Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer.

Biography

Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James Charles Harris, former British consul in Monaco, and

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

Captain Hastings George FitzHardinge Berkeley (1855–1934), the illegitimate and eldest son of George Lennox Rawdon Berkeley, the 7th

Earl of Berkeley The title Baron Berkeley originated as a feudal title and was subsequently created twice in the Peerage of England by writ. It was first granted by writ to Thomas de Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley (1245–1321), 6th feudal Baron Berkeley, in ...

(1827–1888). He attended the

Dragon School ("Reach for the Sun") , established = 1877 , closed = , type = Preparatory day and boarding school and Pre-Prep school , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Emma Goldsm ...

in Oxford, going on to

Gresham's School Gresham's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in Holt, Norfolk, England, one of the top thirty International Baccalaureate schools in England. The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free ...

, in

Holt, Norfolk Holt is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Norfolk. The town is north of the city of Norwich, west of Cromer and east of King's Lynn. The town has a population of 3,550, rising and including the ward to ...

and

St George's School St George's School or Saint George's School may refer to: Brunei * St. George's School, Brunei Canada * St. George's School of Montreal, Quebec * St. George's School (Vancouver), British Columbia Germany * St. George's The British Internation ...

Harpenden Harpenden () is a town and civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The population of the built-up area was 30,240 in the 2011 census, whilst the population of the civil parish was 29,448. H ...

, Hertfordshire. He studied French at

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ...

, Oxford, graduating with a fourth class degree in 1926. While at university he coxed the college rowing eight. He became an honorary fellow of Merton College in 1974. In 1927, he went to Paris to study music with

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist. From a ...

, and there became acquainted with

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-kn ...

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably '' Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 ...

and

Albert Roussel Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (; 5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His ...

. Berkeley also studied with

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

, often cited as a key influence in Berkeley's technical development as a composer. In 1936 he met

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

, also a former pupil of

, at the

ISCM The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music. The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the ...

Festival in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

. Berkeley fell in love with Britten, who appears to have been wary of entering a relationship, writing in his diary, "we have come to an agreement on that subject." Nevertheless, the two composers shared a house for a year, living in the Old Mill at Snape, Suffolk, which Britten had acquired in July 1937. They subsequently enjoyed a long friendship and artistic association, collaborating on a number of works; these included the suite of Catalan dances titled '' Mont Juic'', and '' Variations on an Elizabethan Theme'' (the latter also with four other composers). He worked for the BBC during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, where he met his future wife, Elizabeth Freda Bernstein (1923-2016) whom he married on 14 December 1946. Together they had three sons; their eldest son Michael Berkeley, Baron Berkeley of Knighton, is also a composer, and their youngest son is the photographer Nick Berkeley. He wrote several piano works for the pianist Colin Horsley, who commissioned the Horn Trio and some piano pieces, and gave the first performances and/or made the premier recordings of a number of his works, including his third Piano Concerto (1958). He was Professor of Composition in the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke ...

from 1946 to 1968. His students included

Richard Rodney Bennett Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (29 March 193624 December 2012) was an English composer of film, TV and concert music, and also a jazz pianist and occasional vocalist. He was based in New York City from 1979 until his death there in 2012. Zachary Wo ...

, David Bedford, Richard Stoker,

Clive Strutt Clive Edward Hazzard Strutt (born 19 April 1942) is an English composer. He was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, England, and he was educated at Farnborough Grammar School. Strutt lives on the island of South Ronaldsay in Orkney, Scotland. He st ...

John Tavener Sir John Kenneth Tavener (28 January 1944 – 12 November 2013) was an English composer, known for his extensive output of choral religious works. Among his best known works are '' The Lamb'' (1982), ''The Protecting Veil'' (1988), and '' Son ...

and

Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...

. Ferneyhough felt that he learned nothing from Berkeley because of the gap between their musical conceptions, remembering him as "a notably urbane and well-meaning presence" whose "Nadia Boulenger influenced gallic aesthetics were completely unable to deal with my compositional needs." 1954 saw the premiere of his first opera, ''

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

'', at

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-se ...

. He was knighted in 1974 and from 1977–83 was President of the

Cheltenham Festival The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Ra ...

. He resided at 8 Warwick Avenue, London, from 1947 until his death in 1989. On 20 March 1990 a memorial service was held for him at

Westminster Cathedral Westminster Cathedral is the mother church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It is the largest Catholic church in the UK and the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster. The site on which the cathedral stands in the City o ...

, London.

Honours

* 1983 : Member of the

Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, sometimes referred to as ') is the independent learned society of science and arts of the French Com ...

Musical style

Berkeley's earlier music is broadly tonal, influenced by the neoclassical music of Stravinsky.He is also well-known for his STABAT choir works. Berkeley's contact and friendship with composers such as Ravel and Poulenc and his studies in Paris with Boulanger lend his music a 'French' quality, demonstrated by its "emphasis on melody, the lucid textures and a conciseness of expression". He maintained a negative view of atonal music at least up until 1948, when he wrote: However, from the mid-1950s, Berkeley apparently felt a need to revise his style of composition, later telling the Canadian composer, R. Murray Schafer that "it's natural for a composer to feel a need to enlarge his idiom." He started including

tone rows In music, a tone row or note row (german: Reihe or '), also series or set, is a non-repetitive ordering of a set of pitch-classes, typically of the twelve notes in set theory (music), musical set theory of the chromatic scale, though both larger ...

and aspects of serial technique in his compositions around the time of the Concertino, op. 49 (1955) and the opera ''Ruth'' (1955-6). His shift in opinion was demonstrated in an interview with

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

in 1959:

Works

Opera

* ''

'', (1951) * ''

A Dinner Engagement ''A Dinner Engagement'' is a one-act comic opera by Lennox Berkeley, (his Op. 45) to a libretto by Paul Dehn. The opera was written for Benjamin Britten's English Opera Group. It premiered at the Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, in 1954; the f ...

