Buxton Orr was a Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

-born Anglo-Scottish 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...

.

Originally trained as a doctor, Orr gave up medicine and switched to music, studying composition with Benjamin Frankel

Benjamin Frankel

Benjamin Frankel was a British composer. Frankel's most famous pieces include a cycle of five string quartets and eight symphonies as well as a number of concertos for violin and viola; his single best-known piece is probably the First Sonata for Solo Violin, which, like his concertos, resulted...

 and conducting with Aylmer Buesst

Aylmer Buesst

Aylmer Buesst was an Australian conductor, teacher and scholar, who spent his career in the United Kingdom. He was mainly associated with opera and vocal music...

. Best known for his personal application of serial technique

Serialism

In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...

 and for several virtuoso instrumental fantasies

Fantasia (music)

The fantasia is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. Because of this, it seldom approximates the textbook rules of any strict musical form ....

 on well-known opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

tic themes, he was also active for a time in the film industry as well as being an energetic and influential teacher. His music includes works in all genres, including songs, chamber music, works for brass and wind band, orchestral music, opera and music theatre as well as film scores. In 1990 he gave up regular teaching to devote more time to composition, and lived in the Wye Valley

Wye Valley

The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales. It is one of the most dramatic and scenic landscape areas in southern Britain....

 until his death. He was not related to the composer Robin Orr

Robin Orr

Robert Kelmsley Orr CBE was a Scottish composer.Born in Brechin, he studied at the Royal College of Music in London and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Following studies with Alfredo Casella and Nadia Boulanger he returned to Cambridge in 1938 as Organist of St John's College. During his war...

.

Music

Works for wind band; Tournament, Trombone Concerto, Narration, A Caledonian Suite, Piano Trios 1, 2, and 3 (recorded on Marco Polo in 1996)

Film music

Grip of the Strangler (1958);
Fiend Without a Face

Fiend Without a Face

Fiend Without a Face is a 1958 British black-and-white science fiction film directed by Arthur Crabtree. It tells the story of mysterious deaths at the hands of an invisible life-form that steals human brains and spinal columns...

 (1958);
Corridors of Blood

Corridors of Blood

Corridors of Blood is a 1958 horror film directed by Robert Day. The original music score was composed by Buxton Orr. The film was marketed with the tagline "Tops in terror!" in the US where MGM released it as a double feature with Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory.-Plot:An 1840s British surgeon, Dr...

 (1958);
The Flying Doctor

The Flying Doctor

The Flying Doctor is a 1936 Australian-British drama film directed by Miles Mander and starring Charles Farrell, Mary Maguire and James Raglan. The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia operate in the Australian Outback...

' (1959) [TV Series (additional music)];
First Man Into Space

First Man into Space

First Man into Space is a 1959 science fiction horror film directed by Robert Day and distributed by Amalgamated films.- Plot :...

 (1959);
Suddenly, Last Summer

Suddenly, Last Summer (film)

Suddenly, Last Summer is a 1959 American Southern Gothic mystery film based on the play of the same title by Tennessee Williams. The film was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Sam Spiegel from a screenplay by Gore Vidal and Williams. The music score was by Buxton Orr using themes by...

 (1959);
Doctor Blood's Coffin

Doctor Blood's Coffin

-Plot:Peter Blood is a young doctor who experiments with bringing the dead back to life. His early subject is the deceased husband of Linda Parker , a woman he is attracted to...

 (1961);
Snake Woman

Snake Woman

Snake Woman can refer to:*A snake-woman hybrid in mythology or fiction* Cihuacoatl, literally "Snake Woman", an Aztec goddess* Snake Woman , a Virgin Comics comic book title and character...

 (1961) (aka: Terror of the Snake Woman);
The Eyes of Annie Jones

The Eyes of Annie Jones

The Eyes of Annie Jones is a 1964 British drama film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Richard Conte, Francesca Annis and Joyce Carey...

 (1964);
Walk a Tightrope (1965).

External links

from musicweb-international:

List of works: http://www.musicweb-international.com/orr/works.htm

Another page on Orr: http://www.musicweb-international.com/orr/