John Gardner (composer)
Encyclopedia
John Linton Gardner, CBE
(born 2 March 1917) is an English composer of classical music.
, England and brought up in Ilfracombe, North Devon. His father Alfred Linton Gardner was a local GP and amateur composer who was killed in action in the last months of the First World War. His grandfather was John Twiname Gardner
, also a G.P. and composer. His mother, Emily Muriel Pullein-Thompson, was the sister of Captain Harold J "Cappy" Pullein-Thompson, who was the father of the Pullein-Thompson sisters
and their brother, the playwright Denis Cannan
.
Gardner was educated at Eagle House, Wellington College
and Exeter College, Oxford
. An important figure in his early life was Hubert J. Foss
of Oxford University Press
, who published the Intermezzo for Organ in 1936 and introduced him to the composer Arthur Benjamin
to whom Gardner dedicated his Rhapsody for Oboe and String Quartet (1935).This work had its first performance at the Wigmore Hall
in February 1936. The String Quartet No.1(1938) was broadcast from Paris by the Blech Quartet in 1939, and the anthem The Holy Son of God most High (1938) was also published by OUP. At Oxford Gardner was friendly with Theodor Adorno with whom he played piano duets.
Then came the War. Gardner completed two terms as music master at Repton School
, where one of his pupils was the composer John Veale
, then a sixth former. In 1940 he enlisted and working first as a Bandmaster and then as a Navigator with Transport Command. It was during the War that ideas for the Symphony No.1 began to form.
"My first symphony assembled itself in my mind in stages during the last year or two of the War. The opening even goes back further to a short piano piece I wrote in 1939 or 1940. At that time I'd no idea that it could be the beginning of a symphony, though I was aware that it hardly constituted a complete piano piece.
Other elements in the score started variously as a mid-war setting of passages from Blake's Book of Thel, a theme I conceived for a set of variations and, in the case of the main theme of the finale, a transformation of the opening of the finale. of my first string quartet which had in fact gained two or three performances in Paris and England by the Blech Quartet in 1939 but with which I was deeply unsatisfied and which I eventually withdrew.
I do not believe it is exceptional for a big work to derive from several sources – there are many examples of such a process in the origin of many of Brahms' best known pieces : the first piano concerto, for example, the German Requiem and the Violin Concerto. In my case it was, of course, because I was serving in the R.A.F. around the World and could only conceive music in the scrappiest manner on odd pieces of paper in the most unsympathetic ambiances. Demobilisation, therefore, came as a blessed chance to write at length, which is what I did during the bitter Winter of 1946–7 on those evenings when I did not have to be in attendance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, were I earned my living as a repetiteur. In June 1947 I reached the end of the fair full score, put it aside and began to write an opera that never got performed."
Gardner regarded the end of the War as a new start, set aside his juvenile works and began again from Opus 1. He took a job as a repetiteur at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. John Barbirolli
discovered the First Symphony (Op2) when Gardner was given the opportunity of playing through his Nativity Opera. According to Gardner this work is "unperformable", which fact was quickly grasped by Barbirolli; however, when Barbirolli asked to see other works, Gardner showed him the Symphony. The first movement needed some re-working because Barbirolli was not convinced it made sense in its original form. The work was scheduled for the 1951 Cheltenham Festival where it caused a minor sensation. Here was a huge, powerful work, brilliantly scored and masterfully structured, by a composer of whom almost no-one had heard!
Many major commissions followed and Gardner was suddenly able to call himself "a composer". He resigned the job at the Opera House and there followed a remarkable period of creativity. Cantiones Sacrae, Op11, Variations on a Waltz of Carl Nielsen, Op13 and the ballet Reflection, Op14, were all written in 1951 and 1952 and first performed during 1952. He re-wrote A Scots Overture, previously a military band piece, for the 1954 season of Promenade Concerts in 1954. In May 1957 Sadler's Wells put on the opera The Moon and Sixpence, which they had commissioned, and two other major works were premiered that year, the Piano Concerto No.1 (Cyril Preedy and Barbirolli at the Cheltenham Festival) and the Seven Songs, Op36 in Birmingham, a work which Gardner wrote as "light relief" whilst working on the other major works.
