Ivor Gurney

The information on this page is a biographical sketch for Ivor Gurney; offering the reader a basic knowledge of his life and work. There are some suggestions at the bottom of this page for resources and links that should help those looking for additional information.

"Lyrical poets are seldom ranked according to the range of their subject-matter; a few even among the finest are in this respect curiously restricted. But if they were, Ivor Gurney would be peering out from well towards the top of the green and golden tree."
(Walter De La Mare, 9)

Ivor Bertie Gurney: Born August 28, 1890 in Gloucester, England and died December 26, 1937 in London.

Father: David Gurney (1862 - 1919)

"David was a moderately successful tailor who achieved working-class respectability for his family, but he was not particularly ambitious man. He did what was necessary and what was expected of him."
(Blevins, 52)

Mother: Florence [née Lugg] Gurney (1860 - 1945)

"Florence was more sensitive than anyone realized and possessed an artistic temperament that craved expression. But she was imprisoned by circumstances, and saw no way of communicating her own poetic and musical sides. She had grown up in a household crowded with seven siblings, and once again in married life she was jammed into small quarters with four children of her own. Surrounded by people all of her life, she had known little but hardship and work. Her behavior and attitudes speak of a woman consumed by disappointment, battling frustration, and looking for scapegoats in those closest to her, those she felt were responsible for her misery - children and her husband. Florence undoubtedly felt that there was never enough of anything- time, money, space, quiet, freedom."(Blevins, 53)

Siblings:

Spouse: Never married

Education:

"As a latter-day Renaissance man with a deep love of poetry, literature and history, he (Cheesman) was able and willing to provide the boy with an exciting range of intellectual experiences and education far exceeding what he (Gurney) received at the National School, which he attended. As Ivor grew older, Cheesman opened his extensive library to him and taught him the art of declaiming poetry, which, according to Marion Scott, nurtured Gurney's 'remarkable sense of word-setting'."(Blevins, 54)
"There are no obvious 'models' for the 'Elizas.' Parry, Stanford, and even Vaughan Williams are more formal and more obviously beholders to classical tradition. The inspiration, in fact, seems not to be a musical one, but a direct response to the lyrical innocence and freedom of the poetry: the musician, as it were, drawing out the music that the poet could only find words for, and the two marching hand in hand to produce something that is neither words nor music, but a new art form in which each mirrors the other."
(Hurd, 39)
"It is a better way to die; with these men, in such a case: than the end which seemed near me and was so desirable only just over two years ago. And if I escape, well, there will be memories for old age; not all pleasant, but none so unpleasant as those which would have come had I refused the call."
(Hurd, 54)

World War I: Gurney makes at least two references to Hardy's The Dynasts in his letters during the war, giving proof that he was a well read individual and appreciated the work Hardy had poured his life into for many years. In another letter to Marion Scott dated Nov. 9, 1915, Gurney tells a story that shows his ability to write humorously tinged in irony.

"Jones has a friend, acquaintance, or companion named Brown. Brown is stirred up by his young lady to enlist. Jones is engaged on War Work, tying up parcels at the Admiralty with odd bits of string, which it is his business to untie and use to purpose (as per instructions on Economy). Brown, who becomes sick of the Army, lacks nevertheless the courage to desert, is shipped over to France in a cattle boat, and contracts a severe fit of sea sickness which is only terminated, in a specially violent paroxysm, by a 29.6 shell. Jones rises in the world, gets a string contract from the Government, acquires fame from his superb Collection of Knots (now in the Bruem, otherwise Mittish Bruseum), obtains through influence a free pass, and goes, after the war, on a tour in Flanders. Is it not possible that he, maybe, 'maybe', may hap to exterminate the solitary dandelion which has sprung out of the former friend and companion of his youth -- Brown? I wot so."
(Hurd, 59)

Individuals that may have Influenced Ivor Gurney: Gurney was completely self-taught when it comes to his writing abilities. One must credit Reverend Alfred Cheesman who allowed Gurney to use his library and who also engaged Gurney with scholarly conversation that must have stimulated his curiosity for the printed word. Trevor Hold writes in an article for the Musical Times in 1990 that Gurney's writing was strongly influenced by "the Elizabethan and Jacobean poets and dramatists, Ben Jonson in particular, for whom he retained a lifetime's affection." (Hold, 415) Trevor Hold goes on to say "later influences were Hopkins (whose poetry he had come upon in Bridges' popular wartime anthology, The Spirit of Man (1916), and Walt Whitman (Marion Scott had sent him a pocket edition of Whitman whilst he was in France)." (Hold, 415)

Those that influenced his musical composition would include his teacher Sir Charles Stanford as well as the compositions and composers that he studied from his youth. They would certainly include Brahms, Schubert, Beethoven and possibly J. S. Bach. In an article written after the death of Ivor Gurney, J. C. Squire, who was not always known for being kind to authors, poets and the like, said the following: "Stanford knew that there were greater musicians about than himself, and was handsome to and about his abler pupils. He told me that one of them, whom I knew, was perhaps the most promising composer alive. I thought to myself that there was something both of Beethoven and of Mozart about him."
(Squire, 7)

Occupation: Ivor Gurney was primarily a composer and poet but he held other jobs of an insignificant nature. After being discharged from the army he had a hard time keeping a job as his ability to concentrate and stay on task became more and more difficult.

