Neglected Pioneer: E.J. Moeran (1894-1950)

Neglected Pioneer: E.J. Moeran (1894-1950)Author(s): Roy PalmerSource: Folk Music Journal, Vol. 8, No. 3 (2003), pp. 345-361Published by: English Folk Dance + Song SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4522691 .

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FOLK MUSIC JOURNAL VOLUMf 8, NUMBER 3, 2003, PP.345-361 ISSN 0531-9684

[Interviewer] Mr Moeran, can you define a folk song7

[Moeranl Well, I would say that folk music is that which has evolved itself in the course of time among races and communities, as opposed to that deliberately composed by indinduals and written out on staves.1

In their book, The English Musical Renaissance, 1860-1940, the historians Robert Stradling and Meirion Hughes characterize (not to say dismiss) Moeran as 'a Stanford product, and much involved in post-war pastoralism and folk-song collecting'.2 He was indeed one of the pupils of Sir Charles Stanford; he did serve in the First World War; and Frank Howes wrote: 'As far as folk song is concerned, his East Anglian collection is a distinct and valuable contribution to the English heritage.'3 Moeran also collected in Ireland, yet the centenary of his birth - and for that matter the fiftieth anniversary of his death - stimulated a resounding silence in folk circles, where a mention of his name

l

:E k ! . . }'F C, *.i ':

Figure 1 E.J. Moeran in 1923.

Photograph courtesy of the Peter Warlock Society.

remains more likely to provoke puzzle- ment than pleasure. (Figure 1)

(¢) Coprght English Follc Dance and Song Socieq

Neglected Pioneer: E.J. Moeran

(1894-1950)

Roy Palmer

Over a period of almostfour decades, the composer E.J. Moeran took a great interest in traditional song. Although he made settings of songs, and his music was inpuenced by them, he deeply respected the traditionfor its own sake, and greatly admired the skill of performers such as Harry Cox. His extant collection of traditional songs is not large-fewer than seventy items-but it is of great interest, and his contribution in thisfield has been unfairly neglected. A check-list of songs and singers is appended.



346 FOLK MUSIC JOURNAL

Ernest John Moeran, known as Jack, was born at Heston, Middlesex, on 31 Decem- ber 1894. Shortly afterwards the family moved to Bacton on the east coast of Norfolk, his mother's native county, when his Irish-born father became parish parson there. Young Jack is reputed to have taught himself to play the piano from a copy of Hymns Ancient and Modern before going as a boarder to a preparatory school in Cromer, where he began to learn the violin. In 1908, aged fourteen, he moved to Uppingham School, where, coinciden- tally, Cecil Sharp had been a pupil. It has been suggested that 'while at school' Moeran 'developed a flair for composition, and took to noting down songs from traditional singers in farmhouses and taverns' ,4 but the second half of the statement seems highly unlikely, given the cloistered regime of a public school of the time.

Moeran places the kindling of his active interest in traditional song in early 1913, when he was a student at the Royal College of Music in London. One wintry evening, having failed to get a seat at a Bach concert in St Paul's Cathedral, he paid 'a somewhat grudging shilling'5 for a Balfour Gardiner evening at the Queen's Hall. There, he 'was so filled with enthusiasm, and so moved by some of the music'6 that he attended the whole of the rest of the series of concerts of recent British compositions. One of the things he heard was Vaughan Williams's Norfolk Rhapsody:

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 that 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.7

Moeran bought a copy of Sharp's Folk Songsfrom Somerset, then went home at the weekend to Bacton and 'tackled the senior member of the church choir after Sunday evening service'. The man knew '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.'8 After an impatient wait, Moeran noted it, 'together with other old songs, on Monday: this was actually the first song I "collected" as a boy.'9 (He would have been eighteen at the time.) Of these songs, and the 'very few' others which Moeran soon found and noted 'in Bacton and the immediate district' 10 there is now no trace in Moeran's published or manuscript material.

At the beginning of the First World War Moeran, a keen motorcyclist, enlisted as a despatch rider in the Norfolk Regiment. In June 191 5 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and presumably went on leave before being posted to France, because in the July he noted five songs - 'The Bold Richard' (Figure 2), 'The Captain's Apprentice', 'The Royal Charter', 'The Pressgang' and 'The [Wealthy] Farm- er's Son' - from James Sutton (known as 'Old Larpin') of Winterton.11 The fisherman and singer Sam Larner, also of Winterton, who was 37 in 1915, acquired part of his repertoire from Sutton, who was his neighbour, but did not meet Moeran.12

In France, Moeran suffered a severe head wound, but was not discharged from



NEGLECTED PIONEER: E.J. MOERAN (1894-1950) 347

SONGS COLLECTED IN NORFOLK B Y E. J. AfOERA Y.

r.-THE "BOLD RICHARD."

NOTRD nlY E. J. MOERA.M. SUNG BY MR. JAMES SU-rrO, Ar WINTrrToN, DORIAiN. JULY, [915.

_ F- ! -4-____.

