Songs of Muriel Herbert - The Guardian

Muriel Herbert (1897-1984) does not get a mention in the latest edition of Grove's Dictionary, but on the evidence of the 36 songs on this disc she deserves a place on the list of significant British songwriters between the two world wars. Herbert had studied at the Royal College of Music with Stanford. Her early songs were much admired by Roger Quilter, who arranged for a number of them to be published. But after her death they were forgotten until her daughter, the critic and biographer Claire Tomalin, rediscovered the manuscripts among her mother's papers. This disc is the result, beautifully sung by Ailish Tynan and James Gilchrist. It shows that Herbert's literary taste was as discriminating as her music; the settings here range from medieval lyrics to James Joyce, as well as the inevitable Housman and Hardy. If her music is innately conservative, her harmonic palette and melodic invention are individual; these songs linger in the memory.