Fantasy Quartet for oboe, violin, viola and cello

Ernest
Moeran was brought up in the remote Norfolk countryside with its wide
sands and big skies and the fenland atmosphere of mist and reeds. His
father was the local vicar though he originally came from Dublin, so
the only music the young Moeran heard was church music and the local
folk music. As a result he became one of Europe’s many song
collector-composers and his music was always firmly based in the
countryside. His grounding in music was so rudimentary that he might
never have pursued a musical career but for a sympathetic music
teacher at school.

He
was badly wounded in the First War in 1917 by a piece of shrapnel
that lodged in his brain and increasingly undermined his health and
personality for the rest of his life, not surprisingly making it hard
for him to find the concentration necessary for extended periods of
composition. During the War he made his first visit to Ireland and
developed a life-long passion for the wild Atlantic seaboard, in
particular Co. Kerry. Later he became a regular visitor to Kenmare,
where he died and is buried.
By
1946 Moeran had achieved a considerable reputation.
With three major works behind him – a symphony and two concertos – he
resumed work on a second symphony for John Barbirolli. There were
other projects in gestation including first sketches for a chamber
work for the great English oboist, Leon Goossens.

A
visit to old haunts in Norfolk in early May rekindled Moeran’s
interest. I have now
decided that the work will be a Quartet… I think I am getting the
shape of it. Anyhow, I want the weekend to let the general atmosphere
soak in he wrote to
his wife. To Dick Jobson at Radnor he wrote: I
board and lodge in this little pub overlooking Rockland Broad… in
the evening I go out rowing on these ‘Lonely Waters’… this reedy
neighbourhood seems to suggest oboe music.

The
whole work is cast in the form of a fantasy, a single movement
evolving from one melodic shape, although there are two clearly
defined sections coloured by snatches of Norfolk folksong. Sunshine
over rural England
was how The Times critic applauded it at the first performance by
Leon Goossens and the Carter String Trio on December 8th 1946.