Come all my brisk young sea - man lads, that have a mind to

r csx - ter On board a Phc -bus fri gate your pre - cius lives to

- a ._ A==>^ -t V ME J-I -- -

ven ture, On bord a. Phce - bus frti - gate, she's Richard called by name, And she's

cruis - ing with the Shan - non all on the French main, Sing-ina Wnia caher 0/

e Now we'd not been sailing many leagues before we did espy Three lofty sails to windward, they came bearing dowu so nigh; But two of them were merchant-men came bowling from the west, But the Conway was a frigate that did sail out of Brest

Singing WVhat cheer 0 /

.3 Now we bore down upon them with high and lofty sails; For broadside for broadside we soon made them prevail Then he lashed his helm o'weather, not thinking he could fly; When they found their ship was sinking for quarters they did cry.

Singing What cheer O

.t Now we launched out our long-boats, and the others did likewise, To save all these poor prisoners that ever we came nigh,, And those which we saved they vow and protest We sunk the finest frigate that did sail out of Brest.

Singing WAag cheer 01

5 So come, all my brisk young fellows, now to Kingston we have got, Let each of a hearty fellow drink out of a hearty pot ; For some unto their sweethearts and some unto their wives, So we'll sing " Hallelujah " to all England, my brave boys.

Singing WVhat cheer 0 1

Figure 2 'The "Bold Richard"', collected by Moeran from James Sutton in 1915.

Journal of the Folk Song Society, 7.26 (1922), 1.

the army until two years later. He then worked for a short time as a music teacher at Uppingham before returning to the

RCM in 1920. He remained there for three years, studying composition with John Ireland. His efforts to seek out




traditional songs remained in abeyance: before the war, 'most of what I had heard had been sung to me by elderly men, who assured me old songs were fast dying out'; afterwards, 'I assumed there was no more to be had, and did not immediately make any serious efforts at collecting folk songs .1 3 However, when he was visiting east Norfolk in the autumn of 1921, he received what he called an S.O.S. from Arthur Batchelor, a friend of Cecil Sharp's, to go to the village of Sutton (just off the present A 148 road), a mile or so inland from the North Sea:

It turned out that accidentally he had heard an old road-mender singing softly to himself as he 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.14

They in fact met at the Windmill, the landlord of which, George Lincoln, was later acknowledged in print by Moeran 'for his kind co-operation in providing facility for the noting of the songs I.15 Bob Miller's demeanour and outlook were clearly something of an eye-opener for Moeran:

Old Jolt dearly loved conviviality, and was always at his best in company. 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.'6

Three of Miller's songs - versions of 'The British Man o' War', 'High Ger- many' and 'The Bold Poachers' - appeared in the /ournal of the Folk Song Society in 1922;1 others were subsequently published by Moeran.18 The convivial evening at the Windmill was followed by others which convinced Moeran that 'the art of folk singing, in this corner of Norfolk at any rate, was still flourishing in the 1920s'. 19 If he was impressed by Miller's singing idiom - 'Jolt', he noted, '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'20 - even better followed:

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.

Moeran later met Harry's father, Bob, who boasted 'that he used to join the Yarmouth trawlers every year for six weeks and that he would sing two songs each night in the forecastle without repeating himself' .22 However, he declined to sing for Moeran:

All I could get out of him was that he had taught all his songs to his son, Harry, and that if I wanted to take them down I could do so from that source. I think he regarded himself as a maestro whose day was done, and he did not wish to sully his reputation as an artist by singing with a cracked voice in his old age.23

Another Norfolk singer, Walter Pardon, was later to take exactly the same view.

Fortunately, Harry was a maestro himself - 'that prince of singers', Moeran called him,24 but despite his enthusiasm he




seems to have noted fewer than ten songs out of a huge repertoire.25 Perhaps he took down more, of which the manuscripts were lost; certainly, much if not most of his holograph folk-song collection has disappeared, though his orchestral scores remain.26 Moeran did persuade the Decca Record Company to make a recording of Cox's singing 'Down by the Riverside' and 'The Pretty Ploughboy' which was made available to EFDSS members in the 1930s.27

In addition to Miller and Cox, Moeran naturally met in the course of the 'public- house sing-songs, or "frolics" in local parlance', many other 'songsters', some of whom entered into 'friendly rivalry ... as to who could contribute the most songs to my collection'. 28 Alongside traditional items, not surprisingly, were songs dating from 'the Victorian ballad epoch', and earlier:

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 through it, but solemnly joined in the chorus after each

29 verse.

In the light of his experiences, Moeran came to the conclusion that only in public houses would he find songs:

For the most part in East Anglia it seems difficult to collect songs privately in the seclusion of a cottage. I have tried time and time again, only to be met with the proposal to meet the following Saturday at an inn. The Norfolk man is naturally gregarious; moreover, he regards his songs as a part of his weekly outing when he gets his pay, just as much as his pipe and his pint of beer. There have been, of course, exceptions, but it is difficult to get the

individual singer going. Norfolk men like an audience; they also like singing against one another to see who can sing the better song.30

It is not therefore surprising that Moeran's singers were all men. In addition, the nature of pub performance meant that he might miss words or fail to take down details of a singer.31 He later bitterly complained that the introduction of pianos to pubs created 'an awful bogey ... in writing down songs':

I visited an hostelry near Southwold and found it crowded with fishermen, one after the other in full song. About one song in every five was a folk song, and the wretched fellow at the piano would insist on trying to accompany the singer. Being totally without modal feeling in his bones he not only put the singers off their stroke but forced them to alter their tune to suit his abominable machinations.32

Philip Heseltine, the composer (better known subsequently under the nom-de- plume of Peter Warlock), went with his friend, Moeran, in September 1923 on what he called 'a folksong hunt with ... a phonograph in the eastern counties'. 33 The mention of a phonograph is interesting, but it does not feature in the lively account which Heseltine published in 1924 of the expedition to the Bacton area:

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 motives, but because he loves them and the people who sing them. ... For him, as for them, the song is the thing - a thing lived, a piece of the communal life of the country; and, indeed, it is a much more heartening




4 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 4

AAi

Figure 3 Moeran with singers and friends, Windmill Inn, Stalham, Norfolk, c. 1926. Left to right: Augustus John; Philip

Heseltine ('Peter Warlock'), two unidentified singers; John Goss; Barbara Peache; unidentified singer; E.J. Moeran; three unidentified singers.

