Roger Cuthbert Quilter was known particularly for his art songs. His songs, which number over a hundred, often set music to text by William Shakespeare and are a mainstay of the English art song tradition.
i I say, ‘I’ll seek her side’, ii O Fair to See, iii As I lay in the early sun, vii Since we loved
Gerald Raphael Finzi is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. Unlike previous publications of Gerald Finzi’s songs, Oh Fair To See contains the poetry of six poets: Thomas Hardy, Christina Rossetti, Edward Shanks, Ivor Gurney, Edmund Blunden and Robert Bridges. Robert Bridges’ poem Since We Loved has the distinction of being Finzi’s last before his death.
Gurney’s studies were interrupted by World War I, when he enlisted as a private soldier in the Gloucestershire Regiment in February 1915. At the front, he began writing poetry seriously, sending his efforts to his friend, the musicologist and critic Marion Scott, who worked with Gurney as his editor and business manager. He was in the midst of writing the poems for what would become his first book, Severn and Somme, when he was wounded in the shoulder in April 1917. He recovered and returned to battle, still working on his book and composing music, including the song “In Flanders”.
i The Colour, ii If it’s ever spring again, iii Tolerance
It has been observed that Milford’s writing shows strongly the influence of Vaughan Williams, as might be expected. His use of diatonic melodies, often harmonised with gentle discords, and with false relations occurring occasionally, led Eric Blom (1942) to crystallise these musical traits (also shown by other English composers of the period) as “musical Englishry”. Vaughan Williams once wrote to Adrian Boult, “If I wanted to show the intelligent foreigner something worth doing which could only possibly come out of England, I think I would show him something of the work of Milford…”.
In 1911 and 1912, Butterworth wrote eleven settings of Housman’s poems from A Shropshire Lad. This is one of them
i The Infinite Shining Heavens, ii Whither must I wander?, iii Bright is the ring of words, iv I have trod the upward and the downward slope
Songs of Travel is a song cycle of nine songs originally written for baritone voice composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, with poems drawn from the Robert Louis Stevenson collection Songs of Travel and Other Verses.
Thomas Frederick Dunhill was a prolific English composer in many genres, though he is best known today for his light music and educational piano works. The Wind Among the Reeds is a 1904 Yeats cycle which includes Dunhill’s best known song, ‘The Cloths of Heaven’.
Oliver Morrell & Will Sims (Vocal/Piano Duo)
Oliver Morrell is a versatile young musician with a diverse portfolio of performing and teaching. He graduated in 2021 with first-class honours from Durham University, and has been awarded performance diplomas from the Royal College of Organists and the London College of Music. Since September 2024, he has been Sub-Organist at Winchester Cathedral. As part of this role, he plays the organ for daily services, regularly conducts the Cathedral Choir, and plays a part in training the choristers. Before moving to Winchester, Oliver successively held organist positions at Durham Cathedral, Croydon Minster, and St Albans Cathedral. His playing has been described as “very reliable” (Cathedral Music), and he recently featured on the St Albans Cathedral Choirs’ recording of music by Elizabeth Poston (Naxos 8.574576) and Philip Moore (First Hand Records 170).
Oliver gained formative musical training as a chorister; first at his local parish church, and then at the King’s Chapel of the Savoy. From school, he went on to spend a year singing in the choir at Gloucester Cathedral. As a singer, he frequently offers recitals and is called upon to deputise in professional choirs. He is also a keen composer and has had his music premiered at the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music.
Will Sims is the Director of Chapel Music at Robinson College, Cambridge, where he directs the Choir for their weekly service schedule and busy concert, touring, and recording calendar, and supervises undergraduates in the Faculty of Music. In this role, he has directed the Choir’s first three commercial recordings (Convivium & Prima Facie Records) to critical acclaim, led worship in the Thomaskirche and Sagrada Família, broadcast a concert live from the Duomo di Milano, and given over fifteen premierés. Prior to this, Will was the Director of Music at University College, Durham; his recording of Durufle’s Requiem (Priory Records) is regularly broadcast on Radio 3’s Essential Classics. He is a prize-winning Choral Director of the Royal College of Organists, and was an inaugural member of the Yale Sacred Music Academy.
Will is an experienced singer has sung in the Cathedral Choirs of Ely, Edinburgh, Lincoln, and Peterborough; he has recorded for Delphian Records and broadcast across BBC Radio and Television. He has accompanied recitals of English Song around the UK, including in the Edinburgh and Cambridge Festivals, and will make his first recordings of Howells, Downes, and Milford in 2026. His compositions have been performed across Europe and regularly premiered in The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music.
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