Ivor Gurney, photographed by Richard Hall, 1920.

The Ivor Gurney Society

The Ivor Gurney Society was founded in 1995 to promote interest and scholarship in and around the life and work of the Gloucester composer-poet, Ivor Gurney (1890-1937).

This website gives information about the Society, Gurney himself, and also aims to host a number of scholarly resources. Please explore these via the menu on the right, and don't forget to visit the gift shop as you leave!



Gurney News

    Society Spring Event, Gloucester Cathedral, May 5 2012.
    Full details of the Spring Weekend and a booking form are now available on the Events Page.
    A Soldier and a Maker: A Gurney Play at The Barbican, April 2012.
    Read more...

    As featured on Radio 3's In Tune, Iain Burnside has written a new play based up Gurney's songs, poems and letters which is to be performed by students from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican's Pit Theatre.
    The play runs from 20 to 28 April. Tickets cost £15 and are available from the Barbican Box Office on 020 7638 8891.
    Click here to see a flyer for the event (jpeg).

    Gurney in Bristol, 21 January 2012. DO NOT MISS!
    Film premiere and complete orchestral works performed -- Read more...

    An award winning new film on the life of Ivor Gurney is to receive its public premiere in a major event in Bristol Cathedral on Saturday 21 January, 2012, at 7.30pm. Produced by Redcliffe Films. As well as the film showing, the event will see the performance of all three of Gurney's extant orchestral works, the Coronation March, War Elegy and A Gloucestershire Rhapsody - the first time they will have been heard together, and only the second performance of the first and last of the works - along with four songs orchestrated by Herbert Howells and Ian Venables.

    Ticket details for this extraordinary event, not to be missed by anyone interested in Gurney's work, can be found on the flyer for the event (pdf).

    Coronation March premiered, June 2011 -- Read more...

    The first of Gurney's three extant orchestral works - the Coronation March of December 1910-January 1911 - is to receive its first performance in Gloucester Cathedral on 4th June 2011, as part of Gloucester Choral Society's 'Summer Prom', conducted by Adrian Partington.

    Although the first of Gurney's orchestral works to be written, it is the last extant work to be heard, both the War Elegy and A Gloucestershire Rhapsody now having been performed, and the former recorded. The Prom also features works by Dvorak, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Barber, Saint Saens and Parry.

    Tickets can be bought from the Gloucester Choral Society website.

    Society Spring Event, May 2011 - Details available -- Read more...

    Details of the Society's 2011 Spring Weekend, on 14th and 15th May, are now available on the Events page, where a booking form can also be downloaded.

    New website launched (February 2011) -- Read more...

    We have been working hard to expand our web presence and the offerings on this site, with further information on Gurney and his work and facilities to both join and buy Gurnalia online. Some resources are yet to arrive in full, but we hope to have completed the site very soon. In the meantime, we should be glad to have your thoughts on the new look and its operation. Please contact us through the form on the contact page to let us know what you think...

    Gurney at the Three Choirs -- Reviews of events in August 2010 -- Read more...

    This year's Three Choirs Festival was a veritable hotbed of Gurney performances, which were hugely well received. The festival included the world premiere performance of Gurney's A Gloucestershire Rhapsody, which was heard for the first time since it was composed, ninety years ago, a string quartet movement, a choral work, 'The Trumpet', Gurney's chant to psalm 23, as well as songs, both published and unpublished. Huge thanks must go to Adrian Partington, Artistic Director of the Gloucester Festival and recently appointed Vice President of the Gurney Society, for including so much Gurney in the programme. There was much press coverage of the Festival and of Gurney in particular. Visit the Three Choirs Festival website for links to many of these reviews.

    Launch of F.W. Harvey Society -- Read more...

    Members of the Society and others interested in Gurney may be interested to learn of the launch of a new society devoted to the work of Gurney's friend and fellow Gloucestershire poet, F.W. ('Will') Harvey. The Society's website can be found here.

    Gurney Society trip to Ypres, October 2010 -- Read more...

    The Society is organising to trip to Flanders, taking in some of the places Gurney knew during the First World War. The trip will take place from 7-10 October. Visit the events page for more information.