Photograph courtesy of the Peter Warlock Society.

experience to sit in a good country pub and hear fine tunes than to attend many a concert in the West End of London.34

The article very clearly illustrates Moer- an's approach to collecting:

It is no good appearing suddenly at a cottage- door, notebook in hand, as though you might be the bum-bailey or the sanitary inspector, and - if you can 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, it seems) by forgetting that old throats grow dry after an hour's singing. The scholarly folklorist 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 with him: with you it's different, of course - you're one of us - but he was a regular gentleman, he was' .35

The singer may have been Bob Miller, whose version of 'All frolicking I'll Five over' was noted by Moeran in 1923.3

The painter Augustus John described a further visit, apparently without Moeran, but with Heseltine, John Goss and a lady whom he does not identify but is known to have been Barbara Peache: 'Setting out




from Eynsford in Kent our goal was the Windmill Inn at Stalham in Norfolk where of a Saturday evening several local folk- singers were known to gather, chief among whom was one Harry Cox, a first-rate singer with a large repertoire of traditional songs'.37 (Figure 3) John adds that on the same occasion:

Philip, his girl friend, John Goss and I were visiting the parish church [at Winterton]-a fine example of Perpendicular. Philip had just given a rendering of Harry Cox's beautiful but profane song 'Down by the Riverside' upon the organ, and we were about to leave the building, when, moved by a perverse whim, I proposed to revive the rites of a more ancient cult by then and there offering up Miss [Peache] on the altar. My ill-timed pleasantry had hardly been uttered when, with a deaf- ening crash, a thunderbolt struck the building, instantly filling the interior of the church with smoke and dust, and with electric cracklings on every metal surface and the screeches of a distraught charwoman adding to the general confusion, one received a vivid impression of Hell being opened and all its devils loose.38

Moeran's piano settings of 'Down by the Riverside', 'The Shooting of his Dear', 'Lonely Waters', 'The Bold Richard', 'The Pressgang' and 'The Oxford Sporting Blade' were published by Augener in 1924 under the title of Six Folk-Songsfrom Norfolk. For Heseltine the first three of these were 'perfect specimens of the English tradition in its purest and most beautiful form':

'Down by the River-side', one of the most natural 5/4 tunes imaginable (incidentally 5/4 is quite a favourite measure in Norfolk, and any suspicion of its being a possible distortion of triple or quadruple time is dispelled by the decisive thump with which mugs come down on the table or boots on the floor to mark the rhythm); 'The Shooting of his Dear', which is an excellent example of Moeran's character-

istically 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.39

For several years, starting in 1925, Moeran shared a house at Eynsford in Kent with Heseltine. Their visitors included John Goss and Constant Lambert. Goss, dedicatee of Six Folk-Songs from Norfolk, and singer at its first performance, was music editor of The Week-End Book, a substantial anthology of prose, verse and song, the last category including a version of 'Mrs Dyer, the Baby Farmer' noted by Moeran in Oxfordshire.40 Goss later edited both the 'Daily Express' Community Song Book and Ballads of Britain.41 He is the subject of a forthcoming book by Robert Beckhard of New York. Lambert, the composer and conductor, despite his cherished view that 'there is nothing you can do with a folk-tune once you have played it except play it again louder' ,42

joined the rest in uproarious sessions of song. Later, in typically memorable, if waspish, manner he dismissed 'English composers [who] have invented a species of synthetic Anglo-Irish melody line', and added:

There is about this music something both unbearably precious and unbearably hearty. Its preciosity recalls the admirably meant endea- vours of William Morris and his followers to combat the products of those dark satanic mills with green and unpleasant handwoven materials, whilst its heartiness conjures up the hideousfaux [sic] bonhomie of the hiker, noisily wading his way through the petrol pumps of Metroland, singing obsolete sea shanties with the aid of the Week-End Book, imbibing chemically flavoured synthetic beer under the impression that he is tossing off a tankard of 'jolly good ale and old' in the best Chester-Belloc [Shaw's satirical combination




of G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc] manner, and astounding the local garage proprietor by slapping him on the back and offering him a pint of 'four 'alf' [half-ale, half- porter, sold in the 1 880s at fourpence a quart].43

The Eynsford sing-songs took place in the Five Bells public house and in the Moeran-Heseltine residence, which stood next to a chapel. According to Geoffrey Self, 'It was the delight of the company to rival Sunday services in the chapel with its own ribald performances, sometimes including stentorian unexpurgated sea- songs.' Although the chapel-goers chari- tably prayed for their tormentors, feelings sometimes ran high; the faithful scuffled with the ungodly, and the police inter- posed the sword of justice.

