In 1983 Richard Carder was awarded a grant by the Worshipful Company of Musicians to edit the unpublished music of the composer & poet, Ivor Gurney (1890-1937), whose manuscripts were stored in the Public Library in Gloucester, & are now in the Records Office there.

Since then many of Gurney’s 200 unpublished songs have been performed at concerts of the English Poetry & Song Society (EPSS- q.v.), along with pieces for violin, piano trio, & string quartet.

His edition of Gurney’s Seven Sappho Songs was published by Thames in 2000, and has been recorded for Dunelm by Georgina Colwell (DRD 237). His re-ordering of Gurney’s Lights Out songs was recorded on Dunelm (DRD 200).

He has been Music Advisor to the Ivor Gurney Society since 1995; and Music Reviews Editor for the ‘Gurnal’ since 2006.

After tracing the War Elegy ms. to the Royal College of Music,  he conducted the first performance of it (since the RCM student one of 1920) at the Canford Summer School in 1990.

He has lectured on Gurney’s music at the universities of Bristol (1985); Cambridge (2007); Oxford (2008 & 2012); and published 8 articles on his work in the journals of the British Music Society; the Ivor Gurney Society; & CHOMBEC. viz:

Long Shadows Fall (Gurney’s 15 songs to his own poems)

BMS Journal, 1993.

Song Cycles, Sets, & Sappho (IGS Journal 1999)

Gurney’s Journeys to Graves (Gurney’s relationship with Robert Graves) IGS Journal 2004

Gurney’s Essay on Joseph Haydn (IGS Journal 2006)

The ‘Mad’ Songs of Ivor Gurney (BMS Journal 2008)

With the Penny Whistle on the Old Road (Gurney’s settings of Edward Thomas, part 1) IGS Journal 2008.

From the gloom of Snow to the clarity of the Trumpet (Ed. Thomas, part 2) IGS Journal 2009

Ivor Gurney’s Piano Trios (CHOMBEC Newsletter 11, 2011)