In 1956 he was invited by Thomas Armstrong to join the staff of the Royal Academy of Music
, where he would teach for the best part of thirty years. A few years later he took a part time job as Director of Music at St Paul's Girls' School
, following Gustav Holst
and Herbert Howells
, and was for a time Director of Music at Morley College
. These teaching posts led to the composition of some of his most enduring works, and together with the many holiday courses he worked on as a conductor(Canford, Dartington, ESSYM, Bernard Robinson's Music Camp, etc., etc.) ensured that he was able to bring practical experience and knowledge to bear on his compositions.
He married Jane Abercrombie, the daughter of Nigel Abercrombie (Secretary General of the Arts Council 1963–1968) and the soprano Elisabeth Abercrombie, in 1955 and has three children, Christopher (1956), Lucy (1958) and Emily (1962). Since the War he has lived in South London – in Morden, New Malden and Ewell.
Gardner has composed prolifically throughout his life, and his works are listed on his website (see link below). Among the major works are two more symphonies, two more operas – The Visitors (1972) and Tobermory (1976), concertos for Trumpet, Flute, Oboe and Recorder and Bassoon, many cantatas, including The Ballad of the White Horse, Op40 (1959), Five Hymns in Popular Style, Op54 (1962), A Burns Sequence, Op213 (1993), as well as much choral, chamber, organ, brass and orchestral music.
Gardner's best known work is the Christmas carol Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
, which was written for St Paul's, as was another popular carol setting, The Holly and the Ivy
.
He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE) in 1976.
His most recently completed work is a Bassoon Concerto, Op. 249, written in 2004 for Graham Salvage, the principal bassoonist of the Hallé Orchestra, which was premiered at the Budleigh Salterton Festival in July 2007, by Graham Salvage with the Festival Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Marshall.
His music, apart from "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day" has been largely unrepresented on commercial records, but in recent years a number of new recordings have been issued, including the 3rd Symphony, Oboe Concerto, Flute Concerto and Petite Suite for Recorder and Strings. In September 2007, however, Naxos issued his Symphony No.1, Piano Concerto and the overture Midsummer Ale. David Lloyd-Jones
conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with Peter Donohoe as the solo pianist.
John Gardner official website
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 2 March 1917) is an English composer of classical music.
Biography
Gardner was born in ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England and brought up in Ilfracombe, North Devon. His father Alfred Linton Gardner was a local GP and amateur composer who was killed in action in the last months of the First World War. His grandfather was John Twiname Gardner
John Twiname Gardner
John Twiname Gardner born South Molton 2 August 1854 died Kensington 15 February 1914. General Practitioner and Composer of much published parlour and light music. From 1888 to 1903 he worked as a family doctor in Ilfracombe, North Devon, where he conducted the local choral society and was...
, also a G.P. and composer. His mother, Emily Muriel Pullein-Thompson, was the sister of Captain Harold J "Cappy" Pullein-Thompson, who was the father of the Pullein-Thompson sisters
Pullein-Thompson sisters
The Pullein-Thompson sisters – Josephine Pullein-Thompson MBE , Diana Pullein-Thompson and Christine Pullein-Thompson – are British writers of many pony books, mostly fictional, aimed at children and mostly popular with girls...
and their brother, the playwright Denis Cannan
Denis Cannan
Denis Cannan was a British dramatist, playwright and script writer. Born Denis Pullein-Thompson, the son of Captain Harold J. Pullein-Thompson and novelist Joanna Cannan, he changed his name by deed poll in 1964. His younger sisters were Josephine, Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson.Born in...
.