'', Op. 45 (1954) * ''Ruth'', Op. 50 (1955–6) * ''

Castaway A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island, either to evade captors or the world in general. A person may also be left a ...

'', Op. 68 (1967) * ''Faldon Park'', (1979–85). Incomplete.

Orchestral

* '' Mont Juic'', suite of Catalan dances, Op. 9 (written jointly with

) * Serenade, for string orchestra (1938–9) * Symphony No. 1 (1936–40) * Divertimento (1943) * Piano Concerto in B-flat major, Op. 29 (1947–8) * Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 30 (1948) * Symphony No. 2 (1958, revised 1976) * Symphony No. 3, in one movement (1968–9) * Sinfonia Concertante, for oboe and chamber orchestra (1972–3) * Voices of the Night, Op. 86 (1973) * Guitar Concerto, Op. 88 * Symphony No. 4 (1977–8)

Choral

* ''A Festival Anthem'', Op. 21, No. 2 (1945) * ''Crux fidelis'', Op. 43, No. 1 (1955) * ''I sing of a maiden'' (1966) * ''Look up, sweet babe'', Op. 43, No. 2 (1955) * ''Missa Brevis'', Op. 57 (1960) * Mass for five voices, Op. 64 (1964) * ''Magnificat'' for chorus and orchestra, Op. 71 (1968) * Three Latin Motets, Op. 83, No. 1 (1972) * ''The Lord is my shepherd'', Op. 91, No. 1 (1975) * ''Magnificat'' and ''Nunc dimittis'' ("Chichester service"), Op. 99 (1980)

Solo vocal

* Five Housman Songs, Op. 14, No. 3 * Four Poems of St Teresa of Ávila, Op. 27, for contralto and string orchestra (1947) * Three Greek Songs, Op. 38 (1953) * Five Poems by W. H. Auden, Op. 53

Chamber

* String Quartet No. 1, Op. 6 (1935) * String Quartet No. 2, Op. 15 (1941) * String Trio, Op. 19 (1943) * Sonata in D minor for viola and piano, Op. 22 (1945) * Introduction and Allegro, for solo violin (1949) (edited by Ivry Gitlis) * Trio for horn, violin and piano, Op. 44 (1952) * Sextet for clarinet, horn and string quartet, Op. 47 (1954) * String Quartet No. 3, Op. 76 (1970) * Introduction and Allegro, for double bass and piano (1972) (for Rodney Slatford) * Duo for cello and piano * Sonata Op. 97 for flute and piano * Sonatina Op. 13 for recorder and piano * Three Pieces for Solo Viola, WoO (Dedicated to Stephan Deák, discovered 2004.)

Piano

* Three Pieces, Op. 2 (1935) * Piano Sonata in A major, Op. 20 (1941–5) * Six Preludes, Op. 23 (1945) * Three Mazurkas, Op. 31 No. 1 (1939–49)

Guitar

* Quatre pièces pour la guitare (1928) * Sonatina, Op. 52, No. 1 (1957) * Theme and Variations, Op. 77 (1970)

Clarinet

*Three Pieces for Clarinet, (1939)

Flute

* Sonatina for Flute or Treble Recorder and Piano (1940)

Violin

* Theme and Variations (1950)

Film and radio

*Film Scores: ''Sword of the Spirit'', December 1942 ''Out of Chaos'', January 1944, London Symphony orchestra '' Hotel Reserve'', June 1944, BBC Northern orchestra/Muir Mathieson '' The First Gentleman'', April 1948, Royal Philharmonic orchestra/Thomas Beecham, April 1948 ''Youth in Britain'', April 1958 *Radio Scores: Westminster Abbey, 1941, Section of Northern BBC orchestra, London, BBC, 7 September 1941 Yesterday and Today, 1943, Wireless Singers/Father J. B. Mc Elligott, Evesham, BBC, 19 April 1942 A Glutton for life, 1946, ad hoc orchestra/Lennox Berkeley, London BBC, 21 November 1946 The wall of Troy, 1946, ad hoc orchestra/Lennox Berkeley, London BBC, 21 November 1946 The Seraphina, 1956, Sinfonia of London/Lennox Berkeley, London BBC, 4 October 1956 Look back to Lyttletoun, 1957, English opera group orchestra, Ambrosian singers/ Norman del Mar, London, BBC, 8 July 1957

References

External links

Lennox Berkeley's homepage at Chester Music

The Lennox Berkeley Society
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berkeley, Lennox 1903 births 1989 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century English composers English classical composers People from Oxford People educated at The Dragon School People educated at Gresham's School Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium Academics of the Royal Academy of Music Knights Bachelor Composers awarded knighthoods Benjamin Britten Oratorio composers Berkeley family