Moeran, Ernest John

Ernest John Moeran – Overture for a Masque

(b. Heston, Middx., 31 December 1894 – d. Kenmare, Co. Kerry, Ireland, 1 December 1950)

Preface
Ernest John Smeed Moeran, better known as E. J. Moeran, and to his friends as ‘Jack’, came from an Irish-born father and a Norfolk-born mother. Although his father, Rev. J. W. W. Moeran, was of Dutch descent and barely lived in Ireland more than a year after his birth, his son was drawn to the land, both for recreation and inspiration. Likewise, his mother’s native Norfolk nurtured his love of the countryside and its music.

After attending Uppingham School where the music master was Robert Stearndale Bennett (grandson of Mendelssohn’s friend William), who was very influential, Moeran gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He entered it in 1913 but his studies were interrupted by war in which he served in the 6th (Cyclist) Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment as a motor-cycle dispatch rider. On 3 May 1917 at Bullecourt he was badly injured by shrapnel in the head, some of which could never be removed. For the rest of his life he had a metal plate in his skull, and suffered pain and mood swings, often deep depression, and a descent into alcoholism.

He re-entered the Royal College in 1920 and became a pupil of John Ireland. He was part of a circle that included Ireland, Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock), Harriet Cohen, and Arnold Bax. In the 1930s Moeran wrote a symphony that is regarded as one of the very finest British symphonies. He also composed concertos for violin and cello, several chamber works and songs.

He died unexpectedly whilst on holiday in Ireland, seemingly from a brain haemorrhage.
It was the impresario Walter Legge who in 1943 commissioned a short, light overture for ENSA (the Allied forces’ entertainment body that commissioned several similar works at the time, including Alan Rawsthorne’s Street Corner, and Arnold Bax’s Work in Progress). Moeran took his time over it because he had recently met the cellist Peers Coetmore, whom he would eventually marry, and most of his efforts went into courting her. However, the Overture for a Masque was finished by the spring of 1944. The influence of neo-classical Stravinsky and William Walton is strong in what is a successful concert opener. Moeran never explained the ‘masque’ of the title. He was, however, pleased with it. As he wrote to Peers Coetmore on 20 February 1944, “I think it turns out to be quite a good little work – what you might call ‘athletic’ in style”.

Phillip Brookes, 2020

German version > HERE