Alun Hoddinott was born in Bargoed, Glamorganshire on August 11, 1929 and grew up on the beautiful Gower peninsula to the west of Swansea. When he died there on March 11, 2008 he had dominated the musical scene in Wales for well over half a century. His unique achievement was fittingly recognised, in what would have been his 80th birthday year, when the new home of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales within the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay was named BBC Hoddinott Hall in his honour.

This disc brings together for the first time all his songs for high voice and piano (together with his last vocal work of all) and thus represents an important strand of his vast and prodigious output.