Frederick T Durrant

Last updated

Frederick Thomas Durrant (1895 - died before 1980), typically known as F.T. Durrant, was an organist, musical academic and composer, long resident in Harrow.

Durrant was born at Beer in Devon and was a chorister at Exeter Cathedral. [1] He attended the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the Battison Haynes Prize in 1921 and the Charles Lucas Medal in 1923. He married his wife Gladys Louise (1891-1975, also born in Beer) in 1922 and they moved to Harrow-on-the Hill, at 71 Whitmore Road, where they stayed the rest of their lives. [2] Durrant received his D.Mus. from the University of London in 1929, where he later became Dean of the Facility of Music. [2] He was a professor at the Royal Academy from 1931, teaching harmony and composition.

From around 1937 he was organist at St Augustine's, Kilburn, moving on to become director of music at St Mark's Church, St John's Wood in 1947. [3] [4] He was also choirmaster and organist at Pinner Parish Church from 1954 until 1957, and after that moved to an organist appointment in Ruislip. [5]

His compositions included the Clarinet Quintet in E flat, inaugural winner of the Clements Memorial Prize in 1938, which was broadcast by the Whinyates String Quartet with soloist Pauline Juler on 22 July 1941, [6] and subsequently performed at Conway Hall (also by Juler) in 1946. [7] The Quintet was revived by Peter Cigleris at Conway Hall in 2019. [8] His six part madrigal Requiescat won the Madrigal Society's 1947 prize. [9] A slow march, scored for military band, won a Liverpool Philharmonic Society competition in 1952, and was performed on 25 June that year. [4] Most of his compositions were choral and organ pieces for church use. [10] [11]

Durrant survived his wife Gladys, who died in 1975, aged 84. [2] There were a son and a daughter. Until 1976 he was still contributing concert reviews for the local papers in Harrow. [12] The memorial Durrant Prize was awarded for the first time in July 1980 by the Royal College of Organists. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walford Davies</span> British composer (1869-1941)

Sir Henry Walford Davies was an English composer, organist, and educator who held the title Master of the King's Music from 1934 until 1941. He served with the Royal Air Force during the First World War, during which he composed the Royal Air Force March Past, and was music adviser to the British Broadcasting Corporation, for whom he gave commended talks on music between 1924 and 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Thomas Best</span> English organist and composer

William Thomas Best was an English organist and composer.

Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE 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 music. As a composer he was prolific: the list of his works totals more than 700, mostly compositions of his own, but a substantial minority of orchestrations and arrangements of other composers' works. Those whose music he orchestrated range from William Byrd to Edward Elgar to Noël Coward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Battishill</span> English composer, keyboardist and singer (1738-1801)

Jonathan Battishill was an English composer, keyboard player, and concert tenor. He began his career as a composer writing theatre music but later devoted himself to working as an organist and composer for the Church of England. He is considered one of the outstanding 18th century English composers of church music and is best remembered today for his seven-part anthem Call to Remembrance, which has long survived in the repertoires of cathedral choirs.

Arnold Atkinson Cooke was a British composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyril Rootham</span> English composer, educator and organist

Cyril Bradley Rootham was an English composer, educator and organist. His work at Cambridge University made him an influential figure in English music life. A Fellow of St John's College, where he was also organist, Rootham ran the Cambridge University Musical Society, whose innovative concert programming helped form English musical tastes of the time. One of his students was the younger composer Arthur Bliss, who valued his tuition in orchestration. Rootham's own compositions include two symphonies and several smaller orchestral pieces, an opera, chamber music, and many choral settings. Among his solo songs are some settings of verses by Siegfried Sassoon which were made in co-operation with the poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Willis</span> English organ builder (1821–1901)

Henry Willis, also known as "Father" Willis, was an English organ player and builder, who is regarded as the foremost organ builder of the Victorian era. His company Henry Willis & Sons remains in business.