The practice of singing traditional songs unexpurgated was well ahead of its time, and entirely consonant with Heseltine's (and Moeran's) scorn at a collector's shying away from 'verses of a song which may conflict with the alleged tastes of a suburban drawing room'. However, one must point out that at least once Moeran refrained from noting the words of a song on the grounds that they were 'indecent and not of interest or value'. This was 'The Girl of Lowestoft', of which he took down in 1924, apart from the possibly Aeolian tune, only the words of the chorus: 'She is a rum one, she is a funny one, she is a rum one, 0'.4 Even so, he expressed dis- approval of the 'coyness and squeamishness' displayed by some collectors in approaching traditional texts.46

There is evidence that the 'wild and eccentric camaraderie'47 at Eynsford dimmed Moeran's creative fires, possibly because he felt outshone by Heseltine. The copious drinking certainly damaged his health, which was already permanently impaired by his war wound. In 1928 he

moved out, and two years later joined his parents for a time at their house near Acle in Norfolk. Only in 1931 did he complete the piece for small orchestra based on 'Lonely Waters', which Heseltine mentioned in 1924. The score, published in 1935 by Novello, was dedicated to Ralph Vaughan Williams. In an introductory note Moeran commented that the work 'is based on a fragment of song still frequently to be heard at certain inns in the Broads district of East Norfolk'. The piece has alternative endings: instrumental, in which the theme is played by the cor anglais; and vocal, in which the words of one verse of the song are sung from the back of the orchestra, when, wrote Moeran, 'it should be understood that the singer need not be a professional one, in fact anybody with a clear and natural manner of singing may sing the verse:

So I'll go down to some lonely waters, Go down where no one they shall me find, Where the pretty little small birds do change

their voices, 48 And every moment blow blustering wild.

Several small points arise. The song, a version of 'The Banks of Sweet Primroses', was sung to Moeran at the Windmill, Sutton, by Walter Gales and Robert ('Bob') Miller, and included in Six Folk- Songs from Norfolk. It is not a fragment. There are four verses, and Walter Gales - by then in his eighties - sang a fifth in 1947:

So all fair maids from me take a warning: Listen awhile to what I say. There's many a dark and a cloudy morning Brings forth a bright-and sunshiny day.49

In addition, he sang, not 'lonely waters' but 'lonely valley'. The point is of no great moment, but one wonders whether Moeran mis-heard the phrase.

Another of the Six Folk-Songs, 'The Shooting of his Dear', as sung by Walter




Gales and Harry Cox, provided a theme for Moeran's Symphony in G minor, on which he worked from 1934 to 1937 (and which was published by Novello in 1942).5° Moeran's piano settings of songs from George Hill of Earl Stonham and Oliver Waspe of Coddenham (both near Ipswich) were issued a decade earlier by Curwen under the title of Six Suffolk Folk- Songs (1931). The contents were 'Nutting Time', 'Blackberry Fold', 'Cupid's Gar- den', 'Father and Daughter', 'The Isle of Cloy' and 'A Seaman's Life'. There is no indication of which singer sang what or when, but we know that Moeran noted 'Blackberry Fold' from Hill in 1921 and published it in ieJournal ten years later.51 He met Waspe again in 1931 and took down 'William and Harriet' from him.52

As the 1930s progressed Moeran became increasingly interested in Irish traditional music, and spent more and more time in Ireland. Arnold Bax wrote that 'During his first thirty or so years he was an English- man and a diligent collector of East Anglian folk-tunes, whilst for the remain- der of his days he was almost exclusively Irish'53. A letter from Moeran to May Harrison in 1939 illustrates the fascination he felt for Irish music:

I am going out to farm kitchens and out-of- doors Ceilidhs (they have dancing platforms on the Xroads here outside every parish - Irish dancing only of course) & soaking myself in traditional fiddling and its queer but natural embellishments and ornamentations. This time of year (Whitsuntide) the whole countryside is on the dance round here [Kenmare, County Kerry]. In the 2nd movement I am planning to work some of this idiom into concerto form. I may tell you that some of these people have a terrific technique...54

The reference is to Moeran' s violin concerto, which he wrote between 1937 and 1942.55

It appears that he lost contact wii the English scene, despite periods of living in or visiting Herefordshire, since in 1946 he wrote: 'It seems likely that the spontaneous singing of old songs when men fore5Mather on Saturday nights has now died out' . Yet only a year later he returned to East Anglia at the request of the BBC 'with a view to obtaininM authentic recordings of traditional singers', 7 which would serve as the basis for a radio programme. When he visited his 'old haunts in East Norfolk' he found to his 'delight and surprise' that 'not only were many of my old friends still living, hale and hearty, but they were still having5sing-songs on their own in the local pubs'. 8

In addition, there were fresh singers whom Moeran had not met before, such as the retired wherryman, John ('Charger') Salmond, and towards the opposite end of the age-range a man of 23 who was learning the songs of his octogenarian grandfather, William Gales. This was at the Windmill. Other singers sang at the Eel's Foot at Eastbridge, Suffolk. One of them had learned songs from his father:

The latter was also present, singing in the quavering and asimatic 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 ... before so doing.

The 'young man of fifty' (in fact, born in 1900) was William ('Jumbo') Brightwell, later to feature on his own LP record.60 His father, William ('Velvet') Brightwell went on singing until he was at least 91, and died four years later, in 1960.61

Moeran emphasized ie point that pub singing in these circumstances was indeed performing:

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 pro- ducing conditions like those of Wigmore Hall

62 during a recital.