Gardner was educated at Eagle House, Wellington College
Wellington College, Berkshire
-Former pupils:Notable former pupils include historian P. J. Marshall, architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, impressionist Rory Bremner, Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, author Sebastian Faulks, language school pioneer John Haycraft, political journalist Robin Oakley, actor Sir Christopher...
and Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
. An important figure in his early life was Hubert J. Foss
Hubert J. Foss
Hubert James Foss was an English pianist, composer, and first Musical Editor for Oxford University Press at Amen House in London. His work at the Press was a major factor in promoting music and musicians in England between the world wars, most notably Ralph Vaughan Williams, through publishing...
of Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, who published the Intermezzo for Organ in 1936 and introduced him to the composer Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Leslie Benjamin was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of Jamaican Rhumba, composed in 1938.-Biography:...
to whom Gardner dedicated his Rhapsody for Oboe and String Quartet (1935).This work had its first performance at the Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
in February 1936. The String Quartet No.1(1938) was broadcast from Paris by the Blech Quartet in 1939, and the anthem The Holy Son of God most High (1938) was also published by OUP. At Oxford Gardner was friendly with Theodor Adorno with whom he played piano duets.
Then came the War. Gardner completed two terms as music master at Repton School
Repton School
Repton School, founded in 1557, is a co-educational English independent school for both day and boarding pupils, in the British public school tradition, located in the village of Repton, in Derbyshire, in the Midlands area of England...
, where one of his pupils was the composer John Veale
John Veale
John Douglas Louis Veale was an English classical composer.He was born in Shortlands, Bromley, Kent; his father, Douglas Veale, later served as Registrar of the University of Oxford and received a knighthood. John Veale was educated at Repton and Corpus Christi College, Oxford , alongside Kenneth...
, then a sixth former. In 1940 he enlisted and working first as a Bandmaster and then as a Navigator with Transport Command. It was during the War that ideas for the Symphony No.1 began to form.
"My first symphony assembled itself in my mind in stages during the last year or two of the War. The opening even goes back further to a short piano piece I wrote in 1939 or 1940. At that time I'd no idea that it could be the beginning of a symphony, though I was aware that it hardly constituted a complete piano piece.
Other elements in the score started variously as a mid-war setting of passages from Blake's Book of Thel, a theme I conceived for a set of variations and, in the case of the main theme of the finale, a transformation of the opening of the finale. of my first string quartet which had in fact gained two or three performances in Paris and England by the Blech Quartet in 1939 but with which I was deeply unsatisfied and which I eventually withdrew.
I do not believe it is exceptional for a big work to derive from several sources – there are many examples of such a process in the origin of many of Brahms' best known pieces : the first piano concerto, for example, the German Requiem and the Violin Concerto. In my case it was, of course, because I was serving in the R.A.F. around the World and could only conceive music in the scrappiest manner on odd pieces of paper in the most unsympathetic ambiances. Demobilisation, therefore, came as a blessed chance to write at length, which is what I did during the bitter Winter of 1946–7 on those evenings when I did not have to be in attendance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, were I earned my living as a repetiteur. In June 1947 I reached the end of the fair full score, put it aside and began to write an opera that never got performed."
Gardner regarded the end of the War as a new start, set aside his juvenile works and began again from Opus 1. He took a job as a repetiteur at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. John Barbirolli
John Barbirolli
Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
discovered the First Symphony (Op2) when Gardner was given the opportunity of playing through his Nativity Opera. According to Gardner this work is "unperformable", which fact was quickly grasped by Barbirolli; however, when Barbirolli asked to see other works, Gardner showed him the Symphony. The first movement needed some re-working because Barbirolli was not convinced it made sense in its original form. The work was scheduled for the 1951 Cheltenham Festival where it caused a minor sensation. Here was a huge, powerful work, brilliantly scored and masterfully structured, by a composer of whom almost no-one had heard!
