Herbert Murrill is probably best known for his wonderful Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in E, which is performed pretty much every other week in an Anglican church somewhere in the world.

His story is a fascinating one. In his short life of 43 years, he became the Royal Academy of Music’s youngest ever professor of composition at the age of 24. He joined the staff of the BBC in 1936, where eventually he became Head of Music. During the second-world-war he was a code-breaker at Bletchley Park, directing the choir, organising chamber music and directing opera there, bringing in many world-renowned musicians to perform there, whilst also working on Japanese codes and ciphers.

None of Murrill’s solo voice songs have been recorded, and many are unpublished and exist only in manuscript whilst others have fallen out of print. Some may not have been heard in more than 70 years. Following research and the discovery of his song manuscripts in the BBC archives, later in September 2024 we will release a new commercial album of Herbert Murrill’s complete extant songs for the record label First Hand Records.

This is an opportunity to hear a selection of his songs, ahead of the launch of the new album.

Murrill wrote Self-Portrait, to a text by the contemporary writer Geoffrey Dunn, a slightly older contemporary of Murrill, in 1929. In rather over-ornate 1920s cleverness the poet reflects upon his Self, Birth, Death and ‘Extranea’ subtitled Motum perpetuum. This at least gives Murrill something into which to dig and he responds suitably with wry reflection. In the second poem there are hints of Finzi, whilst the piano writing is cleverly wrought in the third where the vocal line is decidedly demotic. Of Death; Suburban Funerals is an off-hand setting with a dappled right hand full of colour.

The 3 Poèmes are slightly unusual in taking two texts by Jacques Prévert and one by Robert Desnos and these ultra-short c.45-second songs are pithy, sparkling and full of boulevardier feel.