Ivor Gurney: A Gloucestershire Rhapsody

Born in the city of Gloucester in 1890, Ivor Gurney was both a poet and musician. As a boy he was a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, where he studied under the organist, Dr Herbert Brewer. In 1911, he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music to study composition with Sir Charles Stanford but psychological problems led to a breakdown which interrupted his studies. Gurney served with the Gloucestershire Regiment during the First World War, fighting on the Somme, where he was first wounded in the shoulder, then gassed. During his time in the trenches, he wrote a number of songs, and also much fine poetry. After the war he returned to the Royal College to continue his composition studies, this time with Dr Ralph Vaughan Williams. But his emotional instability remained a problem and he soon withdrew from the college. He continued writing poetry and music, however, and composed the Gloucestershire Rhapsody in 1919-20. Sadly, his psychological condition deteriorated and in 1922 he was committed to a mental institution, first in Gloucester and later in London. He died of tuberculosis on December 26th 1937. This recording featured on a disc which accompanied the June 2014 edition of the BBC Music Magazine.