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Hugh Shrapnel (born Birmingham, England, 1947) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. [1]
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Hugh Shrapnel (born Birmingham, England, 1947) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. [1]
Shrapnel was born in 1947 in Birmingham. From 1966 to 1969 he studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music with Norman Demuth and Cornelius Cardew and oboe with Margaret Eliot winning the Lady Holland Prize for composition.
Shrapnel's music is characterised by its lyricism, its wide range of musical influences including folk music, music hall, jazz and the sound of bells, a deep identification with the natural world, a liking for unorthodox instrumental line ups and a strong feeling for place and community. Musical enthusiasms/influences include: the English Renaissance composers, Schubert, Schumann, Sibelius, Mahler, Stravinsky, Satie, Webern, Ives, Terry Riley, Charles Mingus. John White and Cornelius Cardew. Shrapnel's music has been widely performed in Britain, America, Canada and Germany.
As a student Shrapnel composed serial works influenced by Webern and Boulez but through Cornelius Cardew became drawn to experimental music. He played the oboe in the first British performance of Terry Riley’s In C in 1968, in the same year joining Cardew's experimental music class at Morley College. Shrapnel was a member of the Scratch Orchestra throughout its existence from its formation in 1969 writing many experimental pieces for both trained and untrained musicians for it including the popular Raindrops. In the same year along with John White, Chris Hobbs and Alec Hill he formed the Promenade Theatre Orchestra with its distinctive pioneering brand of English minimalism contributing many pieces for it, including Four Toy Pianos.
During the 1970s Shrapnel taught music in secondary schools in South East London and Lambeth. From the mid 70s through the ‘80s Shrapnel played oboe in the folk/rock group Peoples' Liberation Music (later becoming the Progressive Cultural Association (PCA) Band) together with Cornelius Cardew, Laurie Baker, Dave Smith and others. Along with other members of the band, Shrapnel wrote songs in support of the workers struggles of the time including the 1984 miners’ strike.
In the ‘90s, he formed musical partnerships with the pianist and BBC Radio 3 presenter Sarah Walker and composer/pianist Robert Coleridge putting on many concerts at the British Institute of Contemporary Music in London and art galleries in South East London. In 1994 Shrapnel became Composer in Residence at Musicworks, a community music project in Brixton, south London composing beginner's pieces for guitar and percussion workshops.
Since 2000 Shrapnel has written many wind ensemble works for the London New Wind Festival concerts and works for Cornelius Cardew Concerts Trust concerts at Morley College in London, including works for two pianos for the Ivory Piano Duo Ensemble, string quartets and piano quintets for the Ligeti and De Madrugada quartets including Easter Rising and The Hazelnut. In 2012 Shrapnel formed a piano duo with the composer and pianist John Lewis (b 1947) composing Tales of South East London, featured on their album Elements of London. In recent years the Ivory Piano Duo Ensemble has performed and recorded many of Shrapnel's piano works.
Nyman, Michael (1972). Experimental Music - Cage and Beyond. Cambridge University Press
| Year | Title | Artists | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | South of the River & Cat Preludes | Sarah Walker and Robert Coleridge (piano); Francesca Hanley (flute); Hugh Shrapnel (piano). | CD Musicnow mncdx02 |
| 2002 | Promenade Theatre Orchestra at the Orangerie (1 October 1972) | Promenade Theatre Orchestra | Experimental Music Catalogue EMC 102 |
| 2020 | Elements Of London | Ivory Duo Piano Ensemble [2] | Convivium Records CR055 |
| 2023 | Hugh Shrapnel: Piano Works | Ivory Duo Piano Ensemble | Convivium Records CR087 |
| 2025 | Hugh Shrapnel: Chamber Works (to be released January 2025) | Camarilla Ensemble | Convivium Records CVI097 |
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