Godfrey Ridout was a Canadian 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...

, conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

, music educator, and writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

. He contributed articles to numerous Canadian music publications, notably serving as the assistant editor of both Canadian Music (1940-1941) and Canadian Review of Music and Art

Canadian Review of Music and Art

The Canadian Review of Music and Art was a Canadian magazine that was published between February 1942 and January 1948 by Canadian Review Publishing. The magazine covered a variety of topics on the arts, from music to painting to sculpture to dance and craft works...

(1942-1943). From 1973-1984 he was the author of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Toronto Symphony Orchestra

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario.-History:The TSO was founded in 1922 as the New Symphony Orchestra, and gave its first concert at Massey Hall in April 1923. The orchestra changed its name to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1927. The TSO...

's program notes. As a conductor he served as the music director of the Eaton Operatic Society

Eaton Operatic Society

Eaton Operatic Society was a Canadian musical organization located in Toronto, Ontario that presented operas, operettas, musicals, and choral works from 1919-1965...

 from 1949-1958. He was also highly involved with the Toronto Gilbert & Sullivan Society of which he was made an honorary vice-president. As a composer, Ridout is chiefly remembered for his symphonic and choral works. The Canadian Encyclopedia

The Canadian Encyclopedia

The Canadian Encyclopedia is a source of information on Canada. It is available online, at no cost. The Canadian Encyclopedia is available in both English and French and includes some 14,000 articles in each language on a wide variety of subjects including history, popular culture, events, people,...

 describes him thus:

"Essentially an eclectic, Ridout yet did not lack for individuality. His music, though intensely felt, is prevailingly sunny and affirmative; it eschews the 'doom and gloom' manner and self-conscious profundity of much 20th-century concert fare. Ridout liked fun in music and could not easily resist concluding a work with a 'good tune'. He saw no need to strive for ever-new styles, or for a progress through styles, or for the role of musical inventor; style for him was a means of communication, not the 'message' itself. In this aloofness from contemporary conformity, Ridout may be perceived to be more original than many innovators and one of the determined communicators of his day."

Ridout was a pupil of Ettore Mazzoleni

Ettore Mazzoleni

Ettore Mazzoleni was a Canadian conductor, music educator, writer, and arts administrator of Swiss birth. He was one of the Canadian Opera Company's principal conductors during its early years, working there from 1958-1968...

 (conducting), Weldon Kilburn (piano), and Charles Peaker (organ and counterpoint) at the Toronto Conservatory of Music. He then taught on the conservatory faculty from 1940 to 1948. He left there to join the faculty at Toronto University where he taught until 1982. Among his notable pupils were Walter Babiak, Walter Buczynski

Walter Buczynski

Walter Joseph Buczynski is a Canadian composer, music educator, and pianist.Buczynski earned an associates degree from The Royal Conservatory of Music in 1951 and a Licentiate in 1953. While there he studied music composition with Godfrey Ridout and piano with Earle Moss...

, Hugh Davidson

Hugh Davidson (composer)

Hugh Hanson Davidson is a Canadian composer, music critic, radio producer, writer, and arts administrator. His compositional output includes works for piano, ballets, chamber music, vocal art songs, choral works, and incidental music for the theatre.Davidson is a graduate of The Royal Conservatory...

, Alan Detweiler, Ben McPeek

Ben McPeek

Benjamin Dewey McPeek was a Canadian composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist. In 1964 he established his own company, Ben McPeek Ltd., which promoted himself as a "jingle" writer for radio and television...

, Welford Russell

Welford Russell

Welford Russell was a Canadian composer who is particularly remembered for his output of choral works.Born in Neepawa, Manitoba, Russell made a living as a surgeon and was notably a medical missionary in India from 1925-1941. He pursued musical activities in his spare time...

, Alfred Strombergs, and Charles Wilson

Charles Wilson (composer)

Charles Mills Wilson is a Canadian composer, choral conductor, and music educator.-Biography:Wilson began studying piano at age six with Wilfred Powell and later studied organ with Charles Peaker. He studied composition with Godfrey Ridout at the University of Toronto, earning a Bachelors of Music...

.

Selected works

Opera

• The Lost Child, Opera in 3 acts for television (1976); libretto by John Reid

Orchestral

• Festal Overture (1939)
• Two Etudes for string orchestra (1946)
• Music for a Young Prince (1959)
• Fall Fair (1961)
• La Prima Ballerina: Overture (1967)
• La Prima Ballerina: Suite No.1 (1967)
• La Prima Ballerina: Suite No.2 (1967)
• Frivolités Canadiennes (1973)
• Jubilee (1973)
• George III His Lament, Variations on a Well-known Tune (1975)
• Kids' Stuff (1978)
• No Mean City: Scenes from Childhood (1983)

Band

• Partita accademica (1969)
• Tafelmusik (1976)

Concertante

• Ballade for viola and string orchestra (1938)
• Concerto Grosso for violin, piano and string orchestra (1974)
• Ballade II for viola and string orchestra (1980)
• Concerto Grosso No.2 for solo brass quintet and orchestra (1980)

