Between now and the end of September I'll be working with a young alto that I've accompanied off and on for some years. She's just finished her first year as a Cambridge choral scholar and is starting to prepare for a recital of English songs to be tried out next term. So far she's learning songs by e.g. Britten, Madeleine Dring, Gerald Finzi, Parry, Vaughan Williams, Peter Warlock but would be interested to know if there are more recent composers who have written interesting songs so that she can have a wide range to choose from. Can anyone suggest any interesting and recent English songs suitable for a young alto voice?

How about looking at work by Dilys Elwyn-Edwards, or by Michael Head?

I am not too sure that Dilys Elwyn-Edwards would be classed as an English composer KJ.
How about that lovely song "Wind of the Western Sea" by Graham Peel? One more name that comes to mind is Stuart Ward who has written some good stuff and should be better known.

Isn't Dilys E-E your Welsh Feature KJ? There's such a wealth of English material I don't think she wants to cross even the local borders yet! I've just lent her a collection of Michael Head songs which includes two of my personal favourites Sweet chance and A Piper (or do I mean The Piper?) I feel that some of the poems he set have dated uncomfortably, which is rather sad.

Thanks for reminding me of Graham Peel's name. I was trying to think of it the other day. Am I right in remembering that he wrote a good setting of In summer time on Bredon? Stuart Ward is a new name to me. Is he still alive? Another composer that I've suggested she look at, but again from early last century, is Ivor Gurney. I remember accompanying a lot of his songs for a baritone but haven't got copies of any of them. A soprano I work with said he only wrote men's songs, but I thought there were some "gender neutral" ones.

Yes it was Graham Peel who set the the Shropshire Lad poems and very lovely they are too. I have heard songs by Stuart Ward on Radio three from time to time and am fairly sure that he is still alive but I don't have copies of any of his music. Perhaps someone from these forums will know more about him.

Oh, I think Gurney is absolutely beautiful! I sung "Sleep" from "Five Elizabethan Songs" as part of my A Level Recital and I'm almost certain that there's Gurney on the Dip/LRSM/FRSM syllabus for female singers so that's a load of rubbish!

Betty Roe wrote some lovely songs too. She's still living - is that recent enough? LOL

Try Jonathan Harvey - Lullaby for the Unsleeping springs to mind. I'm sure he's written other stuff for medium voice. He writes amazingly well for choir too.

I reckon my base-line for 'recent' is 'alive'. Britten and Dring have been dead for over thirty years, since long before my singer was even born!

The only mention of a Stuart Ward composer in the first six pages of a Google search was this thread, so I'm still no wiser!

Those poems seem to have inspired a whole generation of composers. Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge for tenor, string quartet and piano, was one of my A Level set works. Was it Somervell who did a very striking setting of The Lads in Their Hundreds in 15/8? I recently heard a recording of it by Bryn Terfel but I also remember accompanying it for the same singer as introduced me to Gurney.

I know some of her children's songs, but none of the adult repertoire. She used to be one of the tutors on a children's course that was part of the Summer Music summer school. My children loved it (and her!).

Thanks for the specific suggestion there. I've sung at least one of his choral pieces - I remember that it was by him but can't remember the title. It was quite different from any other choral music I had sung at the time. I remember enjoying learning it and finding it really interesting.

I passed on all the suggestions so far to the singer this evening, so I hope she will be able to follow some of them up. I was pleased to hear that Gurney didn't just write men's songs. Thanks everyone! Further ideas still welcome.

He doesn't pass on the "still alive" front but have you tried looking at some of the Armstrong Gibbs songs? Lots of them are suitable for female voice and there are some real gems. Personal favourites of mine are "Titania"; "The Oxen" (good Christmas one); "The Splendour Falls" and "The Fields are Full".
The versions I have are for high voice but I'm sure there are transpositions - I've seen The Fields are Full in at least 2 different keys.

There is a CD of his songs with the mezzo Geraldine McGreevy singing, and a baritone whose name escapes me, if you wanted to hear a good selection.