933. Wythorne's Shadow might have been a tribute to Heseltine.

He also wrote several songs, including a group of six Suffolk folksongs. This showed that folk music was still very important to him. In 1931, he rejoined the Folksong Society committee. He also wrote some church music, but he didn't value it much. He said he only wrote it for the money.

Moeran moved around a lot in the 1930s. He stayed with his parents or friends. But as the decade went on, he became more interested in his Irish background. He started spending much of the year in a cottage in Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland. He became a well-known and liked person there. The peace he found in rural Ireland inspired him. In 1934, he returned to the symphony project he had put aside.

The symphony was finished in 1937. It was first performed in January 1938. The conductor Leslie Heward later made a famous recording of it.

The years after the symphony's performance were very productive. He wrote many important works. These included the Violin Concerto (1937–41), which had strong Irish influences. He also wrote the madrigal suite Phyllida and Corydon (1939). Other works were the Rhapsody in F ♯ for piano and orchestra (1943) and the short Overture for a Masque (1944). He also composed the Sinfonietta (1944), inspired by the hills of Wales.

Last Years

Moeran met the cellist (Kathleen) Peers Coetmore around 1930. In 1943, they met again and started a relationship. This inspired two of Moeran's important later works. These were the Cello Concerto (1945) and the Sonata for Cello and Piano (1947). They married on July 26, 1945.

The marriage brought Moeran some happiness and stability at first. But Coetmore's career meant they were often apart. Their relationship became difficult. By 1949, when Coetmore went on a long tour, the marriage was effectively over.

Moeran wrote three more works in his final years. These were the Fantasy Quartet for oboe and strings (1946), the orchestral Serenade in G (1948), and a final song collection, Songs from County Kerry (1950). During these years, he tried hard to finish a second symphony. He composed a large part of it, but he was never happy with it. In March 1950, Moeran was in Ireland, hoping to finish the symphony there. He was struggling mentally. There is no record of him working on the symphony after this.

On December 1, 1950, during a bad winter storm, Moeran left his cottage. He walked along the Kenmare pier. He was seen falling into the water. His body was found. Doctors said he had a sudden medical issue and died before he entered the water. He was buried in the churchyard at Kenmare after a well-attended funeral.

His Music Style

Moeran was one of the last major British composers who were greatly influenced by folk songs. He belongs to a group of composers like Delius, Vaughan Williams, and John Ireland. These composers wrote music that was often lyrical and expressive. The natural beauty of Norfolk and Ireland often shows up in his music. Some of his larger orchestral pieces were created while he walked in the hills of western England and Ireland. The grand mountains of Kerry especially inspired him.

Moeran could express many feelings through his music. He was not afraid to write darker or harsher music when it fit the mood. His style was traditional but still unique.

By Moeran's time, this style was sometimes seen as a bit old-fashioned. He never became a huge star, even though his Symphony in G minor (1934–1937) was very successful. This symphony is often seen as his best work. It is considered one of the most tightly structured symphonies from Britain between the two World Wars. The first part of the symphony shows a strong musical form. It also has interesting harmonies that mix European and Irish musical ideas.

He first received good reviews for his chamber music (for small groups of instruments). He continued to write important works in this style. But his greatest achievements are usually found in his few large orchestral works. These include his Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, Sinfonietta, and Serenade.

Moeran was very interested in folk music. He used many songs he had written down in Norfolk pubs in his own compositions. He also used a lot of Irish music. The Norfolk folk influence can be heard in his piano pieces from the early 1920s. The Irish influence is clear in the second part of his Violin Concerto. It is even more noticeable in the second part of his String Quartet in E-flat. In his Cello Concerto, you can hear bits of Irish music, like "The Star of County Down."

Another important part of Moeran's music was the madrigal. Madrigals are a type of vocal music, usually for several voices without instruments. He once told a friend that if he had to state his job, he would say he was a madrigalist. Moeran was amazing at creating new harmonies within the madrigal form. In his piece Spring the Sweet Spring, the harmonies change from traditional madrigal sounds to jazz-like sounds. His orchestral work, the Serenade, also uses madrigal harmonies. Moeran changed them into a sharp, fresh style. This makes his music sound very original and modern for the 20th century.

Although he didn't write much church music, his Services in D and E-flat are still performed today.

Recently, there has been more interest in Moeran's works. Many of his pieces have been recorded. However, some of his songs, like those based on poems by A. E. Housman and James Joyce, are still not widely known.

Over 40 of his original music papers, including his unfinished Second Symphony, were given to the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia by his wife.

Conductor Martin Yates has finished Moeran's Symphony No. 2 from his notes. A recording of this work was released in 2011.

Selected Works

Symphonic Pieces

• In the Mountain Country, symphonic impression (1921)
• Rhapsody No. 1 in F major (1922)
• Rhapsody No. 2 in E major (1924; revised 1941)
• Two Pieces for Small Orchestra (1931):
  • Lonely Waters
  • Whythorne's Shadow
• Farrago, suite for orchestra (1932)
• Symphony in G minor (1934–37; dedicated to Sir Hamilton Harty)
• Sinfonietta (1944; dedicated to Arthur Bliss)
• Overture for a Masque (1944; dedicated to Walter Legge)
• Serenade in G major (1948)
• Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major – unfinished; completed by conductor Martin Yates, 2011

Concertos

• Violin Concerto (1942; written for Arthur Catterall)
• Rhapsody No. 3 in F-sharp major for piano and orchestra (1943)
• Cello Concerto (1945; written for Peers Coetmore)

Vocal Music

• Ludlow Town, song cycle (1920)
  • When smoke stood up from Ludlow
  • Farewell to barn and stack and tree
  • Say, lad, have you things to do?
  • The lads in their hundreds
• Seven Poems of James Joyce, (1929):
  • Strings in the Earth and air
  • The merry green wood
  • Bright cap
  • The pleasant valley
  • Donnycarney
  • Rain has fallen
  • Now, o now, in this brown land
• Songs of Springtime, for mixed chorus (1934)
• Nocturne, for baritone, chorus and orchestra (1934; dedicated to the memory of Frederick Delius)
• Phyllida and Corydon, for mixed chorus (1939)
• Four Shakespeare songs, (1940)
  • The lover and his lass
  • Where the bee sucks
  • When daisies pied
  • When icicles hang by the wall
• Six Poems by Seumas O'Sullivan, (1944)
  • Evening
  • The Poplars
  • A Cottager
  • The Dustman
  • Lullaby
  • The Herdsman

Chamber Music

• Piano Trio in D major (1920)
• String Quartet in A minor (1921)
• Violin Sonata in E minor (1923)
• Sonata for 2 Violins in A major (1930)
• Trio for violin, viola and cello in G major (1931)
• Prelude for cello and piano (1943, published 1944, written for Peers Coetmore)
• Fantasy Quartet, for oboe and strings (1946)
• Cello Sonata in A minor (1947; written for Peers Coetmore)
• String Quartet in E-flat (1949-50)

Piano Music

• Three Pieces (The Lake Island, Autumn Woods, and At a Horse Fair) (1919)
• Theme and Variations (1920)
• On a May Morning (1921)
• Stalham River (1921)
• Toccata (1921)
• Three Fancies (Windmills, Elegy, and Burlesque) (1922)
• Two Legends (Rune, and A Folk Story) (1923)
• Bank Holiday (1925)
• Summer Valley (1925)
• Two Irish Folk Songs (The White Mountain, and Irish Love Song) (1926, 1927)
• Berceuse (1933)
• Prelude in G minor (1933)

See also

In Spanish: Ernest John Moeran para niños