Buxton Orr (18 April 1924 – 27 December 1997) was a

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

-born Anglo-Scottish

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and teacher.

Life

Originally trained as a doctor, Orr gave up medicine and switched to music in 1952, studying composition at the Guildhall School of Music with Benjamin Frankel and conducting with

Aylmer Buesst Aylmer Buesst (28 January 18833 January 1970) was an Australian conductor, teacher and scholar, who spent his career in the United Kingdom. He was mainly associated with opera and vocal music. He also wrote a work on the leitmotifs in Richard Wa ...

. Through Frankel's help and influence, Orr became active for a time composing film scores, and his first general recognition as a composer came from the high profile production of Tennessee Williams' ''Suddenly Last Summer'' in 1959, starring

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

and

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...

and directed by

Joseph L. Mankiewicz Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best A ...

. His one-act opera ''The Wager'' was successfully staged at Sadler’s Wells in 1961. With his return to the Guildhall School of Music as a professor in 1965, Orr soon gained a reputation as an energetic and influential teacher. He founded the Guildhall New Music Ensemble and also conducted the London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra between 1970 and 1980, the latter stimulating his particular interest in improvisation. His pupils included

Deirdre Gribbin Deirdre Gribbin (born 14 May 1967) is a composer from Northern Ireland. Career Gribbin was born in Belfast. She studied at Queen's University Belfast where, at the age of twenty, she began to compose. Further studies were in London (at the Guildh ...

Barry Guy Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London) is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras ...

, Gary Higginson,

Philip Sawyers Philip Sawyers (born 20 June 1951) is a British composer of orchestral and chamber music, including four symphonies. Sawyers was born in London. He began composing as a teenager, studying at Dartington College of Arts in Devon with Colin Sauer (v ...

and

Debbie Wiseman Debbie Wiseman, OBE (born 10 May 1963) is a British composer for film and television, known also as a conductor and a radio and television presenter. Biography Wiseman was born in London. She studied at Trinity College of Music Junior Depart ...

. In 1990 Orr gave up regular teaching to devote more time to composition, and lived with his second wife Jean Latimer in the

Wye Valley The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; cy, Dyffryn Gwy) is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales. The River Wye ( cy, Afon Gwy) is the fourth-longest river in th ...

until his death. A new opera, ''The Alchemist'', was in the process of being orchestrated at his death. He was not related to the composer

Robin Orr Robert Kemsley (Robin) Orr (2 June 1909 – 9 April 2006) was a Scottish organist and composer. Life Born in Brechin, and educated at Loretto School, he studied the organ at the Royal College of Music in London under Walter Galpin Alcock, and pi ...

(1909–2006).

Music

Orr's 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. His style is notable for its interest in structures that evolve through continuous variation, often with his personal take on 12-tone serialism, using tonal intervals and octave doubling. The three Piano Trios (1982, 1986 and 1990), the orchestral ''Triptych'' (1977) and the substantial 40 minute orchestral ''Sinfonia ricercante'' (1987) are representative examples of this style. Several virtuoso instrumental fantasies on famous themes, such as the ''Carmen Fantasy'' for cello (1987 – also re-scored for orchestra), deconstruct familiar material to create new compositions. The others in this series are ''Portrait of the Don'' (theme from ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'', 1987), ''Catfish Row'' (theme from ''

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', itse ...

'', 1997) and ''Tales from Windsor Forest'' (theme from

Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...

, 1997). Elements of jazz are present in some works, particularly those scored for brass band, such as the ''Caledonian Suite'' (often used as a band test piece), ''Tournament'' (1985) for brass tentet and ''Narration'' (1993) for symphonic wind ensemble. ''Refrains III'', written for the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra, develops Orr's interest in improvisation, even including the conductor as one of the different improvising groups within the total ensemble. It was first broadcast on 6 May 1975 on BBC Radio 3. (There are six ''Refrains'', all written for different forces. Each of them uses a recurrent idea to bind together a structure). His early film music included horror film scores such as ''

Grip of the Strangler ''The Haunted Strangler'' (also known as ''Grip of the Strangler'' and originally titled ''The Judas Hole'') is a 1958 British horror film directed by Robert Day. It was adapted from "Stranglehold", a story which screenwriter Jan Read had writt ...

'' (1958), ''

Corridors of Blood ''Corridors of Blood'' (aka ''Doctor from Seven Dials'')Tom Weaver, ''The Horror Hits of Richard Gordon'', Bear Manor Media 2011 p 80-95 is a 1958 British-American period drama film directed by Robert Day and starring Boris Karloff and Christo ...

'' (1958) and ''

Doctor Blood's Coffin ''Doctor Blood's Coffin'' is a 1961 British horror film produced by George Fowler, and directed by Sidney J. Furie. It stars Kieron Moore, Hazel Court, and Ian Hunter. The story is that of young biochemist Dr Peter Blood (Kieron Moore), who re ...

'' (1961). Some of his stock music was used in several ''Doctor Who'' serials in the 1960s. During the 1980s Orr composed three music theatre pieces: ''Unicorn'' (1981), ''The Last Circus'' (1984) and ''Ring in the New'' (1986), and a number of song cycles, including the "caustic" ''Ten Types of Hospital Visitor'' (1986), setting

Charles Causley Charles Stanley Causley CBE FRSL (24 August 1917 – 4 November 2003) was a British poet, school teacher and writer. His work is often noted for its simplicity and directness as well as its associations with folklore, legends and magic, especi ...

.Kate Molleson: Buxton Orr: Songs review, in ''The Guardian'', 2 March 2017 Recordings
''Caledonian Suite'' (1980), ''Tournament'' (1985) and ''Narration'' (1993)
Royal Scottish Academy Of Music And Drama Wind Orchestra & Brass, Doyen DOY CD 118 (2001) * ''Celtic Suite'' for strings (1968) and ''Fanfare and Processional for strings'' (1968) on
The Land of the Mountain and the Flood: Scottish Orchestral Music
', ASV CDWHL21C (1999)
Chamber Music for Strings
includes String Quartet No 1 (1977) and No 2 (1985), String Trio (1996), Duo for Baroque Violin and String Bass (1994). Beethoven String Trio, Toccata TOCC0103 (2012)
Piano Trios No 1-3
York Piano Trio. Marco Polo MP 3842 (1996)
''Songs''
(includes the song cycles ''Canzona'' (1963), ''Ten Types of Hospital Visitor'' (1986), and ''Songs of a Childhood'' (1967). Delphian DCD 34175 (2017) * (with Barry Guy). The London Jazz Composers' Orchestra ''Ode'' (Incus, 1972) * ''Elegy'' (1994) and ''A Carmen Fantasy'' (1985) for cello and piano o
dialogo
Dagmar Spengler and Oliver Drechsel, Verlag Dohr DCD 017 (2002) Film music

References

External links

* * *
''Refrains II'', for clarinet, viola and piano (1971)
UTAS Conservatorium of Music recording {{DEFAULTSORT:Orr, Buxton 1924 births 1997 deaths English musicologists English people of Scottish descent Musicians from Glasgow Scottish composers 20th-century classical musicians 20th-century English composers 20th-century Scottish musicians 20th-century British musicologists