Robin Milford

Realising that he would not be able to make a living solely as a composer he worked for a time with the Aeolian Company correcting Duo-Art pianola rolls until 1930.

In 1929 he had met fellow-composer Gerald Finzi, with whom he found he had much in common, personally and musically, and the two formed a lifelong friendship.

He returned to England, to teach and compose, but soon afterwards his five-year-old son, Barnaby, was killed in a road accident.

[3] The deaths of Finzi (1956) and Vaughan Williams (1958) affected Milford deeply, aggravating the effects of his physical decline, which involved loss of vision and impaired balance.

Vaughan Williams once wrote to Adrian Boult, "If I wanted to show the intelligent foreigner something worth doing which could only possibly come out of England, I think I would show him something of the work of Milford…"[5] In particular, Milford's lyrical nine minute tone poem for violin and orchestra The Darkling Thrush, (1928) inspired by a poem of Thomas Hardy and first recorded in 2011, has been compared to Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending.

[6] His more substantial Violin Concerto in G minor, Op, 47 of 1937 is in similar English pastoral style, and was first recorded in 2014.

[7] Despite the tragic events of Milford's life, and his resultant depression, he seems to have had a capacity for incidental enjoyment and his music is by no means all gloomy.

[3] As well as large scale works such as the two symphonies (1927 and 1933), his oratorio A Prophet in the Land (1929) and the Violin Concerto (1937), Milford also wrote smaller pieces, for example organ pieces suitable for playing as church voluntaries (he was himself a village church organist) and piano works.

Milford was able to show the character of a song setting with just a few notes, for example in the very brief piano introduction to If it's ever Spring Again.