Leonard Salzedo (24 September 1921 – 6 May 2000) was an
English composer and
conductor of
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
descent.
Salzedo was born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. After some early lessons from
William Lloyd Webber he went on to study composition under
Herbert Howells
Herbert Norman Howells (17 October 1892 – 23 February 1983) was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music.
Life
Background and early education
Howells was born in Lydney, Gloucest ...
and
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
under
Isolde Menges
Isolde Marie Menges (16 May 189313 January 1976) was an accomplished English violinist who was most active in the first part of the 20th century.
Life
The daughter of George Menges, a native of Germany, she was born in Sussex, England. Her ...
at the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including performanc ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. Other teachers included
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 ...
(orchestration) and
George Dyson (conducting). His first acknowledged score was the String Quartet No 1 of 1942, op 1.
[Conway, Paul: Notes to C]
MPR 104
(String Quartets 1,5 and 10), 2018 On leaving the college in 1944 Salzedo immediately became a freelance composer, supplementing his earnings by playing violin with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra and the
Royal Philharmonic
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works.
The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...
. He worked closely with the
Ballet Rambert, for whom his first ballet, ''The Fugitive'', was commissioned in 1944, receiving over 400 performances over the following six years. In 1945 Salzedo married the dancer Pat Clover, and the two of them were both closely involved with
Les Ballets Nègres, a mostly black dance group founded in 1946 by Berto Pasuka and
Richie Riley. He wrote four scores for the group for piano, tom tom and maracas: ''De Prophet'', ''They Came'', ''Market Day'' and ''Aggrey''.
His most successful ballet was ''The Witch Boy'' based on the ‘Ballad of Barbara Allan’, choreographed by Jack Carter and premiered by the Ballet der Lage Landen in Amsterdam in May 1956. It received over 1,000 performance in 30 different countries, and also became popular as a concert suite. Four of his ballet scores were choreographed by
Norman Morrice
Norman Alexander Morrice (10 September 1931 – 11 January 2008) was a British dancer, choreographer and artistic director of both Ballet Rambert from 1966 to 1974 and the Royal Ballet from 1977 to 1986, the UK's two major ballet companies.
Earl ...
: ''The Travellers'' (1963), ''The Realms of Choice'' (1965), ''Hazard'' (1967) and ''The Empty Suit'' (1970). Salzedo was musical director of the
Ballet Rambert from 1967 to 1972 and principal conductor with the
Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet is the national ballet company of Scotland and one of the five leading ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Northern Ballet. Founded in 1969, ...
from 1972-74. He became musical director of the
City Ballet of London in 1982 and devoted himself full-time to composition from 1986.
He wrote many film scores, including several for
Hammer Films, amongst them the war movie ''
The Steel Bayonet
''The Steel Bayonet'' is a 1957 British war film directed by Michael Carreras and starring Leo Genn, Kieron Moore and Michael Medwin. Michael Caine also had a small role in the film, early in his career. It is set during the Second World War, ...
'' (1957) and the horror film ''
The Revenge of Frankenstein
''The Revenge of Frankenstein'' is a 1958 Technicolor British horror film made by Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Terence Fisher, the film stars Peter Cushing, Francis Matthews, Michael Gwynn and Eunice Gayson. In the United States, it wa ...
'' (1958). But chamber music was also central to his output, including 10 string quartets spanning his whole career - from No 1 in 1942 to No 10 (op 140) dating from 1997.
Percussion forms another strand of his work, including a Percussion Concerto (1968) and several works for percussion ensemble. After 1986 he had more time to work on larger scale pieces such as the ''Requiem Sine Voxibus'' ("Requiem Without Voices") for large orchestra (1989), the ''Stabat Mater'' (1991), the Violin Concerto (1992) and the Piano Concerto (1994), which was written for
Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director and producer.Obituary ''Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and ''Vanity Fair'' and was one o ...
.
There are also two symphonies from earlier in his career: No 1 (1952) and No 2 (1954).
The fanfare which forms the first six bars of Salzedo's ''Divertimento for three trumpets and three trombones'', opus 49 (1959), was used as the theme tune for the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
's educational programmes on
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television and radio from the 1970s to the 1990s. Another of his tunes, ''Guadalajara'', was used by the BBC to accompany their "pie chart" schools' presentation during the 1960s and early 1970s, up until 1973.
Salzedo orchestrated
's notorious and still-controversial 1959 recording of Handel's ''Messiah'' for modern full orchestra, usually credited to
. According to Beecham's widow Shirley, he became impatient with Goossens's slow writing pace and was not happy with the quality of his work.
Salzedo died in
, aged 78. A centenary celebration concert was held at
in London on 24 September, 2022.