Parts of sessions just like this were recorded by Moeran and his producer, Maurice Brown, at the Windmill on 27 and at the Eel's Foot on 30 October 1947.63 The singers included in the programme - broadcast the following month on the BBC's Third Programme - were Jumbo Brightwell, Fred Ginger, Jack Clark (at the Eel's Foot) and John Salmond, Charlie Chettleborough, Harry Cox, Walter Gales, Willie Miller and a Mr Bell (at the Windmill). Cox had the lion's share, with three out of twelve songs.64

Moeran died at Kenmare less than three years later. He remained interested in traditional song to the end. His arrangement, Songs from County Kerry (London: Augener), appeared in 1950, twenty-seven years after Six Norfolk Folk-Songs. In between he published many settings, chiefly for piano and voice, of other traditional items ,65 as well, of course, of poems by a wide range of writers including Housman and Joyce. In addition, traditional tunes not only supplied themes for some of his orchestral and instrumental music - Stalham River (1921), Lonely Waters (1932), the Symphony in G minor (1932- 37), the violin concerto (1942) - but provided atmosphere, colour, texture. Aloys Fleischmann made this judgement:

The influence of folk song even on his instrumental style is evident in the eminently singable melodic line, the breeziness and gusto of his rhythms, the modal inflections, and

above all, the directness of his utterance. If his orbit is not as wide as that of Vaughan Williams, he is seldom vague or circumlocu- tory, having much of the pithy realism of folk speech. Certain elements of this idiom have indeed tended to harden into mannerisms ... But especially in his broad tunes, such as the second subjects of his symphonic movements, folk elements can burgeon into a wealth of lyrical beauty. These tunes can seem unmis- takably Irish in their inspiration, as for example the moving tune of the middle section of his second rhapsody; yet this work was conceived and written in Norfolk long before he had made Kenmare his second home. It is true that the folk music of these islands may at times be difficult to distinguish, but the composer himself used to point out that in Norfolk he frequently heard characteristically Irish tunes, and again, Norfolk tunes in Kerry, brought in each case by visiting fisherfolk from one country to the other. Just as the sea-coasts of East Anglia and of Kerry were a constant source of inspiration to him, so too did the folk music of each county contribute its share to the texture of his music.66

Moeran's debt to traditional music is not in doubt. What of the music's debt to him? His activities had their limitations. He collected only from men in pubs. At times he neglected texts and contexts. His way with material when he had it on paper must have been utterly chaotic, given the small fragment (a handful of tunes and no texts) which has survived in manuscript.67

(Figure 4) Yet he helped to preserve some fine songs and to encourage excellent singers such as the incomparable Harry Cox. He had an acute awareness of the 'true artistry',68 to use his own phrase, of such singers. Writing in 1946, he was well ahead of the time in the views he expressed:

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




j _ I A - 4 -! l. l d1

Figure 4 'The Sea-Captain', collected by E.J. Moeran.

Reproduced by permissionfrom the Moeran MS, Victoria College of the Arts VCA33. The notation in the original is on a single stave which has been split in the reproduction above.

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 sophisti- cated manner of those who have never heard a real traditional singer. Well-intentioned as these efforts may be, they involve 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 collec- tions of English folk-songs bears about the same resemblance to the genuine article as does Thomas Bowdler'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.69

Based on a paper given at the EFDSS centenary conference, Folk Song Tradition and Revi- val, held at Sheffield in 1998.

Acknowledgements

I should like to thank colleagues on the editorial board for their comments and suggestions, and in addition Hugh Andersen, Rhian Davies, Clare Gilliam, Lionel Hill, John Howson, Michael Jones, Peter Kennedy, Walter Knott, Tom Munnelly, Tom Palmer, Geoffrey Self, and, as always, the

Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, in the persons of Malcolm Taylor and Elaine Bradtke. For permission to reproduce illustrations I thank the Peter Warlock Society, 32A Chipperfield House, Cale Street, London SW3 3SA, and the Victoria College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia.

Notes

East Anglia Sings, broadcast on BBC Third Programme, 19 Nov. 1947 (BBC MX 15924-7; copy in National Sound Archive). 2 Robert Stradling and Meirion Hughes, The English Musical Renaissance, 1860-1940 (London Rout- ledge, 1993), p. 75. 3 F.H[owes]., 'Obituary. Ernest John Moeran. Dec. 31st 1894 - Dec. 2nd 1950', Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, 6.3 (1951), 103. 4 Aloys Fleischmann, 'The Music of E.J. Moeran', Envoy: A Dublin Review, 4.16 (1951), 60-66 (p. 61). S Quoted in Christopher Palmer. Delius: Portrait of a Cosmopolitan (London: Duokworth, 1976), p. 166. 6 E.J. Moeran, 'Folk Songs and Some Traditional Singers in East Anglia', Countrygoer, no. 7 (Autumn 1946). This periodical seems extremely rare: the British Library does not have a copy. John Howson found one on the E.J. Moeran website (http: / / www.moeran.com/pdf/Folk Songs.pdf, as on 13 April 2002) and kindly passed it on. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. 10 Palmer, loc cit

E.J. Moeran, 'Songs Collected in Norfolk',




Journal of the Folk Song Society, 7.26 (1922), 1-24 (pp. 1, 4-5, 6-7, 11-12 and 12-13). 1 See A.L. Lloyd, sleeve note to Sam Lamer, A Garlandfor Sam, (1 2-inch LP, 12T244 Topic, 1974). 1 3 Moeran, 'Folk Songs'. 14 Ibid.

15 Six Folk-Songs from Norfolk, collected and ar- ranged by E.J. Moeran (London: Augener, 1924), preface. 16 Moeran, 'Folk Songs'. 17 Moeran, 'Songs collected...' (pp. 9-10, 10-11 and 15-16). 18 'Love Songs and Ballads' [largely contributed by E.J. Moeran], Journal of the Folk Song Society, 8.35 (1931) 257-69: 'All frolicking I'll give over', pp. 262-63; 'I wish I was in Dublin town', pp. 263-64; 'Humorous and Disreputable Songs, and Ballads of Adventure' [largely contributed by E.J. Moeran], Journal of the Folk Song Society, 8.35 (1931), 270-79: 'The Drunkard', p. 276. Six Folk-Songs: 'Lonely Waters (sung with Walter Gales), pp. 12-15. 19 Moeran, 'Folk Songs'. 20 Ibid. 21 Ibid.

22 E.J. Moeran, 'Some Folk Singing of To-day', Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, 5.3 (1948), 152-54 (p. 153). 23 Ibid.

East Anglia Sings. 25 These were: (as in Moeran, 'Songs Col- lected.. .') 'The Captain's Apprentice' (tune only), p. 5; 'In Burnham Town', pp. 8-9; 'Down by the riverside', pp. 21-22; (as in note 18): 'The Pretty Ploughboy' (tune), p. 268; 'The Soldier and Sailor' (tune and one verse), p. 270; 'London Town', pp. 272-73; 'The Barley and the Rye', pp. 273-74; 'Newlyn Town' (tune and one verse), p. 279; 'The Whalecatchers' (tune and one verse), p.279; (as in Six Folk-Songs): 'The Shooting of his Dear' (with Walter Cales), No. 5. 26 Melbourne, Australia, Victoria College of the Arts, VCA 33. I am indebted to Hugh Anderson for helping me to obtain photocopies.

78 rpm record OC.87/88, Decca, n.d. I am indebted for this information to Peter Kennedy. 'The Pretty Ploughboy' track is included on the CD A Century of Song, EFDSS CDO2, EFDSS, 1998. 28 Moeran, 'Folk Songs'. 29 Ibid.

30 Moeran, 'Some Folk-Singing', loc. cit. 31

3 For example, Moeran gives no words for 'The Publican' (apparently a version of 'The Rigs of the Time'), sung at the White Horse Inn, Neatishead,

Norfolk in 1928 ('Humorous and Disreputable Songs', p. 277), and provides no details of the singer of 'As I was a-walking one morning in spring' at the Pleasure Boat Inn, Hickling, Norfolk, in 1926 (as 'Love Songs and Ballads', p. 260). 32 Moeran, 'Some Folk Singing', loc. cit. 33 Letter from Heseltine to Bernard van Dieren, 7 Sept. 1923, quoted in Geoffrey Self, The Music of

EJ. Moeran (London: Toccata Press, 1986), p. 44. 34 Philip Heseltine, 'Introductions: XVIII. E.J. Moer- an', The Music Bulletin, 6 (1924), 170-74 (p. 172).

Ibid., (pp. 172-73). 36 'Love Songs and Ballads', pp. 262-63. 37 Augustus John, foreword to Cecil Gray, Peter Warlock (London: Cape, 1934), pp. 12-13. I am indebted to Dr Rhian Davies for this reference. 38 Ibid., p. 14. 39 Heseltine, 'Introduction', (p. 173) 40 The Week-End Book. Vera Mendel, Francis Mey- nell, general eds (London: Nonesuch Press, 1924). 'Mrs Dyer' is on pp. 208-09. Its Oxfordshire provenance is mentioned by Moeran in the broadcast East Anglia Sings (note l). The song was reprinted in Everyman's Book of British Ballads, ed. by Roy Palmer (London: Dent, 1980), p. 130, itself reprinted as A Book of British Ballads (Felinfach: Llanerch, 1998). 'Mrs Dyer' seems to be the only item noted by Moeran in England outside East Angha. 41 'Daily Express' Community Song Book collected and ed. by John Goss (London: 'Daily Express' National Community Singing Movement, 1927); and Ballads of Britain, ed. with a foreword by John Goss (London: John Lane, 1937). 42 Quoted in Frank Howes, Folk Music of Britain - and Beyond (London: Methuen, 1969), p. 50. 43 Constant Lambert, Music Ho! A Study of Music in Decline (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1948; orig. London: Faber, 1934), p. 125. 4 Self, pp. 61-62 45 'Humorous and Disreputable Songs', p. 274.

East Anglia Sings. Self, p. 61.

48 Quoted in Lewis Foreman, insert notes to CD of Moeran's Violin Concerto, Lonely Waters and Wythorne's Shadow, CHAN8807, Chandos, 1990. 4 East Anglia Sings. 50 For a recording, see Moeran, Symphony in G Minor (CD, CHAN8577, Chandos, 1988). 51 'Love Songs and Ballads', p. 269. 52

'Love Songs and Ballads', p. 267. 53 Arnold Bax, 'E.J. Moeran: 1894-1950', Music and Letters 32.2 (Apr. 1951), 125-27 (p. 126). 54 Foreman.




