John Austin Sykes (1909 – June 1962) was an English composer and music teacher, born in India.

Career

Sykes spent his early life in India, where his father was working for the Indian Civil Service. He attended

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, studying organ under its famous one-armed organist Douglas Fox, gaining his FRCO qualification while still a schoolboy. From 1928 he studied at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, where he was organ scholar while studying Modern History. At Oxford he was president of the Oxford University Opera Club. A contemporary there was the poet

Randall Swingler Randall Carline Swingler MM (28 May 1909 – 19 June 1967) was an English poet, writing extensively in the 1930s in the communist interest. Early life and education His was a prosperous upper middle class Anglican family in Aldershot, with an ...

, with whom Sykes shared left-wing sympathies. ( Auden,

Spender ''Spender'' is a British television police procedural drama, created by Ian La Frenais and Jimmy Nail, that first broadcast on 8 January 1991 on BBC1. The series, which also starred Nail as the titular character, ran for three series between 1 ...

, and Day Lewis were also contemporaries). In 1932 he joined The

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

, studying composition under

Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

and

Gordon Jacob Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE (5 July 18958 June 1984) was an English composer and teacher. He was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London from 1924 until his retirement in 1966, and published four books and many articles about m ...

, with piano as a second study. In 1936 Sykes was appointed to the staff of the Methodist

Kingswood School (''In The Right Way Quickly'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent , religious_affiliation = Methodist , president = , head_label = Headmaste ...

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, where he remained for the rest of his life. A pupil of his at Kingswood before the war was the left-wing historian E. P. Thompson. During the war Sykes was a conscientious objector and served in the Pioneer Corps. From 1952 he became Director of Music at Kingswood. The school now holds the John Sykes Archive. Sykes died from cancer in the school sanatorium in June 1962.

Composer

Most of Sykes' music was written either for the school or for a small group of friends – such as the identical twin sister piano duo

Mary and Geraldine Peppin Mary and Geraldine Peppin (born 30 December 1912) were identical twin sisters, and performers in a classical piano duo active in the UK from the 1930s until the 1960s. Later in life they both became influential piano teachers at the Guildhall Scho ...

. Aside from two songs, a hymn and a Christmas anthem, ''The Child of the World'' (setting words by Swingler), the music remained unpublished and is now held at the John Sykes Archive, Kingswood School. Orchestral works include a symphony, a piano concerto, a suite ("in old style") for strings and ''Eight Pieces for small orchestra''. There is a choral ''Te Deum'', some chamber music, over 20 scores for school theatre productions, and much piano music, choral music and song. Sykes made 36 settings of poems from

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

's ''

Songs of Innocence and of Experience ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later, he bound these poems with a ...

'' during the 1930s and also set poems by his friend Randall Swingler. There were occasional performances beyond the school: for instance his ''Litanie'' for double chorus was performed at the Macnaghten-Lemare concert in London on 11 December 1933. A CD of songs and piano music, including many of the Blake settings, was issued by Albion Records in 2020.

Mark Padmore Mark Padmore (born 8 March 1961) is a British tenor appearing in concerts, recitals, and opera. He was born in London on 8 March 1961, and raised in Canterbury, Kent, England. Padmore studied clarinet and piano prior to his gaining a choral s ...

included his setting of Blake's 'On Another's Sorrow' in his BBC Radio 3 survey of English art song in 2022.
The World in a Grain of Sand
', Episode 2, broadcast 13 February 2022

External links

''Blake Set to Music: John Sykes'' at Zoamorphosis

Fearful Symmetry – Songs and piano music by John Sykes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sykes, John 1909 births 1962 deaths People educated at Clifton College English classical organists British male organists Alumni of the Royal College of Music 20th-century English musicians 20th-century organists 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century British male musicians 20th-century British composers English conscientious objectors British Army personnel of World War II Royal Pioneer Corps soldiers Deaths from cancer in England British people in colonial India Male classical organists