Works: "As a composer Gurney found his voice in 1913–14 with the composition of Five Elizabethan Songs. Although he wrote chamber and orchestral music, songs were his true vocation. Manuscripts of more than 300 are to be found in the Gurney archive at Gloucester Public Library. Poetry was a secondary interest that grew only when conditions in the trenches made composition almost impossible (he nevertheless did write several fine songs in the trenches). After the war he pursued both arts with equal fervour."
(Hurd, ODNB)

"Gurney's songs began to find publishers from 1920 onwards. His two Housman cycles, Ludlow and Teme and The Western Playland, were included as part of the Carnegie Collection of British Music in 1923 and 1926 respectively. Both were scored for solo voice, piano, and string quartet and greatly enhanced his reputation as a composer of substance. However, it was not until the Oxford University Press issued two volumes of twenty songs in 1938 that his true stature could be appreciated. Further collections followed in 1952, 1959, and 1979, made possible by the faith and industry of Gurney's friend the musicologist Marion Scott (1877–1953), who had saved his manuscripts, and the editorial expertise of the composers Gerald Finzi and Howard Ferguson. His manuscripts pose great ethical and aesthetic problems because so much of his work is uneven, unpolished, and sometimes incoherent."(Hurd, ODNB)


"Similar considerations afflict his poetry, of which over 1700 items exist in the Gloucester archive. Two volumes were published during Gurney's lifetime: Severn and Somme (1917) and War's Embers (1919); and minor selections appeared in 1954 and 1973, edited by Edmund Blunden and Leonard Clark respectively. In 1982 the Oxford University Press issued a major selection of some 300 poems, edited by P. J. Kavanagh, and it was on the basis of this volume that his importance as a poet came to be recognized. Further evidence of the breadth of his literary abilities came with the publication in 1983 of his War Letters, and in 1991 of his Collected Letters, both edited by R. K. R. Thornton. In 1995 two volumes, Best Poems and The Book of Five Makings, which Gurney himself had planned and titled, were edited by R. K. R. Thornton and George Walter and issued under one cover by the Carcanet Press. A similar volume, 80 Poems or so, from the same editors and publisher, followed in 1997. Since 1995 the establishment of an Ivor Gurney Society, which issues an annual journal (vol. 1, August 1995), has provided a focus for research into his life and work."(Hurd, ODNB)


"Gurney's poems celebrate his love of the Gloucestershire countryside with the same unsentimental vigour as they report on the realities of trench warfare and chart his gradual descent into madness. His songs are equally forceful and direct, covering a wide range of emotional expression and empathizing with poets of every period, particularly his contemporaries, the Georgians. In both fields he was an individualist, and in both his successes mark him out as an artist of power and originality."
(Hurd, ODNB)

Posthumously published works: Unfortunately most of Gurney's work, both his poetry and musical composition, was not published during his life. If it had not been for individuals like Marion Scott, Edmund Blunden, and Gerald Finzi much of his work may have been lost forever.

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Recommended Resources
Blevins, Pamela. Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott: Song of Pain and Beauty. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2008.
Boden, Anthony. Stars In A Dark Night: The Letters from Ivor Gurney to the Chapman Family. History Press. 2004
Gurney, Ivor. Collected Poems of Ivor Gurney: Chosen, edited and with an Introduction by P. J. Kavanagh. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Hurd, Michael. The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Lucas, John. Ivor Gurney. Northcote House Publishers. 2001

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Helpful External Links

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Please click on this link to see a list of
links for Ivor Gurney information.
Please click on this link to see a list of
resources for Ivor Gurney information.
Michael Hurd, ‘Gurney, Ivor Bertie (1890–1937)’,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,
Oxford University Press, 2004
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37497,
(accessed January 10, 2011)
Michael Hurd, ‘Gurney, Ivor Bertie (1890–1937)’,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,
Oxford University Press, 2004
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37497,
(accessed January 10, 2011)
Michael Hurd, ‘Gurney, Ivor Bertie (1890–1937)’,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,
Oxford University Press, 2004
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37497,
(accessed January 10, 2011)
Michael Hurd, ‘Gurney, Ivor Bertie (1890–1937)’,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,
Oxford University Press, 2004
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37497,
(accessed January 10, 2011)
J. C. Squire, "The Poet" Music and Letters XIX (1938): 7,
Downloaded from ml.oxfordjournals.org at
Indiana University Library on January 15, 2011
Trevor Hold, "Ivor Gurney: Poet and Composer,"
The Musical Times 131, no. 1770 (Aug., 1990): 415,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/966620
(accessed January 15, 2011)
Trevor Hold, "Ivor Gurney: Poet and Composer,"
The Musical Times 131, no. 1770 (Aug., 1990): 415,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/966620
(accessed January 15, 2011)
Chronology is drawn from Rewards of Wonder,
edited by George Walter
(Ashington & Manchester: MidNAG & Carcanet, 2000).
Used by permission. Amended by David Kenneth Smith
(with permission). <http://www.geneva.edu/~
dksmith/gurney/chronology.html> (accessed January 15, 2011)
Michael Hurd, The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 59.
Michael Hurd, The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 54.
Michael Hurd, The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 53.
Pamela Blevins. Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott:
Song of Pain and Beauty (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2008), 77.
Michael Hurd, The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 40.
Michael Hurd, The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 39.
Michael Hurd, The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 28.
Michael Hurd, The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 28.
Michael Hurd, The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 23.
Michael Hurd, The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 16.
Michael Hurd, The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 14.
Pamela Blevins. Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott:
Song of Pain and Beauty (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2008), 54.
Pamela Blevins. Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott:
Song of Pain and Beauty (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2008), 53.
Pamela Blevins. Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott:
Song of Pain and Beauty (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2008), 52.
Walter De La Mare, "Ivor Gurney"
Music and Letters XIX (1938): 9,
Downloaded from ml.oxfordjournals.org at
Indiana University Library on January 15, 2011.