Margaret More (composer)

In her early teen-years More became friends with the composer Joseph Holbrooke who at that time was living in Harlech.

[3] In the mid-1920s Margaret More left Harlech to spend a year in London, where she attended Trinity College of Music and studied composition with Edward d'Evry.

It was while living in London that she met poet Claudine Currey, who later became the mother-in-law of More's brother, Jack.

Elkin Mathews 1925), based on the 1837 Hans Christian Andersen story, The Sea Maid, and this became the starting point for More's first major work, a grand opera: The Mermaid.

Music took second place but she composed Matris Carmina, a suite of six works for piano and recorder, each piece dedicated to a particular child.

Her sister-in-law, Myrrha Hawkes, at that time living in South Africa, invited her to compose music for a children's Christmas entertainment based on Hans Andersen's story: The Snow Queen.

The idea behind this new departure was based on an early engraving of Andersen reading one of his stories at a table, with listeners sitting round in semi-circle.

The image was re-interpreted with Martin-Harvey dressed as Andersen as narrator, with singers, in costume, seated on either side.

Her last major work, The Mouse, was a setting from one of the stories from the Welsh folk lore The Mabinogion.

The composer later re-cast the music as a dramatic lay, as 70 minutes of continuous song, without narration.