Chamber Music

• Movement for string quartet, Op.4 (1949)
• Introduction and Allegro for violin, cello, and wind quintet (1968)
• A Birthday Fantasy for flute, clarinet and bassoon (1982)
• Fanfare for brass and percussion (1984)

Organ

• Three Preludes on Scottish Tunes (1959)
• Prelude for Organ for Four Sonnets (1968)
• March (1969)
• Two Hymn Tune Improvisations (1977)

Piano

• Junior Boogie (1957)
• Prelude in F (1958)
• Presto from Ontario Variations, 4 Variations on a theme by Jack Behrens
  Jack Behrens
  Jack Behrens is a Canadian composer, music educator, and writer of American birth. A member of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, his music has been performed throughout North America and on CBC Radio and radio stations in he United States...
  
   (1979)

Vocal

• Cantiones Mysticae for voice and piano or orchestra (1953); words by John Donne
  John Donne
  John Donne 31 March 1631), English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs,...
  
  
• The Ascension, Cantiones Mysticae No.2 for soprano, trumpet and string orchestra (1962)
• In Memoriam Anne Frank for soprano or tenor and orchestra (1965); words by Bruce Attridge
• Folk Songs of Eastern Canada for voice and piano or chamber orchestra (1967)
• The Seasons, Song Cycle for tenor and piano quintet (1980); words from Poetical Sketches by William Blake
  William Blake
  William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
  
  
• Exile, Melodrama for female narrator and 9 instruments (1984); text from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie
  Susanna Moodie
  Susanna Moodie, born Strickland , was an English-born Canadian author who wrote about her experiences as a settler in Canada, which was a British colony at the time.-Biography:...
  
  
• Two Songs for soprano and oboe; words by T. S. Eliot
  T. S. Eliot
  Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
  
  

Choral

• Come Rejoicing for mixed chorus and organ (1952)
• Esther, Choral Ballad in 5 parts for baritone, soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra (1952)
• Ave Maria for women's chorus (1954)
• We'll Rant and We'll Roar: The Ryans and the Pittmans for mixed chorus (1958); words by W. H. Le Messurier
• The Shepherd's Watch, Christmas Chorus for soprano and mixed chorus (1959)
• The Dance for mixed chorus and orchestra (1960); text from Carmina Burana
  Carmina Burana
  Carmina Burana , Latin for "Songs from Beuern" , is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces...
  
  
• J'entends le moulin for mixed chorus and piano (1960)
• Pange lingua for mixed chorus and orchestra (1960); Latin words by St. Thomas Aquinas
  Thomas Aquinas
  Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
  
  
• Sainte Marguerite for mixed chorus and piano (1960)
• Two Christmas Carols for soprano and women's chorus (1960)
• Four Sonnets for mixed chorus and orchestra (1964); words by J. E. Ward
• A General Invitation to Praise God for mixed chorus and organ (1964); words by George Wither
  George Wither
  George Wither was an English poet, pamphleteer, and satirist. He was a prolific writer who adopted a deliberate plainness of style; he was several times imprisoned. C. V...
  
  
• When Age and Youth Unite for mixed chorus and orchestra (1966); words by Claude Bissell
  Claude Bissell
  Claude Thomas Bissell, was a Canadian author and educator.-Biography:He was the eighth president of the University of Toronto from 1958 to 1971. He played a major part in the expansion of the University of Toronto, tripling the size of the university during his tenure.He was born in Meaford,...
  
  
• The Christmas Story for narrator, chorus and orchestra (1967)
• J'ai cueilli' la belle rose for unison children's chorus and piano (or orchestra) (1967)
• I'll Give My Love an Apple for unison children's chorus and piano (or orchestra) (1967)
• She's Like the Swallow for unison children's chorus and piano (or orchestra) (1967)
• The Domage of the Wise, 3 Partsongs for mixed chorus (1968)
• The Dream of the Rood, Cantiones Mysticae No.3 for baritone or tenor, mixed chorus, orchestra and organ (1972)
• Spirit Is Flesh This Night for mixed chorus (1976); words by John Reid
• The Faithless Nelly Gray, Pathetic Ballad for soprano, children's chorus and piano (1979); words by Thomas Hood
  Thomas Hood
  Thomas Hood was a British humorist and poet. His son, Tom Hood, became a well known playwright and editor.-Early life:...
  
  
• Holy Is the True Light for mixed chorus and organ (1980); words by Jeremias Gotthelf
  Jeremias Gotthelf
  Albert Bitzius , Swiss novelist, best known by his pen name of Jeremias Gotthelf, was born at Murten, where his father was pastor.In 1804 the home was moved to Utzenstorf, a village in the Bernese Emmental...
  
  and Sarum Diurnal
• Whence Is This Fragrance?, Old French Tune for women's chorus

External links

• Godfrey Ridout at the Canadian Music Centre