E J Moeran - The Wherryman's Way composer.

I'M NOT sure many people have heard of E J Moeran. I certainly hadn't until a chance conversation with the then landlady of the New Inn at Rockland St Mary a couple of years ago. Moeran was a twentieth century composer. His critics said his music was too derivative of Ralph Vaughan Williams, while a dedicated hardcore of fans call him the "greatest unsung genius of English composition". So what's he got to do with the Wherryman's Way? Well, Moeran grew up in Norfolk. And later in life, his Fantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings was composed while he lodged upstairs at the New Inn - hence the landlady's interest.
This "reedy neighbourhood seems to suggest oboe music," he wrote to a friend. Now Moeran's music is destined to become better known. Today's Daily Telegraph sees Simon Heffer celebrating the fact that EJ's one and only symphony is to be played at the Proms - for the first time in seventy years.
*Read the full story here.
*Listen to an extract from his symphony here.