Grew up in Norfolk, England, promising early musical career interrupted by
service in World War 1 where he sustained nasty head injury. After the war
resumed musical studies and composition. Main instrumental output in 1920s was
chamber and solo work, though started symphony in 1924. This was finally
completed in 1937 and hailed as a masterpiece. It was followed by the Violin
and Cello Concertos and a number of other substatial works.
Moeran was an avid collector of English and Irish folksongs, and their style is
often evident in aspects of his work, both his voluminous vocal output and his
instrumental works. Although English by birth and upbringing he felt strong
connections to his Irish ancestry and by the latter part of his life felt he
could only really work well in Ireland. He made frequent visits there,
especially to Kenmare, Co. Kerry, where at one point he took his dedication to
collecting folk music to the extent of spending time living with travelling tinkers.

Never completely recovering from his war injury, and with an increasing
reliance on alcohol, his health deteriorated in the last two or three years of
his life, and by the end he began to fear the asylum. He died on 4th December
1950, falling from Kenmare pier into the sea probably after a massive heart
attack - the post mortem revealed brain haemorraging, perhaps a final effect of
the shrapnel lodged there in 1917...