Alan Rawsthorne
Encyclopedia
Alan Rawsthorne was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

. He was born in Haslingden
Haslingden
Haslingden is a small town in Rossendale, Lancashire, England. It is north of Manchester. The name means 'valley of the hazels', though the town is in fact set on a high and windy hill. In the early 20th century Haslingden had the status of a municipal borough, but following local government...

, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, and is buried in Thaxted
Thaxted
Thaxted is a town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, with about 2,500 inhabitants.-History:Thaxted appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Tachesteda, Old English for "place where thatch was got." Once a centre of cutlery manufacture, Thaxted went into decline with the rise of Sheffield...

 churchyard in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

.

Career

Alan Rawsthorne was born in Deardengate House, Haslingden, Lancashire, to Hubert Rawsthorne (1868–1943), a well-off medical doctor, and his wife, Janet Bridge (1877/8–1927) (McCabe 2004). Despite what appears to have been a happy and affectionate family life with his parents and elder sister, Barbara (the only sibling), in beautiful Lancashire countryside, as a boy Rawsthorne suffered from fragile health (McCabe 2004; Green 1971). Although he did at various times attend schools in Southport, much of Rawsthorne's early education came through private tuition at home (McCabe 2004). Despite a childhood aptitude for music and literature, Rawsthorne's parents tried to steer him away from his dreams of becoming a professional musician. As a result, he unsuccessfully tried to take on degree courses at Liverpool University, first in dentistry and then architecture. Concerning dentistry, Rawsthorne is on record as having said "I gave that up, thank God, before getting near anyone's mouth", while his friend, Constant Lambert, quipped "Mr Rawsthorne assures me that he has given up the practice of dentistry, even as a hobby" (Anon 2006). In 1925, Rawsthorne was finally able to enrol at the Royal Manchester College of Music
Royal Manchester College of Music
The Royal Manchester College of Music was founded in 1893 by Sir Charles Hallé who assumed the role as Principal. For a long period of time Hallé had argued for Manchester's need for a conservatoire to properly train the local talent. The Ducie Street building, just off Oxford Road, was purchased...

, where his teachers included Frank Merrick
Frank Merrick
Frank Merrick was an English pianist in the early 1900s. He was born in Clifton, now part of Bristol.Merrick's peers included Artur Schnabel and Mark Hambourg, and he studied with Theodor Leschetizky. From 1911 to 1929, he taught at the Royal Manchester College of Music and from 1929 at the Royal...

 for the piano and Carl Fuchs for the cello. In 1927, Rawsthorne's mother died aged just forty-nine. After graduating from the Royal Manchester College of Music around 1930, Rawsthorne spent the next couple of years pursuing his piano training with Egon Petri
Egon Petri
Egon Petri was a classical pianist.-Biography:Petri's family was Dutch and he was born a Dutch citizen, but he was born in Hanover in Germany and was brought up in Dresden. His father was a professional violinist who taught his son that instrument. Petri played in the Dresden Court Orchestra and...

 at Zakopane
Zakopane
Zakopane , is a town in southern Poland. It lies in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998 it was in of Nowy Sącz Province, but since 1999 it has been in Lesser Poland Province. It had a population of about 28,000 as of 2004. Zakopane is a...

 in Poland, and then briefly also in Berlin (McCabe 2004).

On his return to England in 1932, Rawsthorne took up a post as pianist and teacher at Dartington Hall
Dartington Hall
The Dartington Hall Trust, near Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom is a charity specialising in the arts, social justice and sustainability.The Trust currently runs 16 charitable programmes, including The Dartington International Summer School and Schumacher Environmental College...

 in Devon, where he became composer-in-residence for the School of Dance and Mime (Belcher 1999a). In 1934, Rawsthorne left for London to try his fortune as a freelance composer. His first real public success arrived four years later with a performance of his Theme and Variations for Two Violins at the 1938 International Society for Contemporary Music
International Society for Contemporary Music
The International Society for Contemporary Music is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.ISCM was established in 1922, in Salzburg. Its core activity is the World Music Days Festival, held every year at a different location. The festival includes cutting edge productions...

 (ISCM) Festival in London. The next year, his large scale Symphonic Studies for orchestral was performed in Warsaw, again at the ISCM Festival. The first in a line of completely assured orchestral scores, the Symphonic Studies, which can be heard as a concerto for orchestra
Concerto for Orchestra
Although a concerto is usually a piece of music for one or more solo instruments accompanied by a full orchestra, several composers have written works with the apparently contradictory title Concerto for Orchestra...

 in all but name, rapidly helped Rawsthorne establish himself as a composer possessing a highly distinctive musical voice (Evans 2001; Belcher 1999b).

Other acclaimed works by Rawsthorne include a viola sonata
Viola sonata
The viola sonata is a sonata for viola, sometimes with other instruments, usually piano. The earliest viola sonatas are difficult to date for a number of reasons:...

