Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Music Examples
- Preface
- Notes on Archival Sources and Citations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1 Ancestry, Childhood and Education
- Part 2 The First World War
- Part 3 Rise and Fall
- Part 4 Reconstruction
- Part 5 Maturity, Marriage and Last Years
- Appendix I The Moeran Mythology
- Appendix II List of Works
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Works
- General Index
10 - Meteoric Rise (1923–1924)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 June 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Music Examples
- Preface
- Notes on Archival Sources and Citations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1 Ancestry, Childhood and Education
- Part 2 The First World War
- Part 3 Rise and Fall
- Part 4 Reconstruction
- Part 5 Maturity, Marriage and Last Years
- Appendix I The Moeran Mythology
- Appendix II List of Works
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Works
- General Index
Summary
Much of Moeran's time during the last two months of 1922 was occupied with the arrangements for a chamber music recital – featuring principally his own music – that was planned to take place at the Wigmore Hall early in the New Year. The promotion of a concert of Moeran's music was facilitated by his mother's financial support. Not many young composers in 1920s Britain could hire a prestigious central London venue for a recital showcasing their music and Moeran was taking an artistic risk. Only half a dozen of his compositions – all piano pieces – had been published during the previous two years, and there had been few public performances outside the limited audiences of the musical club Thursday evening recitals. Moeran was very new on the scene, and there was no guarantee that concert goers would be attracted to a recital of mostly unknown music. Nonetheless, the fact that the project was being underwritten financially by his mother enabled Moeran to devise a programme that combined his own music with a well-known and popular work for which there would always be an audience. He could have relied on some of his musical club friends and colleagues to attend, and his personal network would have enabled him to engage performers who may well have provided their services for a reduced fee or even free of charge. The recital took place on 15 January, and it began with the Allied String Quartet giving the first public performance of Moeran’s String Quartet in A minor. This was followed by the first performance of his Sonata in E minor for Violin and Pianoforte, played by dedicatee Desire Defauw, accompanied by Harriet Cohen. Cohen then played the Three Fancies that Moeran had composed during his Norfolk summer holiday the previous August. The recital ended with the Allied Quartet playing Ravel's Quartet in F major. The coupling of his quartet with that of Ravel was a risky strategy for Moeran – given the unmistakable influence of the Ravel work on his own – but as a means of attracting an audience to a recital of new music, it was apparently successful. The beginnings of Moeran’s rapid rise in the esteem both of his peers and the music-loving public may be found at this Wigmore Hall recital.
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- Ernest John MoeranHis Life and Music, pp. 124 - 137Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021