In Youth is Pleasure
The Months of the Year
4 Songs
4 Pastorals
3 Poemes
3 Carols for voice and oboe
Arioso (from Sonatina for Piano)
2 Songs
Self-Portrait

To Anglican church musicians around the world, Herbert Murrill is well-known for his wonderful Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in E major. But there is a treasure trove of other music waiting to be rediscovered, in a surprising range of styles, including the songs on this album. His music bears influences of Jazz, of Elizabethan music, religious music, medieval music, French music. At times it is humorous, at others deeply serious. Many of these songs also display a distinctively mid-20th century English Pastoral School sound (eg Butterworth, Finzi, Ireland etc). In 1933 at the age of just 24, Murrill was appointed the youngest ever professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Three years later, he joined the BBC as music administrator, rising rapidly up the rank, by 1942 becoming BBC Music Programme Organiser. The songs on this album were written during this period and mostly just before Murrill was recruited as a codebreaker at the now famous Bletchley Park during the second world war. After his work at Bletchley, he went on to be Head of Music at the BBC.

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Audio recording resolution: 24bit, 96kHz