 (1937), two piano concerto
Piano concerto
A piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...

s (1939, 1951), an oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

 concerto (1947), two violin concerto
Violin concerto
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...

s (1948, 1956), a concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...

 for string orchestra (1949), and the Elegy for guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 (1971), a piece written for and completed by Julian Bream
Julian Bream
Julian Bream, CBE is an English classical guitarist and lutenist and is one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century. He has also been successful in renewing popular interest in the Renaissance lute....

 after the composer's death. Other works include a cello concerto, three acknowledged string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

s among other chamber works, and three symphonies
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

.

Family

Rawsthorne was a great-grandson of Dr. Jonathan Bayley, the educationalist, Latin scholar and Swedenborgian minister distinguished by his philanthropic work in Accrington, Lancashire and in London.

He was married to Isabel Rawsthorne
Isabel Rawsthorne
Isabel Rawsthorne, also known as Isabel Lambert, was a British painter, designer and occasional artists' model. During the war she worked in Black Propaganda...

 (née Isabel Nicholas), an artist and model well known in the Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

 art scenes. Her contemporaries included André Derain
André Derain
André Derain was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse.-Early years:...

, Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draughtsman, and printmaker.Alberto Giacometti was born in the canton Graubünden's southerly alpine valley Val Bregaglia and came from an artistic background; his father, Giovanni, was a well-known post-Impressionist painter...

, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...

 and Francis Bacon. Isabel Rawsthorne was the widow of composer Constant Lambert
Constant Lambert
Leonard Constant Lambert was a British composer and conductor.-Early life:Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music...

 and stepmother to Kit Lambert, manager of the rock group The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...

, who died in 1981. Isabel died in 1992. Alan Rawsthorne was her third husband; Sefton Delmer (the journalist and member of the Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...

 during the Second World War) was her first husband. Isabel was Alan Rawsthorne's second wife, his first wife being Jessie Hinchliffe, a violinist in the Philharmonia Orchestra. Jessie did not re-marry.

Orchestral

  • Symphonies
    • Symphony No. 1 (1950)
    • Symphony No. 2 A Pastoral Symphony (1959)
    • Symphony No. 3 (1964)
  • Symphonic Studies (1938)
  • Concerto for String Orchestra (1949)
  • Cortèges, Fantasy Overture (1945)
  • Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra (1962)
  • Elegiac Rhapsody for Strings (1963)
  • Hallé Overture
  • Improvisations on a Theme by Constant Lambert (1960)
  • Light Music for Strings (1938)
  • Suite from Madame Chrysanthème
  • Overture for Farnham
  • Prisoners' March - from film "The Captive Heart
    The Captive Heart
    The Captive Heart is a 1946 British war drama, directed by Basil Dearden for Ealing Studios. The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:...

    "
  • Music from film The Cruel Sea (film)
    The Cruel Sea (film)
    The Cruel Sea is a 1953 British film from Ealing Studios starring Jack Hawkins and Donald Sinden, with Denholm Elliott, Stanley Baker, Liam Redmond, Virginia McKenna and Moira Lister...

  • Street Corner Overture
  • Theme, Variations and Finale
  • Triptych for Orchestra

Concertante

  • Cello Concerto (1966)
  • Clarinet Concerto (1936-7)
  • Oboe Concerto (1947)
  • Piano
    • Piano Concerto No. 1 (1939, revised 1942)
    • Piano Concerto No. 2 (1951)
    • Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1968)
  • Violin
    • Violin Concerto No. 1 (1948)
    • Violin Concerto No. 2 (1956)
  • Concertante Pastorale for flute, horn and orchestra (1951)

Chamber

  • String Quartets
    • String Quartet No. 1 (1939)
    • String Quartet No. 2 (1954)
    • String Quartet No. 3 (1965)
  • Concertante for Piano and Violin (1937)
  • Concerto for Ten Instruments
  • Clarinet Quartet (1948)
  • Quintet for Piano, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn & Bassoon (1963)
  • Piano Quintet (1968)
  • Sonatina for Flute, Oboe and Piano
  • Suite for Flute, Viola and Harp (1968)
  • Theme and Variations for Two Violins (1937)
  • Piano Trio (1962)

Instrumental

  • Violin Sonata (1960)
  • Viola Sonata (1937, revised 1953)
  • Cello Sonata (1949)
  • Suite for Treble Recorder & Piano
  • Elegy for Guitar (1971)

Piano

  • Piano Sonatina (1949)
  • Four Romantic Pieces (1953)
  • Bagatelles (1938)
  • Ballade (1967)
  • "The Creel": Suite for Piano Duet

Vocal Orchestral

  • Carmen Vitale: Choral Suite
  • A Canticle of Man: Chamber Cantata
  • The God in a Cave: Cantata
  • Medieval Diptych 962
  • Practical Cats for Speaker and Orchestra
  • Tankas of the Four Seasons

Choral

  • Canzonet from "A Garland for the Queen"
  • Four Seasonal Songs
  • Lament for a Sparrow
  • The Oxen
  • A Rose for Lidice

Vocal

  • Three French Nursery Songs
  • "We Three Merry Maids"
  • Two Songs to Words by John Fletcher
  • Carol
  • Saraband (with Ernest lrving)
  • Scena Rustica for soprano and harp
  • "Two Fish"

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK