Sir - Although I am away from home at present, I am aware of the recent article and correspondence concerning the composer E.J. Moeran. Clearly Moeran is a neglected composer in Britain, but possibly even more so in Ireland.
I like to think of him as an Irish composer for two reasons. Firstly, he said himself that the wild sea boards of Kerry were the principal inspiration for his music. And secondly, most of his major works were completed in Ireland. In fact, towards the end of his life he simply couldn't write in England at all and hastened to return to Kenmare to continue his work.
I feel passionate about Moeran's piano music in particular. Nowadays it is rarely heard - so much so that I have recorded a CD for release this autumn. It has taken the best part of seven years to bring this project to fruition. All credit to the Arts Council and the Black Box recording company for believing in the idea and making it possible.
Just a few weeks ago I played Moeran's music at King House in Boyle, Co Roscommon, probably the very location where Moeran wrote his first published piano works between 1917-19. They include "The Lake Island" - surely a representation of the beautiful, nearby Lough Key - and "At a Horse Fair" - possibly at Boyle or one of the surrounding towns.
Of course some of Moeran's music depicts his childhood home in Norfolk, but a significant proportion was directly inspired by Ireland, its people and its countryside. He was clearly an able composer; his larger works feature fine orchestration while his small-scale pieces, including the piano works, are original, beautifully crafted and evocative.
Why, then, is his music so neglected in Ireland? God knows we have few enough composers we can lay any claim to, particularly one of this calibre.
All the same, I feel encouraged by a renewed interest in Moeran, still a composer waiting to be discovered by the musical world at large. - Yours, etc.,
Una Hunt, (Pianist), Ramsey, Isle of Man.