Ss For one recording, see note 48. 56 There is a parallel Moeran, 'Folk Songs' passage in Moeran 'Some Folk Singing'. S7 East Angha Sings. S8 Moeran, 'Some Folk Singing', p. 152. 60 Jumbo Brightwell, Songsfrom the Eel's Foot, (12" LP, 12TS261, Topic, 1975). 61 Velvet Brightwell can be heard on recordings made by Peter Kennedy (Cassette, FSA-60-099, Folktrax, 1975) and on the CD Good Order!

Traditional Singing & Music from the Eel's Foot (VT140CD, Veteran, 2000). 62 Moeran, 'Some Folk Singing' (p. 152). 63 East Anglia Sings. 64 Several of the singers were later recorded by Peter Kennedy and Mike Yates. 65 See Appendix. 66 Fleischmann, pp. 61-62. 67 Victoria College of the Arts, VCA 33.

East Anglia Sings.

Appendix: Check-Lists Of Songs Noted Or Recorded By Moeran, And Their Singers

Abbreviations

EA: East Anglia Sings (see note 1, above). J22: JFS, 7 (see note 1 1). J31: JFS, 8 (see note 18). 6N: Six Folk-Songafrom Norfolk.

6s: Six Suffolk Folk-Songs. SK: Songsfrom County Kerry. VCA: Victorian College of the Arts, Moeran MSS.

VCA33.

Songs

Alternative titles in round brackets were supplied in the works cited; in square brackets by me. The name given after the source is that of the singer.

1. All frolicking I'll give over (The Girl that I J3 1, R. Miller left behind)

2. As I was a-walking one morning in spring J31, anon. (Married on Monday Morning)

3. Banks of the Lee (The Green Mossy Banks J22, Gales of the Lea)

4. The Barber VCA, anon. 5. The Barley and the Rye J31, Cox 6. Barton Broad Ditty EA, Cox 7. Blackberry Fold (The Squire and the J3 1, Hill = 6S = VCA

Milkmaid) 8. The Bold Poachers [The Oakham Poachers] J22, R. Miller 9. The Bold Richard J22, Sutton = 6N

10. Bonny Bunch of Roses EA, Cox



3 58 FOLK MUSIC JOURNAL

1 1. The British Man o' War J22, R. Miller 12. The Captain's Apprentice A. J22, Sutton;

B. J22, Cox 13. Cupid's Garden A. 6S, Hill/Waspe;

B. VCA, Gales; C. VCA, Cobbold.

14. The Dark-eyed Sailor EA, Clark 15. The Dawning of the Day SK, anon. 16. Down by the River-side (The Bold J22, Cox = 6N

Fisherman) 17. The Drunkard J31, R. Miller 18. The False-hearted Knight [Outlandish EA, Brightwell

Knight] 19. The Farmer's Son (The Wealthy Farmer's J22, Sutton

Son) 20. Father and Daughter [Lowlands of Hol- 6S, Hill/Waspe ? = VCA

land] 21. The Female Cabin-boy A. VCA, anon.;

B. VCA, anon. 22. The Fowler (The Shooting of his Dear) J22, Gales ? = 6N, Gales/Cox 23. The Girls of Lowestoft (The Hole in the J3 1, anon.

Wall) [She was a rum one] 24. The Groggy Old Tailor J3 1, Clittleborough (? = Chettleborough) 25. Hanged I shall be J22, Taylor 26. Harriet and Young William (William and J3 1, Waspe

Harriet) 27. High Germany J22, R. Miller ? = unpublished arrangement

listed as R108 on list of Moeran's complete works on website (www.moeran.com)

28. If there be danger J22, Gales 29. In Burnham Town (The Man of Birming- J22, Cox

ham Town) 30. The Isle of Cloy 6S, Hill/Waspe = 'It's of a lady in the Isle

of Cloy' in VCA. 31. It was happy and delightful [Pleasant and EA, W. Miller

Delightful] 32. I wish I was in Dublin Town (The Irish J31, R. Miller

Girl) 33. The Jolly Carter VCA, anon. = arr. 1924, vocal with unison

chorus; and 1944, SATB 34. Jolly Butcher VCA, anon. 35. Kitty, I am in love with you SK, anon. 36. London Town (In London streets I went J3 1, Cox

astray) [Up to the Rigs] 37. Lonely Waters 6N, Gales/R. Miller = EA, as 'As I walked

out', Gales 38. Lost Lady Found EA, Chettleborough 39. The Lost Lover SK, anon.




40. The Mare and the Foal J3 1, Hill = VCA, as 'Parson (Amen said the foal)' ='Parson and Clerk', arr. for voice and piano by Moeran (London: Joseph Williams, 1947).

