This page links you to articles and letters written by Moeran himself, all published within his lifetime.

Jack Moeran was quite a letter writer. Without these preserved documents Lionel Hill's excellent memoir "Lonely Waters, the diary of a friendship with E J Moeran" (below) would probably not have been written. As it is, however, we have a fascinating insight into the opinions of Moeran on a wide range of musical subjects, as well as his own compositional progress. A further publication, the article by Geoffrey Self in the magazine 'British Music' (Volume 16, 1994) quotes newly discovered letters and postcards written between February 1931 and December 1941 to the singer George Parker.

But Moeran's private letters are not the only source of insight into his way of thinking. He wrote a number of articles for publications such as the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society and Countrygoer, which will see the light of day again here. One such article is the fascinating Folk Songs and some Traditional Singers in East Anglia, which was published in Countrygoer in 1946 and details the origins and development of Moean's interest in traditional folk song and singers.

There are also the letters written to and published by newspapers and magazines, and it was with two of these that this section opened. The first appears to be written in response to the news that Elgar was 'at it again', but actually concetrates on folk song and its influence on a vareity of composers. The second, to the Telegraph, discusses the Proms and the BBC's handling of contemporary British music.

Another tack is a brief questionnaire which Moeran completed in 1949 on "The Composer and Society" which offers some insight into Moeran's social thinking and desire for more assistance for British music. I've also linked here to the Symphony sleevenotes by Moeran that have been on the site for some time.