Andrew Cantrill FRSA is a British-born organist and choral director. He has held cathedral positions in New Zealand and the United States, and was organist of the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, Suffolk until September 2018. He is a Fellow, prize-winner and former Trustee Council member of the Royal College of Organists, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a tutor for the RCO Academy Organ School, an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, an active recitalist, and a sought-after broadcaster, writer and presenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Álvarez</span>

Geoffrey Alvarez is a British/Nicaraguan composer and conductor. He chairs the annual international composition competition run by the Alvarez Chamber Orchestra. He is also a writer on music and inventor of Gravesian Analysis.

Joseph Humfrey Anger was a Canadian organist, pianist, conductor, composer, and music educator of English birth. His compositional output consists mainly of church music and works for solo piano and organ. Some of his more well known works are A Concert Overture for organ (1895), the patriotic song Hail Canada (1911), and Tintamarre, Morceau de Salon (1911), all of which were published by Whaley, Royce & Co. The latter piece was notably the first published classical composition to thoroughly integrate true tone clusters. He also wrote the textbooks Form in Music and A Treatise on Harmony, both of which were widely used in music schools in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Kennedy Scott</span> English organist and choral conductor

Charles James Kennedy Osborne Scott was an English organist and choral conductor who played an important part in developing the performance of choral and polyphonic music in England, especially of early and modern English music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eaton Faning</span> English composer and teacher

Joseph Eaton Faning, known as Eaton Faning, was an English composer and teacher. The son of a music teacher, he became the organist of a church at the age of twelve. He attended the Royal Academy of Music, where his teachers included Arthur Sullivan. He was an outstanding student, winning many awards. He joined the staff of the Academy in 1874 and later taught at the Guildhall School of Music, the Royal College of Music and Harrow School.

Mary Lucas, sometimes referred to as Mary Anderson Lucas, was an English composer and pianist.

Edwin George Monk, English church organist and composer, who was Organist and Master of Choristers at York Minster for a quarter of a century, and was previously associated with St Columba's and Radley Colleges. He was born on 13 December 1819 at Frome, Somerset, and died on 3 January 1900 at Radley, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilfrid Sanderson</span>

Wilfrid Ernest Sanderson FRCO LRAM was a composer and organist based in Doncaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Swinnerton Heap</span>

Charles Swinnerton Heap was an English organist, pianist, composer and conductor.

Alfred Joseph Clements was the Organiser and secretary of the South Place Sunday Concerts in London for over 50 years, from 1887–1938. During that period Clements arranged over 1,300 concerts featuring 1,500 artists.

Robert Ernest Bryson was a Scottish composer and organist who spent most of his life in Birkenhead, England, working as a cotton merchant in Liverpool. He was the founder-chairman and later President of the Rodewald Concert Society in Liverpool.

John William Ivimey was an English organist and composer who specialized in comic operas. He also worked as director of music in schools and churches.

References

  1. ↑ 'Dr. F.T. Durrant', Biographical Dictionary of the Organ
  2. 1 2 3 Gladys Louise Durrant obituary, Harrow Observer, 4 April 1975, p. 2
  3. ↑ 'New Organist for St Mark's', Hampstead News, 3 April 1947, p. 5
  4. 1 2 'Slow March for Liverpool', in The Liverpool Echo, 6 May 1952, p. 5
  5. ↑ 'Resignation of Pinner Organist', in The Harrow Observer, 10 October 1957, p. 16
  6. ↑ Radio Times, Issue 929, 20th July 1941, p. 17
  7. ↑ Frank V Hawkins. The Story of 2,000 Concerts (1969)
  8. ↑ Michael White. 'Rare clarinet treat at Conway Hall', Islington Tribune, 19 September 2019
  9. ↑ 'Prize Madrigal', Hampstead News, 20 May 1948, p. 3
  10. ↑ 'F.T. Durrant' at Presto Music
  11. ↑ Short Setting of the Office for Holy Communion in E flat (1932), reviewed in 'Church Music', The Musical Times, Vol. 73, No. 1069, March 1932, p. 232
  12. ↑ For instance: 'Musical Variety in the Concert', Harrow Observer, 14 June 1974, p. 25
  13. ↑ 'Royal College of Organists', in The Musical Times, Vol. 121, No. 1650 (August 1980), p. 524
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.