41. The Milkmaid VCA, anon='The Little Milkmaid', arr. for voice and piano by Moeran (London: Oxford University Press, 1925)

42. Mrs Dyer, the Baby Farmer Week-End Book, anon. = arr. for voice and piano by Moeran (London: Curwen, 1927)

43. The Murder of Father Hanratty SK, anon. 44. My love passed me by SK, anon. 45. My Old Sweet Nichol (My Dear Nicholas J3 1, Brooks

Wood) 46. The New York Trader (William Glen) J22, Goffin 47. Nutting Time [Nutting Girl] 6S, Hill/Waspe = VCA, as 'Nut-

ting' = 'Nutting Time', arr. for voice and piano by Moeran (London: Curwen, 1932)

48. The Old Fat Buck (Thorneywoods J22, Goffin Poachers)

49. The Old Miser (The Sailor's Misfortune J3 1, W. Miller and Happy Marriage)

50. The Old Sow EA, Ginger 51. The Oxford Sporting Blade 6N, R. Miller 52. Polly on the Shore (The Valiant Sailor) J22, Gales 53. The Pressgang J22, Sutton = 6N 54. The Pretty Ploughboy J3 1, Cox 55. The Publican J31, anon 56. The Ramillies VCA, anon.; ? = EA, as 'The Wreck of the

Ramillies', Bell 57. Rich Merchant VCA, Cobbold 58. Rigs of the Time EA, Salmond 59. The Robber (Flash Lad or Charley Reilly A. J31, Bell; B. J31, Cox

or In. Newry Town) 60. The Roving Dingle Boy SK, anon. 61. The Royal Charter J22, Sutton 62. The Sailor and Young Nancy Arr. for voice and piano by Moeran

(London: Oxford University Press, 1925) 63. The Sea-captain VCA, anon. 64. A Seaman's Life 6S, Hill/Waspe = VCA, anon. 65. Seventeen Come Sunday A. VCA, anon.;

B. VCA, Bramford 66. The Soldier and Sailor J3 1, Cox 67. The Tinker VCA, anon. 68. The Tinker's Daughter SK, anon. 69. The Whalecatchers (The Greenland Whale J3 1, Cox

Fishery)




Singers

Anonymous As I was a-walking one morning in spring (Hickling, 1926) The Girl of Lowestoft (Martham, Norfolk, 1924) The Publican (Neatishead, Norfolk, 1928) The Barber (Suffolk) Jolly Butcher (Suffolk) The Sea-captain Female Cabin-boy, A. and B. The Ramillies Seventeen Come Sunday (Acle, Norfolk, 1924) The Tinker The Milkmaid (? Suffolk) The Jolly Carter The Sailor and Young Nancy Mrs Dyer, the Baby Farmer (Oxfordshire) The Dawning of the Day My love passed me by The Murder of Father Hanratty The Roving Dingle Boy The Lost Lover The Tinker's Daughter Kitty, I am in love with you (all Kerry)

Bell, Elijah The Robber, A. (Sutton, Norfolk, 1927) ? The Wreck of the Ramillies (Sutton, 1947)

Bramford Seventeen Come Sunday, B. Brightwell, Jumbo The False-hearted Knight (Eastbridge, Suf-

folk, 1947) Brooks, Bob My Old Sweet Nichol (Hickling, Norfolk,

1924) Chettleborough, Charlie (publican) Lost Lady Found (Sutton, Norfolk, 1947) ? same person as Clittleborough The Groggy Old Tailor (Sutton, 1927) Clark, Jack The Dark-eyed Sailor (Eastbridge, Suffolk,

1947) Cobbold (presumably the Miss Primrose Cupid's Garden, C. Cobbold whom Moeran thanks in prefatory Rich Merchant note to 6S 'for her energy in discovering singers who still remember old songs') Cox, Harry, of Potter Heigham, Norfolk The Captain's Apprentice, B. (1921)

In Burnham Town (1922) Down by the River-side (1922) The Pretty Ploughboy (1924) The Soldier and Sailor (1927) London Town (1924)




The Barley and the Rye (1927) The Robber, B. (1927) The Whalecatchers (1924) The Shooting of his Dear (with Gales)

Gales, Walter Polly on the Shore If there be danger The Fowler/The Shooting of his Dear (with Cox)

Banks of the Lee (all Sutton, Norfolk, 1921) Cupid's Garden, B. Lonely Waters (with R. Miller)

Ginger, Fred The Old Sow (Eastbridge, 1947) Goffin, Ted The New York Trader

The Old Fat Buck (both Catfield, Norfolk, 1921)

Hill, George Blackberry Fold The Mare and the Foal (both East Stonham, Suffolk, 1921) Nutting Time (East Stonham) Cupid's Garden, A. Father and Daughter The Isle of Cloy A Seaman's Life (last four with Waspe)

Miller, Robert The British Man o' War High Germany The Bold Poachers (all Sutton, Norfolk, 1921) All frolicking I'll give over (Sutton, 1923) I wish I was in Dublin Town The Drunkard (both Sutton, 1924) Lonely Waters (with Gales) The Oxford Sporting Blade

Miller, William The Old Miser (Catfield, Norfolk, 1924) It was happy and delightful (Sutton, Nor- folk, 1947)

Sutton, James of Winterton, Norfolk The Bold Richard The Captain's Apprentice, A. The Royal Charter The Pressgang The Farmer's Son (all 1915)

Taylor, 'Shepherd' Hanged I shall be (Hickling, Norfolk, 1921) Waspe, Oliver Harriet and Young William (Coddenham,

Suffolk, 1931) Cupid's Garden, A. Father and Daughter The Isle of Cloy A Seaman's Life (last four with Hill)



Documents

Neglected Pioneer: E.J. Moeran (1894-1950)