E. J. Moeran

On today's date in 1948, at a BBC Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall, the London Symphony gave the premiere performance of the "Serenade in G Major" by the British composer Ernest John Moeran. E.J. Moeran was born in 1894 in a London borough, but most music-lovers associate him with Ireland, since that country became his adopted home and his musical inspiration during the last decades of his life. Moeran was fascinated by folksongs, and his preferred method of collecting them was to sit in a country pub and wait until an old man started singing. He would note down the song and ask for more. In the 1920s, Moeran became the friend and drinking companion of another British composer, music critic, and fellow folk song aficionado Peter Warlock, a talented but rather notorious character who was the model for the outrageously Bohemian and somewhat shady composer depicted in Anthony Powell's string of novels collectively titled "A Dance to the Music of Time." Warlock's most famous piec