Review from the Musical Times

Ludlow Town

'A Shropshore Lad' still draws composers like a magnet. E. J. Moeran has set four of the poems, and issued them as a cycle under the title 'Ludlow Town'. The four are: 'When smoke stood up from Ludlow', 'Farewell to barn and stack and tree', 'Say, lad, have you things to do?' and 'The lads in their hundreds'.

Mr. Moeran need not fear the inevitable comparison between this cycle and previous 'Shropshire Lad' essays. I can spare space for the mention of only one of the admirable qualities it shows, and I choose one that is least often shown by song composers today, especially the young ones. Mr. Moeran has acquired thus early the knowledge of what to leave out.

There are several pages - especially in 'The lads in their hundreds' - where the accompaniment suggests Stanford in its successful reliance on a few detatched chords. But when the text demands the setting up of a background full of colour and suggestion, he can do it as clinchingly as anybody. See, as two widely different examples, the pianoforte to the grisly 'Farewell to barn', and the subtleties and simplicities of that in 'When smoke stood up'.

Baritones who are also musicians, and who have a liking for the grey and earthy melancholy of 'A Shropshire Lad', should make a note of 'Ludlow Town'. It places Mr. Moeran at once among the pick of our song-writers. (But I hope his publishers will not advertise him as such à la Warlock.)

"H.G." - Musical Times, January 1925