Many major commissions followed and Gardner was suddenly able to call himself "a composer". He resigned the job at the Opera House and there followed a remarkable period of creativity. Cantiones Sacrae, Op11, Variations on a Waltz of Carl Nielsen, Op13 and the ballet Reflection, Op14, were all written in 1951 and 1952 and first performed during 1952. He re-wrote A Scots Overture, previously a military band piece, for the 1954 season of Promenade Concerts in 1954. In May 1957 Sadler's Wells put on the opera The Moon and Sixpence, which they had commissioned, and two other major works were premiered that year, the Piano Concerto No.1 (Cyril Preedy and Barbirolli at the Cheltenham Festival) and the Seven Songs, Op36 in Birmingham, a work which Gardner wrote as "light relief" whilst working on the other major works.
In 1956 he was invited by Thomas Armstrong to join the staff of the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
, where he would teach for the best part of thirty years. A few years later he took a part time job as Director of Music at St Paul's Girls' School
St Paul's Girls' School
St Paul's Girls' School is a senior independent school, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England.-History:In 1904 a new day school for girls was established by the trustees of the Dean Colet Foundation , which had run St Paul's School for boys since the sixteenth century...
, following Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
and Herbert Howells
Herbert Howells
Herbert Norman Howells CH was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music.-Life:...
, and was for a time Director of Music at Morley College
Morley College
Morley College is an adult education college in London, England. It was founded in the 1880s and has a student population of 10,806 adult students...
. These teaching posts led to the composition of some of his most enduring works, and together with the many holiday courses he worked on as a conductor(Canford, Dartington, ESSYM, Bernard Robinson's Music Camp, etc., etc.) ensured that he was able to bring practical experience and knowledge to bear on his compositions.
He married Jane Abercrombie, the daughter of Nigel Abercrombie (Secretary General of the Arts Council 1963–1968) and the soprano Elisabeth Abercrombie, in 1955 and has three children, Christopher (1956), Lucy (1958) and Emily (1962). Since the War he has lived in South London – in Morden, New Malden and Ewell.
Gardner has composed prolifically throughout his life, and his works are listed on his website (see link below). Among the major works are two more symphonies, two more operas – The Visitors (1972) and Tobermory (1976), concertos for Trumpet, Flute, Oboe and Recorder and Bassoon, many cantatas, including The Ballad of the White Horse, Op40 (1959), Five Hymns in Popular Style, Op54 (1962), A Burns Sequence, Op213 (1993), as well as much choral, chamber, organ, brass and orchestral music.
Gardner's best known work is the Christmas carol Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
Tomorrow shall be my dancing day
Tomorrow shall be my dancing day is an English carol usually attributed as 'traditional'; its first written appearance is in William B. Sandys' Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern of 1833...
, which was written for St Paul's, as was another popular carol setting, The Holly and the Ivy
The Holly and the Ivy
"The Holly and the Ivy" is an English traditional Christmas carol. The carol contains intermingled Christian and Pagan imagery, with holly and ivy representing Pagan fertility symbols. Holly and ivy have been the mainstay of Christmas decoration for church use since at least the fifteenth and...
.
He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE) in 1976.
His most recently completed work is a Bassoon Concerto, Op. 249, written in 2004 for Graham Salvage, the principal bassoonist of the Hallé Orchestra, which was premiered at the Budleigh Salterton Festival in July 2007, by Graham Salvage with the Festival Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Marshall.
His music, apart from "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day" has been largely unrepresented on commercial records, but in recent years a number of new recordings have been issued, including the 3rd Symphony, Oboe Concerto, Flute Concerto and Petite Suite for Recorder and Strings. In September 2007, however, Naxos issued his Symphony No.1, Piano Concerto and the overture Midsummer Ale. David Lloyd-Jones
David Lloyd-Jones
David Matthias Lloyd-Jones is a British conductor who has specialised in British and Russian music. He is also an editor and translator, especially of Russian operas.- Biography :...
conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with Peter Donohoe as the solo pianist.
External links and references
- John Gardner at Oxford University Press
John Gardner official website